As our fellow colonizing countries celebrated the continued existence of Democracy, providing opponents of fascism with a rare bright spot in our neverending descent into hell, Democrats spent the week doing damage control. It’s not Joever yet, but it’s not looking good. Following his inspired debate performance two weeks ago, Democratic voters have fallen back into the pool of infinite despair they’re so used to swimming in. Doomscrolling at a nervous clip and frantically Googling “what’s going to happen,” those expecting a future where women won’t be jailed for having a miscarriage are starting to get nervous about President Joe Biden and his fitness for office. Of course, this got much scarier after the Supreme Court decisions came down two weeks ago, kneecapping the government’s ability to regulate businesses and also giving presidents free rein to, we don’t know, hold a violent coup at the Capitol. So yeah, the stakes are high. And yeah, people are genuinely and reasonably freaked out.
However, as shouted on tonight’s Daily Show, the response from the Democrats hasn’t been comforting either. Is calling their base “bed wetters” for reacting to Biden’s performance with shock the way to win their vote? To Stewart’s mind, there is a fair bit of gaslighting happening here, where legislators tell voters not to believe what they saw with their eyes. Maybe they need a chart like Stewart, proving that, regarding Biden, instances of “huh” have increased over time.
Stewart’s return to The Daily Show has been marked by his media criticism. Stewart isn’t ignoring Trump by exploring the debate over Biden’s age. He’s asking the media and the party to have an open conversation. Trump, he says, delivered as expected: Over an hour of megalomaniacal hate spewing out of his wherever. But while there’s reason to call out that he lied uninterrupted for minutes on end, it’s simply not something we didn’t expect. He was Donald Trump, as advertised. Not so with Biden. For Biden, the debate was a chance to instill some confidence in the campaign, which has been pretty sleepy until now. By not even leveling with voters’ concerns, Democrats have an opportunity to do what they do best: disillusion voters.
“Authoritarianism and Donald Trump aren’t the only threats to our Democracy faces, and our arthritic status quo unable or unwilling to respond in any way to the concerns of voters who just received new and urgent information about their candidate also erodes confidence and faith in our system of government. Honestly, though, ‘Shut the fuck up and get on board’ is not a particularly compelling pro-democracy bumper sticker.”
Stewart is right. These are concerns many Democratic voters have because, for the last 10 years, they’ve been told that Democracy is about to crumble if they don’t vote. Of course, replacing a nominee this late in the process is also an unprecedented move, which could easily blow up in their face. Between Hawk Tuah Girl memes and the real chance of a second Trump presidency, it’s beginning to feel like 2016 around here. May God have mercy on us all.
So, do the Democrats stand by their man or take a gamble on one of the 50 Democrats Joe Biden believes can beat Trump? We don’t know. We’ll just put on our floaties and return to the pool of infinite despair. The water’s terrible.