Rewarding party loyalty
Deja vú
Now in the past tense. Let it be clear: I was not an early supporter of Joe Biden; Bernie was my favorite in 2020, if not Elizabeth Warren And I marched, or stood in Lafayette Park in support of various climate actions that Biden's administration wound up not supporting, and in protest of some of its more destructive actions such as the sale of massive offshore oil drilling leases and the opening up of the largest area ever in Alaska to oil drilling. But at least Joe BIden was not an enemy of action on climate change, and in his old style way, perhaps he could be called a friend of the climate movement.
On other issues as well, he was lukewarm. His nickel and dime approach to arming Ukraine has cost thousands of innocent Ukrainian lives, and enables a Putin victory should Trump win in November. In the area of nuclear armament, his record was also mixed: He zeroed out the SLCM-N, only to have Congress put it back in the budget, but did nothing to cancel the dangerous, unnecessary and escalatory Sentinel ICBM. I don't blame him for his misguided support of Israel; he did warn them not to do what they are doing to the Palestinians.
All that said, I supported him 100% in his bid for reelection, because - four month out polls be damned - he had the best chance of beating Trump in November, did a good job overall, and is a decent human being. Now he is out, the party elites have triumphed once again, and we will be asked to support their choice, and most likely the voters will be asked to simply trust them to do the right thing, with little specification as to what is meant thereby.
The Democrats will anoint their candidate in Chicago [2] August 19 - 22, less than a month from now, while the Greens will hold their convention August 15 - 24, with the nomination taking place on the 17th. [3] Should Jill Stein win the Green nomination, chances are she will have my vote, unless the Democrats adopt a platform that includes strong commitments to combating climate change, pursuing nuclear disarmament and increasing our support of Ukraine. (It would be helpful if they came out strongly in support of a Palestinian state, but that is probably far too much even to hope for. One can see the hand of AIPAC in Biden's ouster.)
When the Democrats lost in 2016, I hoped that they would learn a lesson from their defeat. In 2020, it seemed that perhaps they had, but as it turns out, they haven't. The machine won again. If you listen carefully, perhaps you will be able to hear the soft clinking of champagne glasses, as the big donors toast their success in boardrooms throughout the country.
POSTSCRIPT
I wrote the above shortly after President Biden's announcement, without knowledge of his brilliant actions paving the way for Vice President Harris' essentially unopposed and unopposable nomination. I was deeply concerned that various rich, white, male members of the Democratic establishment would give us another corporatist candidate. Happily, my concerns were unfounded.
My apprehension at this juncture (July 25th) is that the current euphoria among Democrats will lead to overconfidence. I hope that the Democrats will remember the 2016 election, in which Hillary Clinton trounced Donald Trump in the debates, was leading in the polls even on election day, and lost. As incomprehensible as it might seem, there are millions of potential voters who are unconvinced of Harris' suitability as a candidate or the attractiveness of her platform. We should take nothing for granted, and run the campaign with the attitude of an underdog, working hard and relentlessly to convince the undecided and get out the vote. And let's not forget the House and Senate races! Break the logjam - wrest control from the cult of Trump!
Notes
[1] https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/972
[2] How fitting! Perhaps they can arrange to resurrect Mayor Richard J. Daley Sr. . .
[3] https://ballotpedia.org/Green_Party_presidential_nomination,_2024