Democrats need to quit worrying about Joe Biden’s age, and put together three or four credible candidates to primary Kamala Harris. Now.
Here are my biases: I’m not a Democrat. I’m a fiscally cautious, socially cautious, free-speech thinking, small-government supporting, social justice talking, family values kind of guy. I called myself a radical left Republican until Donald Trump wrecked the Republican party. I often vote Democratic in national elections, reluctantly. Sometimes I vote Republican in local elections when people I know and trust are running. I’m up for draining the swamp, as long as the swamp doesn’t get replaced by jackbooted thugs and grifters who are worse. I voted for Joe Biden, regretfully. I think he did a much better job than I expected but I worry about both his age and the perception that he’s tottering and old, which I don’t think he is, quite.
But it doesn’t matter what I am. Or what I think.
What matters is that the former grifter-in-chief is a clear and present threat to democracy, and the dysfunction of the Democratic Party isn’t giving me or most of my countryfolk a decent alternative to vote for, even though Joe Biden is probably a decent fellow and has been a good president after all. What matters is that no one likes or trusts Kamela Harris yet. It makes even me and many others like me nervous that the person who steps in if Joe Biden drops dead in office, God forbid, is someone I’m not that impressed by and is someone I didn’t vote for, for president. (I didn’t really vote for her for vice president either, exactly because there is usually no primary for vice president. I voted for Joe, a little reluctantly, and Joe picked Kamela.)
Which is how we got into this mess: we voted for Kamela Harris but we didn’t pick her. The guy we voted for seems too old, now, even if he’s done a decent job so far. We want to be inspired by our leaders, and led by young people, people with courage and vibrancy who know the culture. But that’s not who we have. But if we don’t get someone like that, and give people a reason to show up and vote, if we don’t bring young people in to vote in a big way, the other guy wins and we might all loose democracy together, just because the Democratic Party hadn’t given us an option we chose and we actually want.
Vice President Harris seems to be a very nice person, as politicians go. But she doesn’t feel like anyone who has ever found her inner Martin Luther King, Jack Kennedy, FDR, Ronald Reagan (for those of us who go for that sort of thing) or even Winston Churchill, my examples being unfortunately gendered. I’m just having a little trouble picturing her leading the nation during a war or in a national emergency. Maybe she’s got an inner Shirley Chisholm. Nancy Pelosi, RBG or Barbara Jordan. If so, we haven’t seen it yet.
SO Democratic party, here’s how you can fix this mess. Throw a big old primary for Vice President. Make it a big deal. Line up good people to run. Pull in the big names. . Stacy Abrams. Amy Klobuchar. Gretchen Whitmer. Include Gavin Newson and Gina Raimondo if you must. Heck, drag in Cornell West in and get him to run so he doesn’t do us all unintentional harm playing the third party card. Choose cool places to have the debates. Get great moderators. Highlight the differences between the candidates. Let them call each other names, if they must (whoops, that’s the grifter-in-chief’s thing.) Bask in all that nice free TV time. Highlight democratic values, to the extent they exist, to balance off the insulting nonsense we heard in the Republican so- called debates thus farLet us listen to Kamela Harris, of course. If Vice President Harris wins the primary, it would be a vote of confidence from the party and the people alike. We could fully support both her and President Biden, knowing that we chose them together. However, if another candidate emerges victorious, it will only strengthen the Democratic Party, giving us tested, competent, and widely supported leaders to contest the next election.
By offering a true choice through a competitive primary, the Democratic Party can position itself to save our democracy, if not lead the nation. By having a primary for vice-president, we’ll do way better than if we just sit back and watch another electoral disaster unfold.
Michael Fine, MD, is a writer, community organizer, and family physician. He is the chief health strategist for the City of Central Falls, RI, and a former Director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, 2011–2015. He is currently the Board Vice Chair and Co-Founder of the Scituate Health Alliance, and is the recipient of the Barbara Starfield Award, the John Cunningham Award, and the June Rockwell Levy Public Service Award. He is the author of several books, medical, novels and short stories, including On Medicine and Colonialism, Rhode Island Stories, and The Bull and Other Stories, You can learn more about Michael at www.michaelfinemd.com
