BOSTON – This Independence Day, it felt like America is not so much celebrating as soberly pondering the future of our democracy.
Amid all the barbecues, parades and fireworks that traditionally mark the 4th of July, there is a political crisis brewing. It has descended upon America less than two months before the party conventions and just four months before Americans go to the polls in one of the most fateful presidential elections in our modern history.
As I write this, President Joe Biden is shifting from the traditional 4th of July festivities at the White House to last-minute preparation for a prime-time television interview with ABC News that may define whether or not he will stay in the race for the presidency. After his disastrous performance in the first debate against Donald Trump, many of Biden’s allies in the Democratic party have turned against him and are calling him to step aside and make way for a new generation of leadership. At the White House, Biden defiantly told those gathered for a holiday gathering, “I’m not going anywhere!”
But behind the scenes, a chorus of dissent is rising within the Democratic Party establishment and it is not at all clear if Biden will survive. Polls show a growing number of voters feel he is just too old at 82 years of age, and that increasingly visible signs of cognitive failure cannot be overlooked.
A New York Times/Siena College poll, released July 3, had Biden down six points against Donald Trump among likely voters — a three-point drop since his poor debate performance.
The main reason cited is Biden’s age. In the Times poll, the share of voters who say Biden is “too old to be an effective president” rose to 74 percent from 69 percent and included a majority of Democrats. Four years ago, just 36 percent of voters said Biden was too old.
Beyond the immediate political crisis for Biden, there is a wider, looming threat to American democracy presented by Trump’s candidacy. At last week’s presidential debate, it is true that Biden stumbled and appeared frail and at times confused. But it is also true that Trump peddled many falsehoods that went uncorrected and, most importantly, failed to answer the question clearly when asked pointedly if he would accept the results of the election, if he loses.
In 2020, Trump did in fact refuse to accept the results of the election. Then he presented an unsubstantiated narrative of voter fraud, defied America’s proud tradition of a peaceful transfer of power, called for his supporters to gather in Washington and, as many political analysts and historians view the moment of January 6, tried to spur a coup to violently overthrow the result of the election and cling to power. No matter what your partisan leanings are, Trump poses an ominous threat to our democracy. It is a clear and present danger that the American media seems to have largely lost its focus on – or perhaps to be under-modulating – with all the nervous hand wringing over whether or not Biden should stay in the race.
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