Dems Rush To Anoint Kamala Harris

And it feels a bit Orwellian

On Sunday President Biden shocked the nation by dropping his reelection bid. By Monday the Democratic Party had all but anointed a new leader.

Amidst the jubilation, little is being said about Vice President Kamala Harris’s boosters, who, as top Democrats, lack the credibility needed to pull off such a promotion. Recall, the folks now knighting Harris are the same ones who spent the last many months telling us that Biden was atop his game and able to run the country for four more years. This deception lasted until the June 27 presidential debate, when the emperor appeared before the nation stark naked, visibly unable to complete a thought, let alone a second term. Yet still, many top Democrats insisted we stay the course.

Less than a month later, Biden dropped out. And, with Orwellian speed and unanimity, the very same folks who promised us Biden was fit as a fiddle are now here to tell us that Harris is The One. Meanwhile, these party insiders dismiss the need for even the faintest nod to democratic legitimacy, an open convention.

Just a day after Biden stood down, the Democratic National Committee announced it would select Harris by August 7 in an online vote, two weeks ahead of the convention. Hopefully Harris’s virtual vote goes better than Biden’s did.

It feels like ancient history now, but it’s worth remembering how mere weeks ago, in the face of surging discontent with Biden, the DNC rushed to coronate him ahead of the convention. Only that virtual vote, initially scheduled to begin as early as July 22, came too late. Biden dropped out July 21.

Despite having just demonstrated the danger of hurriedly coronating a candidate, the DNC – led by former lobbyist Jamie Harrison – is doing so again. Only this time the DNC is likely to pull it off, in no small part because the New York Times is on board, now that Biden isn’t the beneficiary.

The Times, to its credit, questioned Biden’s fitness for office even before last month’s debate. In the wake of the debate, the topic became a focus of the paper. And when the DNC, amid growing unrest, sought to batten down the hatches by virtually nominating Biden, the Times helped sound the alarm.

But in the crucial hours after Biden stood down, the Times switched course, abandoning questions about the DNC’s process in favor of fawning stories of Harris. Blazed atop Monday’s Times homepage was a photo of Harris looking very presidential, under a banner headline that read “Harris Moves Swiftly to Clear Path to Nomination.” Just a day earlier, Biden was the Democratic nominee. Now the Times was gift wrapping the nomination for Harris, leaving the rest of us to quibble over lesser things, like who her running mate should be.

New York Times homepage Monday, July 22

To see such a monumental – and purportedly quasi-democratic – change happen so quickly is dizzying. The closest thing I’ve witnessed to this is when Democratic Party elites and the corporate media moved in unison to destroy Bernie Sanders’ surging 2020 candidacy, handing the nomination to Biden.

Imagine for a moment if the Times hadn’t stamped its imprimatur on Harris’s vote-less ascension, but instead left it to a discredited Democratic Party to make the case. In that scenario, calls for an open Democratic convention would surely be growing. And such a convention, while unwieldy, would turn an otherwise drab affair into compelling television, and demonstrate to voters that the party is responsive to more than just the donor class.

An open convention would also give activists a fighting chance to save the Democratic Party from itself. To party insiders, it’s not a problem that Democrats are heading into an election while actively aiding Israel’s genocide in Gaza. But activists know better. And in a contested primary, these activists — from the key swing state of Michigan and elsewhere — could condition their support on a saner approach to Israel and Palestine.

But with Harris’s vote-less ascension, the party has removed that crucial pressure point, making it harder to alter her approach to Israel/Palestine. For a party that says democracy is on the ballot, this isn’t a good look.