Thank you, Joe!

Thank you, Joe. You will truly be remembered as the greatest one-term president since  .  .  .  (drum roll) James K. Polk! Who? Indeed, Polk. (I learn so much doing fun collateral research while I prepare these chats.) James K. Polk is generally considered one of the most successful single-term presidents in U.S. history, more so than the other one-term presidents. Polk set four major goals for his presidency and achieved them all within his single term. He oversaw the largest territorial expansion in U.S. history, incorporating the Oregon Territory, California, Texas and New Mexico. He successfully implemented the Walker Tariff, which lowered tariff rates, and he reestablished the Independent Treasury System. Perhaps his converse was Lyndon Johnson, not truly a one-termer since he had three additional years, who did give us both the Civil Rights Acts (while Polk allowed the expansion of slavery, aggravating national tensions), tax cuts, the Clean Air Act and Medicare. True to his word, Polk did not seek re-nomination; he was in poor health and died about a year after leaving office. In other news . . . .

This truly has been a defining week for the American experiment. We came within millimeters of a political assassination which might well have triggered an ahistoric torrent of violence, followed by a Trump performance right out of Matthew 28:6, the resurrection, with a pretence of mildness and even sanity that lasted all of about fifteen minutes. And now we have a bolder, louder, even more aggressive, more incoherent and confused but energized Donald Trump and his adVance Attack Dog and lots of little MAGgots chanting their evil songs.

All the while Republicans have the nerve to tell Democrats to turn down the rhetoric, claiming that by labeling Trump (correctly) as anti-democratic, authoritarian (correctly), deranged (correctly) even Hitlerian (I prefer the analogy to Mussolini, but still correct), we have enabled a crazy white Republican boy to pick up his very legal Republican-authorized assault weapon to attempt an unspeakable act. That’s plain wrong and not even logical. Political truth is not what brings out crazies: what has stirred the pot past the high danger point is Republicans labeling themselves as victims when they have most of the money and almost all the firepower, blaming all the horrible Mexicans and criminal commie Democrats, screaming that our elections are rigged unless Republicans win so violence may be their only answer when they don’t, and in fact raising insurrection and an attempt to overthrow the government by force and violence. That Republican legacy starting before but peaking on January 6, 2021, and almost a steady drumbeat since -- that, my friends, in my humble view is what brings out the sad crazy with the assault weapon.

So I say again, Thank you, Joe! Clearly the magnitude of the challenge ahead of us requires more than the skills you could have provided this time. Perhaps, sadly, more of the skills than Democrats can muster this year. But I don’t know of a single political analyst that I’ve seen thus far who felt that Joe was going to carry us to victory and save the nation, and at least we now have a fighting chance. So again, your party thanks you for putting nation and party before self may; your act may yet save the Republic.  

Whence goeth now? There seem to be but two possible paths: throw things wide open and see who emerges, or try to anoint Kamela quickly and put everything we have behind her. Each has merits. The best suggestion for the former course that I’ve seen yet came, I think, from James Carville, but I’ve seen it referenced a couple of times: have Barrack Obama and Bill Clinton convene at least four or perhaps six regional mini-conventions, invite all of the already designated 4600 delegates from the states in the particular region and allow prospective candidates who want to make their case to address the assembly with the only proviso being they cannot attack one another; then let the delegates proceed to a national convention and pick our ticket. Customarily state delegate lists include Democrats who are elected officials from the particular state plus party activists who volunteered. Pledged to Joe Biden, they presumably don’t generally represent particular fringe elements. It’s a shot at quickly constituting mini-primary elections for each region.

On the other hand, Kamela does start with a $55 million built-in war chest (all the money previously donated to Biden-Harris) which may be difficult to pass to a different candidate without going through a process of offering refunds. She represents several important party elements: women -- particularly strong on the reproductive freedom issue, which frankly for which Joe wasn’t the best spokesperson, both the Black and Asian communities, ex-prosecutor (perhaps terribly effective as such, but that’s probably too subtle to be a problem for her) and even has a very popular Jewish husband and his children who call her momela. Query: would that make it difficult to offer the VP slot to Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, a critical swing state currently ever-so-slightly in the Trump column and a very strong potential candidate. True, Harris did terribly in her abortive presidential campaign before, but that was against a strong field of Democrats. This time she’ll be taking on an incoherent blathering misogynist who puts his foot in it as much or more than Biden did at his worst.

So potayto, potahto -- I sense that either approach can energize the Democrats in a way not seen in decades. I know I’ll send my meagre check once the ticket is settled, and I suspect the floodgates might open sooner than people have predicted.

So once again, thank you Joe for doing the right thing.

Please comment. As always I’d be delighted to receive any feedback, including criticisms -- that’s what frank conversation should be all about -- and any suggestions for future discussions.  The main point, however, is to encourage civil conversation between you and your friends on what I see as today’s important social and political issues. And please do invite one or two friends to  join our slightly expanding circle.

Arne Werchick, after fifty years as a litigation attorney, pro tem judge, law writer and lecturer, former Presiding Arbitrator of the State Bar of California, and past president of the California Trial Lawyers Association, moved to Hawaii and lives with his wife Ruth and their rescue dog Topaz.  He can be contacted at liberalmind@werchick.com.