Defenders of American democracy are losing the plot

The handwringing following Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance is deafening, and it has led to a pundit-led frenzy of media commentary that another Biden term would be a dangerous calamity.

Calls for Biden to step aside have dominated the news for days and New York Times opinion writers are suggesting that a second Biden term would be destabilizing not only for America but for global order.

In normal times, these concerns might hold water, but these aren’t normal times.

This is because the alternative is a far-right convicted felon who helped instigate an attempted insurrection, lies with every breath he takes, and who explicitly promises revenge on, and the destruction of, his political enemies, the mainstream (i.e. reality-based) media, and every democratic norm in the book.

Some of the concerns about Biden stem from very valid fears about a Trump victory, and the good faith belief that an alternative Democratic candidate would stand a better chance at ensuring his defeat and the protection of what is left of democracy in America. I’m not sure whether, this late in the game, Biden suddenly exiting the race would ensure Democratic victory. It could just as easily be further destabilizing, and much would depend on who might emerge (and somehow in very short order) to take over. But regardless, it certainly appears Biden intends to stay on, and so US voters are struck with what remains a stark decision, one that remains the closest thing to a moral electoral choice between decency and evil that a modern country calling itself a democracy has ever had.

Biden is an incumbent overseeing a strong economy and a record of, well, basic normalcy. How did a (deeply troubling) debate performance suddenly swamp the very real dangers of a second term of Trump? It is as if centrists and the left have collectively decided to self-sabotage and push Trump to victory, and it needs to stop, now.

Readers may be wondering why a Substack devoted to (usually Canadian) constitutional politics is focused on electoral drama south of the border, and here is the answer: the constitution and the norms around it are one of the reasons we should not be so alarmed about Biden’s mental capacity but should still be deeply, existentially worried about Trump.

This is because the American constitution knows how to handle the incapacity of a sitting President. Indeed, it has handled it before, in various ways, on multiple occasions, even introducing amendments to shore up procedural protections when such occasions arise.

What the American constitution can’t handle is the further erosion of its basic norms. A healthy constitution is more than just a collection of rules. It requires a culture around it that supports and upholds its underlying principles, including those undergirding democracy itself.

What commentators have inexplicably lost sight of is that Biden at his absolute worst - even a completely comatose Biden - is infinitely less dangerous than Donald Trump. Trump’s stated agenda is to tear away at the constitutional fabric itself, and he will have a group of venal, servile sycophants there to aid him at every step. By contrast, Joe Biden is surrounded by people who continue to live in the realm of normalcy and decent, however flawed, politics, but who are vastly less likely to dispense with constitutional norms in the event Biden himself does become truly incapacitated.

To state that the premise of this election is to support the least-worst candidate is to dramatically understate the actual stakes. However concerning Biden’s apparent frailties might be, they are but a dim candle next to the nuclear detonation that a Trump win would represent. All responsible journalists, pundits, commentators and indeed voters better wake the fuck up to this fact, and fast, or they’ll be left handwringing over the charred remains of American democracy.