Democrats are in a pickle... or is it a scramble?
Food metaphors for times when the Emperor has no clothes
Something that many of us regular, average, no-qualifications people have been witnessing for years has finally surfaced. The cognitive decline of our own American President. Personally, I don’t think it took an astute observer to see it, but it was one of those things that was taboo to say aloud. Finally, it’s out in the open. The President is elderly, likely senile, and must step down for the good of the nation.
Just like with Covid, the mainstream media is finally saying the things average people knew to be true for months, perhaps even years. It’s now acceptable to say it. When the media dam breaks, it really breaks. All of a sudden, reporters who vociferously defended the President’s mental competence begin reporting about what they’ve been seeing for months and the doubts many others have harboured for some time now.
We saw this same thing happen with the Covid narrative, when it suddenly became acceptable for media to report on things like risk profiles, the uselessness of masks, and vaccine injuries. Saying any of these things in 2021 (or even asking questions about them) could have cost you your friends, your family, and even your job. But then the media changed tack, reporting on what we all knew to be true, and slowly the wheels turned until even the biggest hardliners, those calling for punishment for “the unvaccinated” stood down and all of a sudden developed amnesia about the whole thing.
This Presidential situation is slightly less dramatic, but there are parallels. This is how the media now operates. No longer as a check and balance on those in power, but as a PR mouthpiece for them, until it’s undeniable that the narrative isn’t landing anymore.
The debate cracked open uncomfortable truths
Last week’s debate was shocking, even for those of us who had been watching Biden’s senility with sadness for some time now. The strange things he mumbled, the ways in which we wandered off from groups, the stiff walking and freezing, the constant escort he required from his spouse and handlers.
As soon as Biden shuffled onto the debate stage, an immediate “Oh, NO” escaped my mouth. Just him shuffling up to his podium looked bad. Then he opened his mouth and things got progressively worse. Meanwhile, Donald Trump was somehow at his most restrained, in a way that many of us never thought possible. The difference between the two candidates was striking.
The debate ended with major media outlets conceding a problem. Finally, it could be said. I had expected more sycophancy and gaslighting, so it was refreshing to see John King and Van Jones on CNN honestly lamenting the situation. Although it’s a situation none of us wants to be true, at least there is now some honesty around it.
Who’s at the wheel?
This opens new questions which may finally be openly asked. Namely, who’s been running the country this whole time?
Again, for us average Joes, it was pretty clear that a politically centrist octogenrian wasn’t behind the federal enforcement of masking toddlers or for the re-jigging of Title IX, to name just two examples.
I mean, you could argue that the Biden administration’s Taliban-esque devotion to masking from 2020-22 could have been the work of an elderly germaphobe whose understanding of average American families is long removed, but when coupled with many of the other far-left legislation and orders coming out of the Biden administration, it does seem as though we’ve been led by some progressive, extremely left, activist faction. An administrative state that we didn’t elect, using President Biden as merely a figurehead. Could it truly be?
One interesting observation from Scott Adams (the Dilbert cartoonist) was that the markets didn’t move following the debate:
All of this was known, but now it simply cannot be hidden anymore.
What happens next?
If you listen to the All-In podcast like I do, you will have heard of Jason Calacanis discussing the “hot swap” — that is, replacing Biden with another candidate.
However, it seems this isn’t as simple as that, with a dubiously-competent but hired-for-identity Vice-President in the way. The optics of passing over a Black woman for another (likely white) candidate would be awful for the Democrats.
My prediction? They’re in a bind. They’ll have no choice but to force Biden out, bring in Kamala, and hope they can prop her up against Trump for a win in November. Expect more Dem donor money to go towards Senate and House candidates and races.
The mainstream media problem
The main thing of note, to me at least, in these scenarios is seeing how the mainstream media operates today. The reason that podcasts and platforms such as this one have flourished in recent years is that the legacy media has proven to us again and again that the search for truth is marred by bias and cronyism. Reporters for mainstream publications hobnob with the elites of society and don’t dare to upset them with wrongthink. No unpopular opinions are allowed. This has left the legacy media captured by those it is meant to critique, carrying the lies of those whom it is designed to expose.
Yet, all of those who bang on about the “threat to democracy” either don’t see the significance of a captured media or what it means to that very democracy. They didn’t see the Twitter files — the proof that the Biden administration influenced a social media platform to censor speech contrary to the administration — a big issue at all. This should have been a huge news story of legitimate concern. Free speech is the cornerstone of our society, after all. The First Amendment matters. When the very tenets that our systems are built upon are being discarded, and few are interested in defending those tenets without bias, we all lose. There’s no “saving” a democracy that isn’t.