January 7 2024, 12:21 p.m. (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n IT SHOULD GO without saying that anyone who thinks he can be president of the United States has a massive ego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Trump, it\u2019s obvious. Only an ego the size of a Goodyear blimp could be inflated<\/em> by the loss of a presidential election. Biden\u2019s ego is jumbo too, but it may be dwarfed by his cluelessness. He thinks he\u2019s the one person who can beat Trump. In fact, he told donorsOpens in a new tab<\/a> in early December that if Trump were not running \u2014 and threatening to bring down American democracy \u2014 he\u2019s \u201cnot sure\u201d he\u2019d be running either. Biden\u2019s implication is that only Biden can save American democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the summer both voters and politicians were alreadyOpens in a new tab<\/a> publicly worrying that Biden\u2019s age and flagging approval ratings would sink him in 2024. When he announced his run in September, Democratic voices urgedOpens in a new tab<\/a> him to step aside. James Carville advisedOpens in a new tab<\/a> his party to \u201cwake the fuck up\u201d and get another candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But almost immediately a consensus formed: It was too late to change horses. In early November, when polls showed Biden trailing Trump in five of six swing states, NBC News repeated the conventional wisdom that too many primary filing deadlines had passed. \u201cRestive though they are, Democrats can\u2019t do much at this stage to give American voters another option.\u201d That opinion was repeatedOpens in a new tab<\/a> through December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coverage of Gaza War in the New York Times and Other Major Newspapers Heavily Favored Israel, Analysis Shows<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Adam Johnson, Othman Ali<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n 77 Groups Worldwide Back Genocide Lawsuit Against Biden in U.S. Court<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Prem Thakker<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Undercover FBI Agents Helped Autistic Teen Plan Trip to Join ISIS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Murtaza Hussain<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Few mentioned that this too is a problem created by Biden\u2019s overweening self-confidence. If he stepped aside, the party could anoint someone else or others could throw in their hats, and the primary deadlines would be moot. Some Democrats are still holding out hope. In January, an opinion writer in the Boston Globe beggedOpens in a new tab<\/a> Biden to \u201cgive the speech,\u201d as Lyndon Johnson did when he recognized his looming defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On January 4, a Newsweek analysis concludedOpens in a new tab<\/a>: \u201cThere is only one presidential candidate that would be able to find a path to the White House if the 2024 election was held today,\u201d and that candidate is Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden was in a soundproof booth. Or he wasn\u2019t listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HOW STRONG THESE egos really are is anyone\u2019s guess. For a psychopath, supposedly unmoved by the thoughts and feelings of others, Trump is remarkably sensitive to slights. And where would he be without his brownshirts? Vox reportsOpens in a new tab<\/a> that MAGA zealots\u2019 threats of violence against elected officials and their families have silenced any intraparty dissent and likely saved Trump from impeachment. Asked by a researcher what would happen if she spoke out against the ex-president, Pennsylvania Republican state Sen. Kim Ward said, \u201cI\u2019d get my house bombed tonight.\u201d Ward is a Trump supporter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden is working to stoke fear, too, not from himself \u2014 he\u2019s a more formidable Opens in a new tab<\/a>politicalOpens in a new tab<\/a> player than he gets credit for, but he\u2019s not planning to sentence any of his rivals to death, as Trump has openly fantasized. Rather, Biden is running against (and hoping voters will run from) two perils: one real, the other dubious. The real one is Trump\u2019s trumpeted plan to be a dictator (if only for a day). The other, it seems, is that a younger, more dynamic contender would arise from the party\u2019s left wing, which is too far left for the electorate. If Biden believes he can save democracy, his party must first be rescued. He believes that he, and only he, can do that too. \u201cBiden, for all his flaws, represents a compromise between the activist left of the party and its moderate center,\u201d writesOpens in a new tab<\/a> Washington Post columnist Ruy Teixeira.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This race isn\u2019t about policy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Teixeira also thinks that the Democrats\u2019 \u201cactivist contingent\u201d is too radical. Among the wild-eyed proposals that no working stiff, or even college-educated snob, can stomach are Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, he claims. In fact, majorities consistentlyOpens in a new tab<\/a> support government-funded health insurance. The Green New Deal enjoysOpens in a new tab<\/a> a 31 percent margin of support, including one-third of Republicans, according to one survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This race isn\u2019t about policy. There is no rational political explanation for Joe Biden\u2019s name at the top of the Democratic ticket and Donald Trump at the top of the Republicans\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n OF COURSE, NOT every man or masculine-identifying person is an egotist. And women can be egotists too. A handful of women have contended for the presidency, starting with the suffragist Victoria Woodhull, who ran in 1862, before women could vote \u2014 and, as I\u2019ve said, you can\u2019t run for president if you\u2019re not abnormally confident. Still, those I\u2019ve observed \u2014 Shirley Chisholm, Liddy Dole, Hillary Clinton, and the unabashedly left-wing<\/a> New Ager Marianne Williamson<\/a> \u2014 have not apparently confused qualification with irreplaceability. Clinton won the popular vote and conceded, as the Constitution demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But now, thanks in large part to masculine ego, nine months from Election Day, we\u2019ve got two equally despised guys to choose from. With third-party candidates Cornel West, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and, potentially, Joe Manchin in the mix<\/a>, we need another Environmental Protection Act to rid the election of these billowing emissions of toxic masculinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI alone can fix it,\u201d Trump declaredOpens in a new tab<\/a>, in a preview to his megalomaniacal presidency, at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Less histrionically, Biden feels the same. Neither man will fix it. We know how Trump will wreck it. But Biden can wreck it too by not getting out of the way of someone who might beat Trump. The future of U.S. democracy teeters on two invincible male egos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What can be done? Prohibiting men from running for office, even for a limited time, is impractical and probably illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That leaves one solution: Biden must be man enough to withdraw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judith Levine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trump and Biden each believes that he alone can fix it. One will wreck it; the other could. Judith Levine January 7 2024, 12:21 p.m. (TheIntercept.com) IT SHOULD GO without saying that anyone who thinks he can be president of the United States has a massive ego. With Trump, it\u2019s obvious…. Continue reading ![\"TOPSHOT](\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/GettyImages-1229229798.jpg\")
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