Shortly after President Joe Biden announced his resignation from the presidency on Sunday, pro-Trump social media influencers settled on one line of attack: Democrats who carried out a coup Against their own president.
Biden “has now been ousted in a coup,” the Trump-backed venture capitalist Written by David Sacks. “Undermining democracy should never be condoned” Trump is an ally Posted by Richard Grenell. “The coup is complete,” wrote Rep. Paul Gosser (R-AZ).
“What you just saw is proof positive that when the most powerful Democrat establishment and oligarchs band together to overthrow the American regime, they expect to succeed,” the conservative activist said. Written by Charlie Kirk.
From people who support Donald Trump, who tried to steal the 2020 election, this is clearly ridiculous and absurd. Yet it echoes a self-interested argument made by Biden himself just two weeks ago, when he argued that excluding him would be tantamount to ignoring democracy.
“Voters — and voters alone — determine the Democratic Party’s nominee,” Biden wrote in a July 8 letter. “Not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors, not any elected officials, no matter how well-intentioned.”
What has unfolded over two weeks is a steadily intensifying pressure campaign from various members of the press, pundits, donors and current and former elected officials to get Biden to resign. Some of these were requested in secret — and, when Biden doesn’t seem to be listening, more spread out out in public See they argued that he couldn’t win and finally, he listened.
can arguably be somewhat uneasy about the role of brokers of democratic power and donors to push Biden aside after his primary victory. But while they’re doing it without a clear say to voters, they’re doing it to respond (belatedly) to voters’ belief that Biden is too old to serve another term.
So it may be undemocratic in practice, but in a sense it is objectively democratic. Because the party isn’t skipping an election, they’re choosing a nominee who (they hope) can win the popular vote, they’re trying to win one.
How democratic were the 2024 Democratic primaries?
Democratic Party elites didn’t just fall off a coconut tree after the debate. Until that debacle, they were squarely behind Biden, and their support for him was a major reason Democratic voters weren’t presented with a credible alternative in this year’s primaries.
Because in reality, Biden won the primary before the public voted. Some polls in 2022 and 2023 showed A majority of Democratic voters said he should not run again. The president never seemed to seriously consider bowing out, though. He ran again and (as usual for an incumbent) firmly locked down the support of the Democratic elite. As a result, Democratic rising stars refrained from challenging Biden, believing they would likely lose and then blaming him if Trump won the general.
So, yes, 15 million people actually voted in those primaries. But how democratic was that process? Biden won the primary because he won the inside game. It was the party elites who determined the (few) options available to voters. Polls show that voters would theoretically prefer someone else, but have not been offered a realistic opposition candidate.
Furthermore, insisting that primary outcomes are all that matters, and taking anything else into account is “undemocratic”, is a very limited and vague definition of democracy. After all, those 15 million people are a pittance compared to the 150 million people who can vote in general elections — who, according to polls, Overwhelming thought Biden is too old to serve another term. Many of them wanted other candidates – their opinions do not matter?
“New information after primary” problem
Another problem is that primary voters didn’t have information that Biden would do so poorly in the debates when they cast their ballots.
And while what the key figures in the Democratic Party did to Biden is in some ways unprecedented, in other ways it is all too familiar. This is it: It’s a standard playbook on how to suddenly force out a scandal-ridden elected official who is perceived to be harming the party.
This playbook involves a ratcheting of pressure and condemnation as co-parties gradually denounce or abandon the officer, making sure they know the beating will continue until they quit — essentially what we’ve seen over the past few weeks.
New York Democrats successfully used it against Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2021, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman In 2018, and Govt. Eliot Spitzer In 2008. Senate Democrats opposed it Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) in 2017. (Although this doesn’t always work, as demonstrated by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and the 2016 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.)
Your mileage may vary on how much you view Biden’s poor debate performance as a full-on scandal. But this is certainly new information that was not clear at the time of initialization. Since then, Biden has declined to participate in any debates and avoided some high-profile interview opportunities, leaving it unclear how he might perform in a high-stakes setting.
But the truth is that the party elites did not abandon the voters’ choice after making that choice. They later defected because of new information — information that early voters didn’t have.
Party loyalty is a two-way street
Finally, it’s also worth noting that party elites didn’t push Biden off the ticket in an attempt to steal the presidency from him. They ditched him because they fear he is hurting the party’s electoral prospects – that is, because he has lost support from voters.
Party loyalty is a two-way street – it is not, or at least should not be, a blood oath or personality cult. Leading Democrats supported Biden when they thought he could win, and dropped him when they thought he couldn’t.
Now, they’re trying to replace a nominee they hope the American public will like much better. And there is something very democratic about that. They are (finally, belatedly) trying to listen to voters who, at least according to polls, continue to say they no longer want to support Biden.
So maybe it would be better if the Democrats had an actual presidential primary process instead of this mess. But that didn’t happen — and, given the options, party officials tried to abandon Biden and cast him aside in favor of someone who could win.
