Republicans like to talk about the “enthusiasm gap” between Trump and Biden. And it’s true: a large number of Trump supporters are much more enthusiastic about Trump than many of his supporters (including me) are about Biden.
But that analysis is missing something completely fundamental: I didn’t vote for Biden in 2020 because I was so enamored of him, I voted for him because I would do anything (anything!) to keep Trump out of the White House.
| And I will do that again, with even more passion in 2024! |
I admit it, I have Trump Derangement Syndrome. Of course, currently about 40% of the country has the flip side of Trump Derangement Syndrome, which is the completely deranged idea that this man is qualified to be President of the United States.
That is way more deranged than my opposition to Trump.
I should also emphasize that I have absolutely nothing against Biden. Joe Biden is a totally solid, conventional, decent President who will be (and already is) well-regarded by historians, who will be remembered by posterity for being the man who saved us from a second Trump term.
Given how little cooperation he has received from a divided and oppositional congress, Biden has done about as well as any President could have done. (I will shortly be documenting all of the good Biden has done in his 3+ years as President.)
But there was a meme that I saw a while back, where a mother says to her daughter: we’re not “followers of Biden,” we’re just going to vote for the guy.
We’re not followers of Biden, we’re just going to vote for the guy.
That’s me in a nutshell. I’m going to vote for the guy. I’m not going to vote for Jill Stein or Marianne Williamson or Cornel West — all of whom are admirable people in their own right — because they cannot win. This is not the time for a protest vote. (Ralph Nader already proved the consequences of a protest vote back in 2000. And btw, I’m not opposed to the creation of a 3rd party, but it has to be built from the ground up.)
Oh, and fuck Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
And also “No Labels.”
And fuck the so-called “enthusiasm gap.”
I predict Biden will get more votes in 2024 than he got in 2020.
