Readers of Plato’s Republic will remember Socrates’ allegory of the cave in Book VII, but followers of Leo Strauss like to talk sometimes about “the cave beneath the cave,” and then things get really weird. (I know—big surprise.) But I think this cave-in-a-cave analogy may help explain the Democrats’ dilemma and hesitation right now.
On further consideration, I think there is one major factor holding back DC Democrats from forcing Biden out immediately. To be sure, dumping Joe Biden for the uncertainty of successor candidate is to stare into the political abyss, which is scary enough. But it is doubly terrifying because deep inside that abyss is another, bigger abyss—and that second abyss has a name: Kamala Harris.
Never mind Kamala’s rote left-wing views, low approval ratings, and unlikely political prospects in November. The problem is much worse than that. If Biden should resign the presidency—the logical step once it is determined he is too old to be the nominee—then Harris presents two massive practical problems. She’s a terrible manager, widely hated by her staff (all Democrats) in every job she’s ever held, and she’s a terrible candidate, raging against her campaign staff when things go wrong. She’s always had huge staff turnover in every job she’s ever held, a clear red flag for a defective human being.
But if she becomes president and presumptive nominee in the next few weeks, she will have to ramp up as both president and as the nominee for election. Either would be a huge challenge by itself, but to do both at once is clearly beyond the very limited capacities of Harris. Biden is senile, but a sudden Harris presidency and candidacy will be a Poseidon Adventure/Towering Inferno-level disaster.
In the immediate moment, she’d be inheriting Biden’s White House staff when she becomes president. They know better than anyone how terrible she is. Would she try to bring in her own White House staff in short order? Maybe, but that is a recipe for chaos, and Kamala already has a reputation as someone who leaves chaos in her wake the way PigPen trailed a cloud of dust in Peanuts.
She’d be inheriting Biden’s campaign apparatus. What happens the first time she doesn’t like a speech or campaign message the staff produces? More chaos, leaks, backbiting, resignations, firings—and a landslide loss at the polls in November.
She is a double-abyss for Democrats who know these facts, which would be most insiders in the Democratic Party in DC. I expect the quiet conversations finally land on this issue: “But what would we do if she wins?” If you think Biden’s presidency is a calamity, a four-year Harris presidency might be an extinction level event for Democrats on par with what happened to Republicans after Hoover.
When Democrats stare into the abyss-inside-the-abyss that is Kamala Harris, it is suddenly understandable that many conclude they’d be better off sticking with Biden after all. Smarter Democrats know they need to pass over Harris if they are to have any hope of winning, but are terrified at the prospect of angering their identity politics factions they have negligently empowered over the last three decades.
I’m reminded at this point of a commencement address Woody Allen once wrote (but never delivered as far as I know), which I paraphrase thus:
More than any other time in history, Democrats face a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
[Paraphrased from Side Effects, p. 57.]
