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1. Biden's announcement reminds me how old I am. Biden was the first politician I ever took notice of. It was the spring/summer of 1987 and I was a politically naive freshman in college. I knew I didn't like Reagan's politics...but that was about it.
2. Biden had a familiar central PA accent and a self-deprecating manner that struck me as charming. Folks where I grew up didn't like politicians who pretended they were better or smarter than us. He seemed kind & funny, like someone who cared for ordinary ppl more than the rich.
3. I'm middle aged now...just got my AARP card in the mail. It is astounding to me that Joe Biden, the first politician I ever warmed to eons ago, is running to be president.
4. 1987 might as well be 1215 in terms of American politics. I don't bear tremendous animus toward Biden and his generation of Democrats. I remember how electorally formidable the Reagan GOP was. And also how many non-nutjob Republicans there were back then.
5. But the situation we are in now calls not for a reboot of Democratic politics ca. 1980s and 1990s...or even ca. the Obama era. Joe's demeanor is comforting to the older set. I get it...it works on me too even though intellectually I know better.
6. But for all of those folks who remember the 60's and the 70s and love Uncle Joe, please remember the sense you had back then that it was time for a new generation to take over in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate. This is where we are today.
7. We may want to return to "the good old days" of bipartisan comity, but a) those days were not nearly as good as you might remember them to be and b) the GOP has unilaterally decreed that "the old politics no longer apply." It takes two to tango, and the GOP has left the dance.
8. The Democratic coalition that is emerging looks quite different than it did in the late 80s early 90s. That's ok. In fact, it's great. The party should lean into its future, not replay the oldies that bring back nostalgic memories of the good old DNC.
9. The Reaganite GOP rose to power by being totally uncompromising and ideologically rigid. The Dems engaged with them as if they were engaged in a shared project of good governance. They got suckered every single time.
10. The GOP has created an authoritarian media bubble for its voters, has shown zero regard for the norms of democratic governance and the rule of law, and has not seriously tried to attract non-white voters since 1964 in an increasingly diverse nation.
11. The illiberal GOP, in other words, has ceased to function as a responsible player in our liberal constitutional order. That's an existential crisis for the country.
12. Biden's skills are the skills necessary for a world in which you're trying to win back the Reagan Democrats. Well, those folks are encased in the alternative reality amber of Fox News at this point...they can't hear you.
13. Just like the GOP built a new base by using "cultural issues" to reach out to white southerners and working class white people in the 70s and 80s...the Dems need to embrace what their new coalition looks and sounds like.
14. As someone who feels genuine affection for Joe's generation of politicians, let me be the first to say that it's time for him to use his pull to get behind leaders who can move the party into the future...not invoke nostalgia for its past.
