I think Jon’s argument here is to a degree a straw man. He says at the bottom that the half dozen or so stakeholders in this conversation need to pick the best candidate. And if it’s Harris, he says, great, off to the races. His argument here seems to be…
https://twitter.com/jonathanchait/status/1808844157718307056
2/ that the only reason to pick Harris is to avoid the wrath of a bunch of identity politics activist busybodies who are threatening to divide the party if Harris doesn’t get the nod. I don’t think that’s the case. As I’ve written, I think skipping over the black woman veep …
3/ when the vp is the natural person to take over for the president and the party is defined by the support of women and African Americans well … that’s a problem. A real probably and it doesn’t need rabble rousers to make it one. But there are other reasons. First is legitimacy.
4/ Harris was chosen by the American people to take over for president if he can’t serve. Millions of Democrats just voted de facto to nominate her again as veep. It is more than just a poli sci problem to say, welp those votes don’t matter we’re going to do something totally …
5/ different. We have systems for making political decisions in this country. You can’t just blithely toss them out the window. If you are going to you need to cleave as close to sources of political legitimacy as you can. Another reason in Harris’s favor. Far more than any …
6/ of the other contenders Harris has had major vetting and national media scrutiny. None of the governors have ever seen anything like that. And we’ve never seen any of them perform on the national stage before. These are both massive risks Dems wld go into totally blind.
7/ Jon and I agree that a mini campaign is ridiculous. There’s no legitimate basis on which to hold such a monstrosity. And let’s state for the record that a huge issue activists would push to the fore would be Gaza. We know that right? The nominal voters are delegates …
8/ who have no legitimate basis on which to make such a decision. They were chosen solely to be rubber stamp votes for Joe Biden. Crazy idea. But let’s go back to the legitimacy question. This is not just a political sci nerd question. Let’s say the big six meets and comes …
9/ out and says we’ve talked about and the ticket is Whitmer/shapiro. Whoever feels like they lost in that decision will say wtf? On what basis or what right are you making this decision. This is not an age that is friendly to close door deals. My guess at least is that that …
10/ makes substantial numbers of people feel aggrieved, cues them up for blame casting if Dems lose, etc. The logic of picking Harris is precisely the legitimacy of the call and the fact that it follows the most basic pattern of American …
11/ politics, veeps succeed presidents. It’s the logical and clear default and because it is I think it will get broad buy in on that basis. It’s not a back room deal. It’s just the normal order of things. If Biden withdraws he says, I’m out, Harris was chosen by the country …
12/ and then again by Democrats this year as Biden successor. It’s quick and clean, it’s the default. Biden says it’s his choice, the other six agree and I think all Democrats agree and you plow ahead. I could add a few other reasons. But my main one is to say that just …
13/ acting like the issue not being cowed by a few activists is I think a straw man. There are several interrelated reasons why Harris is the logical and I think inevitable choice. FINAL POINT: I’m not a huge Harris stan. In fact while I began the 2020 cycle thinking she was …
14/ one I was disappointed in the campaign she ran. If it were totally up to me and I didn’t have to worry about any of these other issues I think I’d probably pick Gretchen Whitmer. But who gives a fuck what I think? People vote for a reason. It’s the font of democratic …
15/ legitimacy. You can’t just toss that all aside like it doesn’t matter. You have do your best cleave to decisions that has at least been ratified by democratic means even if a full election is no longer possible. Critically, I think that path also gives the …
16/ best odds for maintaining the unity of the Democratic coalition and thus beating Donald Trump.
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