Robert Reich Wants to Help Trump Win
David R. Weiss – September 13

I almost always appreciate Robert Reich’s op-ed columns. A former US secretary of labor and current professor of public policy at UC-Berkely, Reich usually offers a clear-eyed view of politics from the center-left. He vigorously defends labor and takes seriously the concerns of the working class and those at society’s edges.

His latest piece, however, “Third-party candidates will help Trump win,” misses the boat from its very first line to its very last. He begins, “Whether they intend to be or not, third-party groups such as No Labels and the Green Party are in effect front groups for Trump in 2024.” He concludes, “If Trump wins the Republican nomination for president, as seems highly likely despite (or because of) his coming trials, all Americans who believe in democracy must unite behind Joe Biden—to ensure that Trump, in the words of then representative Liz Cheney, “never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office’.”

That first line ought to read, “Whether they intend to be or not, the Democratic establishment, the Democratic National Committee, and Joe Biden himself, are in effect front groups for Trump in 2024.” There. Fixed it.

Nowhere in his piece does Reich acknowledge the impact of Biden’s policy failures* or his flagging mental sharpness and physical stamina on the (absent!) enthusiasm of even most Democrat voters, let alone independents and non-voters. It is simply a vacuous argument to let the (very real!) danger Trump poses to democracy become a blank check to a Democratic Party and a sitting President. Both of whom are more concerned about preserving their own institutional power than acting in ways that would actually secure a decisive share of the electorate and strengthen democracy as well.

*Clearly Biden’s policies are better than Trump’s. But he’s failed to address climate as the existential emergency it is (except in his rhetoric); indeed, alongside his “green” initiatives, he continues to approve new fossil fuel projects at a time when the overwhelming scientific consensus is an emphatic ZERO. Moreover, his inability to achieve significant progress on gun control, police violence, immigration, affordable housing, labor rights, voting rights, and student loan debt, coupled with an actively fraying social safety net, have left more and more people feeling forgotten, exposed, vulnerable. Even with the undeniable obstruction of MAGA-GOP forces, Biden has failed to lead with imagination or vision. Perhaps that was sufficient for a first term, where a return to well-managed mediocrity was a relief from the foolish, vengeful politics of a megalomaniac narcissist. But that was a damn low bar, and it’s wholly inadequate for re-election to a second term.

If Biden and the party really believe their political agenda is a winning one, they ought to embrace the idea of a vibrant presidential primary as an opportunity to hone their presentation and unite voters. Instead, the DNC refuses to countenance anything other than servile acceptance of Biden as the “winning nominee,” without having measured his mettle against anyone. Because the party knows it simply wouldn’t measure up.

As it stands, Marianne Williamson, Robert Kennedy, Jr., and Cornell West all appeal to strands of the left-leaning electorate that Biden can’t afford to lose … but he also isn’t interested in seriously courting them to win. He’s simply counting on the fear of Trump (and the fear-mongering of pundits like Reich) to bring them into the fold. That’s bullshit.

And quite frankly, that position is, in effect, a front group for Trump. This is a precarious game of chicken for Biden and the DNC to play. “Stick with us, no matter how mediocre our vision is, because Trump is so much worse.” How long do Democrats actually think their on-brand message of mediocrity will be accepted, even if begrudgingly, as a “harm reduction” compromise? Spoiler alert: not much longer.

If a Trump candidacy presents an existential threat to democracy—it does!—then the determination of the DNC to shove a Biden candidacy down our throat is complicit in that existential threat. And Robert Reich is being dishonest in pretending otherwise.

I can admit that the candidacies of Williamson and West are unlikely to lead to the White House and yet also assert that their candidacies are worthy—essential, critical—expressions of political ideals that ought to be entertained by an electorate (at least) every four years. Ideals that ought to exert regular and consistent pressure on the corporately misshapen moral compass of the Democratic Party. Ideals that, if ever given a full hearing, just might resonate with a host of Americans aching for a society that soothes our shared sorrows, honors our shared hopes, and inspires our highest human aspirations. To silence their voices is to lay bare the bald disinterest of the party in these ideals ever being realized on its watch.

Ideally, for the sake of the country—for the existential stakes of democracy—Biden ought to announce with dignity, as a sign of his statesmanship, that he will not run again. He should declare his confidence in the multiple Democratic lawmakers whose social vision, political conviction, and personal integrity offer an overwhelmingly compelling alternative to Trump and the rest of the GOP. He should urge the DNC to make plans in haste and in earnest for a nomination process that will invite these persons (and Williamson!) to present their visions of a society that embodies its ideals from sea to shining sea. And he should urge the electorate (those who always vote, those who never vote, and those waiting for a good reason to vote) to get ready to defend democracy in 2024. Not by settling for bullshit, but by voting for a candidate whose mettle has been measured, whose vision is compelling, and whose appeal is authentic to the best of who we are as a people.

Anything less courts political catastrophe. And right now, Robert Reich is peddling anything less.

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David Weiss is a theologian, writer, poet and hymnist, “writing into the whirlwind” of contemporary challenges, joys, and sorrows around climate crisis, sexuality, justice, peace, and family. Reach him at drw59mn@gmail.com. Read more at www.davidrweiss.com where he blogs under the theme, “Full Frontal Faith: Erring on the Edge of Honest.” Support him in Writing into the Whirlwind at www.patreon.com/fullfrontalfaith.