Fight the fears! Don’t assume a Biden-Trump rematch is inevitable!

Peace Advocate February 2024

Sample Ballot available online from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the town of Reading MA.

The Peace Advocate is running a series of opinion pieces about the 2024 presidential election and candidates. We encourage our members and supporters to submit their analyses. We welcome different points of view. – The Editors

This article was edited on Monday, March 4th to reflect up-to-date information. 

by Kathie Malley-Morrison

As a horrifying genocide continues to kill, injure, maim, and destroy the environments of innocent civilians in Gaza, with weapons and support provided by the US government, people of conscience must ask “What Should Progressives Do About Biden?” Indeed, that question was debated in a recent webinar led by the progressive group Roots Action. The panelists offered many of the same arguments I’ve heard from MAPA members about the upcoming presidential election: “Vote for Biden–he’s the lesser of the two evils”; “I’ll never vote for genocide Joe”; “Send a message to the Dems–Don’t vote for Biden in the Massachusetts primary;” “I’m voting Green Party”; “Don’t vote for a third-party candidate—that would give the election to Trump.”

Bottom line: the prospect of a Biden versus Trump election is a terrifying nightmare for progressives, but it is not an inevitability. On the one hand (the left), Biden is under growing pressure to withdraw from the Presidential race—not just because of signs of memory loss and confusion but, more importantly because of his complicity in what the International Court of Justice has confirmed is plausibly a genocide. Also damning Biden’s prospects is his horrifying role in providing funding and weapons to Israel for that genocide, from which the US military industrial complex, under Biden’s leadership, is profiting. His complicity has led to the epithets “genocide Joe” and “Butcher Joe”.

It has also generated national and international lawsuits against him for complicity in genocide—see here and here, and produced fervent pledges not to vote for him from Arab Americans, Muslims, and youth.

On the other hand (the right), Trump is also confronted with major threats to his desperately sought re-election, including some concerns with his age and health. A New York Times article of Jan 6, 2024, reported that efforts to remove Trump’s name from the presidential ballot had been undertaken in at least 35 states, with that effort already being successful (but under judicial review) in Maine and Colorado. While retaining a loyal following of embittered, malcontent, and disgruntled admirers, Trump is widely viewed as a dangerous fascist, neofascist, authoritarian, racist, dictatorially-inclined threat to democracy.

Perhaps most threatening to Trump’s campaign are the myriad civil and criminal cases against him this year, with associated legal events already scheduled between February 12 and August 5, 2024. One of the most important events will be the US Supreme Court decision regarding the Colorado Supreme Court decision that Trump is ineligible to run for president under the “insurrection” clause of the US Constitution. A January NBC election poll indicated that a noteworthy segment of pro-Trump voters would not vote for him if he is convicted of a felony. Moreover, even if he does run, Trump, like Biden, is not favored by large segments of the US population, including progressives, youth, and people of color.

So, what will happen if Biden and/or Trump leave the presidential race? A recent helpful report from CNN News, explains how each party could replace its front-runner for the election if he drops out unexpectedly, which is timely and welcome information indeed. There are still a few weeks to the Super Tuesday primaries and several months until the November elections, so now is the time progressives must think about, talk about, learn and do something about other potential candidates for president rather than assuming the worst—that the election has to be that looming horror of a Biden-Trump rematch.

What about third-party candidates, of which there are three notable ones this year: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Independent), Jill Stein (Green party), and Cornell West (Independent). One strong argument made by several panelists at the Roots Action webinar is that if third parties really want to reform the political system in the US, they must start at the grassroots level to build a national following before embarking on presidential races; nevertheless, in my view, we should take their campaigns seriously and study the messages and tactics that appear to attract important segments of the US voting population.

Meanwhile, the presidential primaries are looming, the genocide in Palestine and Biden’s complicity in it is continuing, progressives are yelling at each other about what is and is not antisemitic. They have also suggested a strategy for the primaries that is well-worth considering—specifically, to vote “No Preference” in the upcoming primaries, as a sign of dissatisfaction with the current candidates – a strategy that might prove useful in any state that has not yet held its primary. The “Vote No Preference” Campaign here in Massachusetts for the Primary Election on Tuesday, March 5th, was inspired by the successful efforts of a similar campaign in Michigan, where they rallied over 100,000 voters to vote “Uncommitted” (equivalent to the “No Preference” option here in Massachusetts).

Finally, for those voters who are despairing about the possibility that the November election will drag them through the quagmire of a Biden versus Trump contest, here are my thoughts of what members of Mass Peace Action and other progressive groups (along with everyone else who thinks we have to do better than a Biden-Trump rematch) might do.

  1. Reach out across MAPA committees and other progressive organizations to form a collaborative election planning committee with as diverse a membership as possible.
  2. Request that the collaborative planning committee to undertake tasks such as the following:
    • Encouraging Democrats (and others to vote “No Preference” on the primary election ballot.)
    • Building a movement for a progressive election candidate;
    • Doing and sharing a thorough review of all the potential candidates receiving any consideration in other progressive organizations;
    • Calling on experts in political campaigning to generate goals, strategies and tactics to promote the campaign of the selected candidate.
    • Leading a campaign for the preferred candidate.
    • Please share your own ideas as to what alternatives we can pursue to prepare for a presidential election whose results can give us hope for the future.

Kathie Malley-Morrison is a member of Massachusetts Peace Action and co-chair of the Twin Threats Campaign.