In recent weeks, there have been growing calls for President Biden to drop out of the presidential election. His performance at the debate, as well as in recent press conferences, have shown noticeable decline in his mental and physical capacities. He regularly struggles to complete sentences, calls people by the wrong name, and has difficulty walking without stumbling. Some Democratic Party leaders have expressed concern that Biden’s deficiencies could cause him to lose to Trump in November, and some major Democratic donors and elected officials have even broken rank, openly calling for him to step aside.
But Biden has refused to drop out, insisting he is the best candidate to beat Trump. This has caused a real crisis in the Democratic Party, with no clear agreement on how to proceed. But the real problem with Biden is not his age – it’s the policies and interests that he and the Democrats defend. Since Biden was elected in 2020, the Democrats have made big promises but have delivered next to nothing.
The Biden administration frequently brags about the inflation rate coming down slowly, but the prices we pay are still at record levels, and working people are falling deeper into debt. And most of the new jobs Biden boasts about recovering are part-time and pay low wages.
Biden promised to be the most “pro-worker” president ever. But it wasn’t Biden’s old age that made him and his administration support the big railroad companies in 2022 against the workers, passing legislation to block a strike, and imposing a contract benefitting the rail companies.
Biden also campaigned promising to be the most environmentally friendly president of all-time. But his old age isn’t the reason he has approved more fossil fuel drilling projects than any other President, including Trump. While we experience devastating heat waves and hurricanes, under Biden the U.S. is producing more barrels of oil than at any point in U.S. history.
Biden’s old age is not responsible for criminalizing entire families of migrants fleeing just to survive. Biden and the Democrats may oppose Trump and the Republicans’ racist attacks on immigrants in words, but their policies at the southern border are practically the same. Biden is proud of the fact that his administration is responsible for a record number of detentions and deportations, even as these policies have led to a record number of migrant deaths.
Biden’s age is not the reason for his administration’s unflinching support of Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Since October 7, the U.S. has transferred billions of dollars’ worth of military aid to Israel, defending its massacre. The Biden administration has the blood of tens of thousands of Palestinians on its hands.
The main reason that Biden has such a low approval rating and the Democrats are worried whether they can beat Trump is not Biden’s age. The problems facing most workers in our society have stayed the same under Biden because he and the Democrats defend the same system as the Republicans. If Biden were to drop out and be replaced by another candidate, these policies wouldn’t change.
The solution to this problem is certainly not to support Trump and the Republicans, who defend the same system, and only offer up a more right-wing agenda, attacking women’s reproductive rights, the rights of LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, Black people, and more. And without question, efforts to take Trump out of the election, through assassination or otherwise, regardless of the motive, won’t accomplish anything either. The right-wing agenda expressed through the Republican Party would certainly continue with or without Trump. But the Democrats have not put a stop to these policies either, and continue to oppose them in words only. The November ballot box isn’t enough to address the problems in front of us.
Neither party is going to defend the interests of working people. Neither party opposes wars or genocide. Neither party protects the environment. Regardless of who wins, both parties defend the same undemocratic system, which is designed to exploit the labor of working people and protect the interests of corporations and the super rich. The elections are rigged for their class to always win.
We have to stand up to all of it — including the business as usual of the Democrats and the right-wing agenda of the Republicans. We know what to expect from their system, which is why we can only defend our interests ourselves. But we must remember that we are the vast majority of humanity, and it is our labor that makes their system run. When we are organized together, we have the power to resist further attacks and defend our own interests. If we can begin to unite our forces, we have the power to organize a fight against their whole system.
