Political Landscape Shift: President Biden Chooses Not to Seek Re-Election at Age 81 Amidst Growing Pressure

The American political landscape has again demonstrated that a day in politics can be a lifetime, as fortunes and predictions can turn very unexpectedly.

Such was the case over the weekend when President Joe Biden, under tremendous pressure from within his own political camp, decided it was time to abandon his plan to contest the presidency at the age of 81.

There was panic in the Democratic Party as Biden, despite all that he had achieved in the last four years, seemed incapable of leading the kind of vigorous campaign required over the next five months to stave off a return of Donald Trump to the White House.

No matter how it was explained or messaged since his abysmal debate performance against Trump, there was no denying that Biden was not as physically or mentally ready to challenge a wily candidate like Trump who has a long history of untruths.

Biden acknowledged what the polls and his party colleagues had been echoing; that the risk was too great to go into the presidential fight with such dismal numbers and lack of enthusiasm from the voter base.

Of course, Biden was not able to win over many young voters with his stand on the Israeli-Hamas conflict, where he leaned in hard with the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden’s condemnation of the International Criminal Court order for the arrests of Netanyahu and the Hamas leader for war crimes, also saw him on the wrong side of some donors to his party and progressive voters.

In fact, progressive groups and Arab Americans, a traditionally Democratic voting bloc, in the state of Michigan, vowed to withhold support for Biden over his strident stand with Israel and the provision of arms for that country which were used to kill thousands of Palestinian civilians.

It was argued that Biden could not win the electoral college without Michigan.

The Detroit Free Press quoted Osama Siblani, a longtime Arab American advocate and publisher saying: “Everybody in my community is very thrilled that Biden is out of the way . . . . We don’t have to worry about someone who is a partner to the genocide on the head of the ticket for the Democratic Party.”

The excitement over the likely choice of Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the next United States president is also creating fear; not that she is incapable of doing the job or that she is not fit for the office.

The United States is a highly divided country and much of that division has been fomented by the Republican party, the candidate Donald Trump and his acolytes. Harris is the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, and she is a woman.

As progressive as the US projects itself to be, it is among the few developed and developing countries in the world that has never elected a female head of state. The level of racism and misogyny that has already smeared her campaign is incredible.

In 2016 when another person of colour ran and won the presidency, the backlash to his elevation brought out the worst of white America. Racists in America have become even more emboldened since the Trump presidency, and so, there is an expectation that the attacks on Harris will be even more brutal.

What the latest developments in the Democratic Party have demonstrated is the need for politicians to constantly read the room and understand when it is time to hand over the reins of power. No matter how much good has been done and how many achievements are listed, the time will come, respectfully, when your shelf life has expired.

Trump, on the other hand, has managed to create a cult-like machinery in the Republican party, where he is seen as the be all and end all; the ultimate leader whose lead must be followed at all costs.

If the majority of Americans want to maintain and build on the democracy they have, then it will require most citizens there to coalesce behind the Dems and Harris. The democratic world is relying on them to vote the right way.