To the leadership and the rank and file of the Democratic Party, the message coming across is very simple: wake up and smell the coffee. A latest poll by AP/NORC shows that only one in three Democrats feel optimistic on the future of their party as opposed to 55 percent of the Republicans who think that way of the Grand Old Party.

It is not a question of being in denial or still trying to figure out why Vice President Kamala Harris could not pull it off last November. Neither is it one of a big intellectual debate within the party between conservatives, centrists, progressives and the left. It appears to be a sense of despair on not knowing how to get back in the scheme of things and who will ne entrusted to lead the charge. The optimism number speaks volumes in the kind of challenges that are ahead. 

If developments in the last few days are anything go by, it seems that Democrats are still not over the obsession with the former President Joe Biden, triggered in part by a forthcoming book, Original Sin, by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson who have argued that close aides to Biden chose to keep the real physical and mental conditions of their boss to themselves and a very small circle until it was time to quit the race. 

In recent days snippets of the former President’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur have fueled talk that the administration put a hold on the report as a way to hide Biden’s mental acuity. Hur told jurors that he perceived the former President as a “sympathetic, well meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” But apparently the audio clip goes beyond long pauses, slurring and muttering: a clear difficulty in recalling details. The Trump administration is said to be on the verge of outing the full interview in the coming days, and just to prove a point: that the Democratic administration had an agenda to keep it away from public scrutiny. 

Hammering away at Biden is unlikely to do any good to a party that clearly needs to bring the curtains down on an era that certainly had its ups and downs. Without a doubt Biden had a remarkable five decades plus in Washington DC; he was indeed a decent person whose only problem was perhaps looking at times like a rambling professor in an undergraduate classroom. The man still believes that he was ahead in the polls and if had stayed in the ticket, he would have beaten Donald Trump last November. It is as far-fetched as the Harris camp saying that had only the former Vice President been given more than 107 days, she would be sitting in the Oval Office now. This is clearly a story for another day just like Biden talking of “polls” of him being on top of the 2024 race that no one seems to recollect.

Democrats do not need books and commentaries right now. They need a strategy with a message and a messenger. Taking pot shots at President Trump for his domestic and foreign policies without clarity on alternatives is simply not going to work. To start with Democrats, need to figure out a way to get back the voters they lost last November by race, gender and generation; and this is not to come about by any loose talk of impeaching a President who has already seen that circus, not once but twice. In fact, Trump operatives are clever enough to start off their 2026 mid term campaign on a message to their hardcore crowd: the only reason why Democrats want to wrest back control of the House of Representatives is to start the impeachment drama all over again.  

But first things first. Some would make the point that the bottom line for anything within the Democratic party is that there would have to be an honest coming to terms with what happened in 2024. Writing in The New York Times, Reid Epstein and Lisa Lerer in “Democrats Who Championed Biden’s Re-election Bid Now Seek Atonement” make the point that party strategists believe that the rebuilding of trust in the brand should start with confronting how the party handled last November: publicly talking of President Biden as being sharp as a whip but privately expressing misgivings. The silver lining is that some members of Congress and officials have started slowly admitting. 

“Before attending B.B.Q.s, Lowcountry boils and picnics, cleanse yourself of any culpability you may have when you stayed silent while so much was at stake,” former Representative Joe Cunningham of South Carolina has been quoted. The Democrat who suggested in 2022 that Biden should not seek re-election added, “As my mother would say: Wash your hands before you come to the meal.”

Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in this article/column are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of South Asian Herald.

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