I've been sharing "The Biden Replacement Theory" all over the place. It spells the issues out so well. I think Kamala Harris is an amazing VP. She gets things done. She's been all over the world, particularly in developing nations, building bridges. Her speeches on college campuses are on fire. Along with the Black women in Congress, she is showing the rest of us how it's done. I wish white women (of which I am one) would be as fierce in her defense.
Thank you again, Stephanie Jones. I've been sharing your posts on Facebook and Mastodon because they need as much visibility as possible.
As for this whole replacement nonsense - it's a dangerous distraction and I'm frustrated as all get out with it. Like you, I voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2020 after working as a text team moderator for the Biden/Harris team's general election campaign, and I voted for them again in this year's primaries. I am dumbfounded that any woman could vote against them quite honestly. The Biden/Harris team has been the best White House team in my lifetime by far, and we need them to have a second term. Of course if Joe Biden were to become unable to serve, Kamala Harris would be the only logical successor, but succession would only come into play if he couldn't serve, not because of some media or GOP generated narrative.
I also voted for Kamala Harris back when she was my state's senator too - she is incredible. In 2028, we'll see what happens, but I'm really hoping for a Kamala Harris presidency from that election.
Oh, and in 2016, I eagerly voted for Hillary Clinton, as she would have made an incredible president in my mind.
Normally I try to be measured in my comments but this absolutely spot-on post has struck a nerve, so I am going to engage in a bit of a rant about my fellow white women.
Although Stephanie does not specifically call out *progressive* white women, her general critique fits many of them to a T. (I am speaking of people I know in real life and am not just extrapolating from social media comments.) I know some who sat out the 2016 election or voted for Jill Stein because they decided HIllary Clinton was a "corporate Democrat" who hadn't "earned their vote." When President Biden named Kamala Harris as his running mate in 2020, they decried her for being a "conservative cop." These people are *not* reliable Democratic voters, and they are terrible political strategists.
Incidentally, I'm still waiting for my white progressive Democratic Congressperson (Melanie Stansbury) to issue a statement supporting President Biden. Jasmine Crockett, AOC, and Ilhan Omar among others have had no trouble doing so. Something sounds very white about this discrepancy.
jill Stein is/was a Russian asset. I remember a picture of her sitting at the same dinner table with Vladimir Putin during the 2016 election. It might be archived somewhere on Facebook.
This old white woman who was a political activist during the '80s and '90s wishes that I had known more Black activists back in the day, because I kept getting pooh-poohed when I talked about the need for grassroots organizing and countering the organizing being done by white evangelicals during that era. Once I got onto Twitter and started talking politics, I encountered a LOT of Black Democrats who were saying what I had been all along. I wish I had those connections, but, sigh, Oregon. I know exactly what you're talking about. I had too much exposure to Left and Socialist circles with too damn much veiled racism and sexism. Call them out and the usual response was--"the class revolution will fix EVERYTHING."
No. It won't. Racism and sexism transcends class.
And yes, I'm Team Kamala. I'm supporting President Biden because, damn. The man has done a LOT in spite of all the obstacles he faces. Hell, the man appointed a Native woman to head up Interior! The white pundit class that keeps agitating to dump Biden and...gee whiz, ignore Harris, is too damned telling for me.
I’m vote blue no matter who but I would love to see V.P. Kamala Harris debate Donald. It would be great to see the intelligent former District Attorney of San Francisco and Attorney General of California talk about his criminality.
I don’t know how everyone is so fearful of Joe being replaced by his vice president who he chose to replace him.
"It's not a messaging problem, it's an amplification problem" - this is the most concise and devastating explanation I've seen of the media-manufactured crisis we're in.
Prior to the debate, I thought the only way the convicted felon and adjudicated rapist could win was a catastrophic drop in Democratic turnout. And now, it looks like corporate media is doing everything in its power to bring that catastrophic drop about. I don't have words for how unspeakably cynical and evil this is.
There needs to be a prolonged, concerted effort on multiple fronts to combat Operation Demoralize Democrats.
I’ve never understood this about us either. I freely admit that I didn’t vote for Kamala is the last primary, because I supported Elizabeth Warren (I’m from MA), but she was a great candidate. And she’s been an extremely effective VP. But I don’t trust white Democrats to support her.
In addition to all of the great points made in this piece, I'd like to submit one more I think is cogent. These same supposed Harris voters didn't support candidate Harris when she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination four years ago. Instead, they supported the same man they're now saying can't continue doing the job he's already doing well, and that he can't get reelected over the man he already beat for that office. Come on.
I voted for Harris in the primaries based on her performance and record. I was thrilled when Biden selected her for hs running mate and the way she handled the debate against Mike Pence.
Adina, I have no doubt that you did support Harris in the primaries. I have lots of doubt that a majority of those now calling for her to replace Biden supported her primary bid, or would follow through to support her atop the ticket.
The party primaries happened, the votes were cast for Joe and just like you posted in a later comment, ignoring those votes is subversion of voters' will. I'll be joining you to vote for Biden/Harris.
I’m not a fence-sitter. I’m fully behind whoever winds up being the nominee. But for now, I think Biden should go. There are a dozen very good reasons why.
Please do not tar people like me. We are not part of some conspiracy. We are terrified of another Trump term. We have weighed all information and reasonably concluded that Biden is too great a hazard. He can serve as a campaigner for Kamala or whoever the candidate is. A new candidate will blow Trump out of the water, which Biden cannot do, as we witnessed with our own eyes.
If you aren't one of the people I described in my post, you have no reason to think you're being "tarred."
"We" have not concluded anything. YOU have drawn a conclusion, which is your right. Most of us disagree with you.
But please name this "new candidate" who will "blow Trump out of the water" and explain exactly how they will collect all of the Independents and shaky Democrats, while keeping the support of all of the Black voters who will be tee-totally pissed off that our candidate was run out of the race, and all of the white women who support Joe Biden, but can't stand Kamala Harris, and all of the blue collar workers who love Joe Biden because they see him as "Scranton Joe" a working class guy like their salt-of--earth old man, and the numerous other groups in the very diverse but fragile coalition Biden has spent decades putting together?
And please explain how they're going to do that with no campaign funds.
And how are they're going to carry the Electoral College without being on the ballots in a quarter of the states.
What I keep telling people is that any viable candidate already took a look and decided to wait until 2028. NONE of the viable candidates that I see are agitating to replace Biden. NONE. And that choice was most likely not made based on gut feelings but private polls, focus groups, and networking discussions.
The problem is that since 1980, too damn many white people have fallen prey to what I call "the magical third party virus." The Magical Third Party Virus assumes that you can start a last-minute presidential campaign, without building a grassroots organization (which takes YEARS), and somehow get elected. It was frustrating doing organizing during the '80s and '90s because too many promising organizers skipped off to Barry Commoner or Ralph Nader or sheesh, I've forgotten all of them.
I worked on one last minute campaign, for perhaps the one person who might have been able to pull it off, Jerry Brown, back in 1992. Didn't happen then. Can't happen now.
And the folks who think they can pull off a successful third party campaign every presidential election year are nowhere to be seen in the years in between - because they aren't really interested in governing or public policy.
This is the problem with people just believing and repeating what they hear on television and in social media without doing even the most minimal amount of research for themselves.
We don’t agree with you on Joe should step aside. One thing I disagree with you is what about all the other people that are older than Biden that are still in their jobs in congress. You are throwing the baby out with the bath water. Biden has been a great president, don’t let one debate with a convicted felon make you regret your decision. Ride, drive or get out our way. We are riding with Biden!!!
Same, true blue, not on the fence. But willing to speak my mind about our situation. I’m terrified of a Trump win.
My worry is — President Biden isn’t running a good campaign. He’s fighting back, since the debate - but he’s only fighting those who doubt him.
Joe doesn’t have a clear & compelling message, which is so frustrating since Trump is a a flawed opponent with highly unpopular policies. Biden can’t just stay — he needs to start earning the votes of the anti-Trump coalition.
Our country is on the line. Trump is winning. It’s okay to question Biden’s ability to do the two hardest jobs at the same time, especially at his age.
Biden actually has a very clear and compelling message and has been communicating it. The problem is that it is virtually impossible for he campaign to penetrate the media wall. It's not a messaging problem, it's an amplification problem.
That's where we come in. We know what the message is and we need to help him spread the message, which we can do within our own networks. That's what I'm doing with my Substack and other vehicles.
And we especially need to step up at times like this when the media has drowned out everything the candidate and campaign are saying and also forcing him to waste valuable time and resources countering BS.
This campaign can't rely just on the candidate - no campaign can. We all have to do our part.
FYI - It's ok to question Biden's ability to do the job. But focusing on it day after day after day after day - especially while he's showing us he is indeed doing both - is not "questioning." It's a sign that people are being manipulated by a media that is not interested in informing the public, but in forcing a particular outcome in the presidential race. Please don't participate in that.
I respect your opinion and appreciate what you’re doing on your Substack. That’s why I’m here! I want to know what everyone is thinking about this critical topic.
One note, though. When you say people are being manipulated, it implies that we can’t think for ourselves, but you can. Belittling assumptions about why or how people reach their conclusions makes it harder to have this conversation. We all want to beat Trump. I hope this hits with the collaborative intention that I intend. I look forward to reading more from you.
"It's not a messaging problem, it's an amplification problem" - this is the most concise and devastating explanation I've seen of the media-manufactured crisis we're in.
Prior to the debate, I thought the only way the convicted felon and adjudicated rapist could win was a catastrophic drop in Democratic turnout. And now, it looks like corporate media is doing everything in its power to bring that catastrophic drop about. I don't have words for how unspeakably cynical and evil this is.
There needs to be a prolonged, concerted effort on multiple fronts to combat Operation Demoralize Democrats.
Biden laid out his plan for the first 100 days of his next term in a speech yesterday. He’s been focused on that plan since the first 100 days of his first term. It’s been incredibly effective.
Respectfully, Democrats aren’t saying President Biden should not have been elected or denying that he’s done a great job as president. The concern is whether Joe Biden can handle running for president right now and being president for the next four years.
It brings up a good point—would today’s Joe Biden have won the primary in 2020? Then former Vice President Biden lost Iowa and Nevada to Pete and New Hampshire to Bernie. Would Democratic voters have rallied behind Joe in South Carolina and put him in office if they had seen his current campaign and that debate performance? Like most incumbents, the President didn’t have to go through an actual primary this time. Joe won, but he was also unchallenged, which is typical.
Election choices depend on a complex combination of circumstances, factors, and qualifications. It's impossible to pull one out and analyze what would have happened had that one not been present without the whole experiment falling apart like a Jenga game.
Yes, it's possible that an 81-year-old candidate with no record as president might have been judged differently in 2020 than an 81-year-old candidate with a solid record is president.
But we are not assessing an 81-year-old candidate who has never held at the office. We are assessing Joe Biden who has a record that can't be separated from him.
Many people are critical of Joe Biden current ability to campaign for President.
Respectfully, I think it’s possible to be a great president for four years, but not a great candidate for another four. I don’t believe incumbency, no matter what the record, makes one entitled to another four years. So I was speaking of Joe’s second job, as a candidate.
I was just responding to the speculation about voters picking or not picking Joe in the 2020 primary.
This "white" person, assigned female at birth, supports Biden/Harris. To replace either one of them at this stage of the game would be subverting the will of the millions of ppl who voted for them. BTW, I have never been more upset with the mainstream media and members of the donor class during this election cycle. They are far from legal scholars, speak very stridently and keep ignoring the elephant in the room---#45's dangerous Project 2025.
I've been sharing "The Biden Replacement Theory" all over the place. It spells the issues out so well. I think Kamala Harris is an amazing VP. She gets things done. She's been all over the world, particularly in developing nations, building bridges. Her speeches on college campuses are on fire. Along with the Black women in Congress, she is showing the rest of us how it's done. I wish white women (of which I am one) would be as fierce in her defense.
As a white woman, I couldn't agree more. Team Biden/Harris.
Thank you again, Stephanie Jones. I've been sharing your posts on Facebook and Mastodon because they need as much visibility as possible.
As for this whole replacement nonsense - it's a dangerous distraction and I'm frustrated as all get out with it. Like you, I voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2020 after working as a text team moderator for the Biden/Harris team's general election campaign, and I voted for them again in this year's primaries. I am dumbfounded that any woman could vote against them quite honestly. The Biden/Harris team has been the best White House team in my lifetime by far, and we need them to have a second term. Of course if Joe Biden were to become unable to serve, Kamala Harris would be the only logical successor, but succession would only come into play if he couldn't serve, not because of some media or GOP generated narrative.
I also voted for Kamala Harris back when she was my state's senator too - she is incredible. In 2028, we'll see what happens, but I'm really hoping for a Kamala Harris presidency from that election.
Oh, and in 2016, I eagerly voted for Hillary Clinton, as she would have made an incredible president in my mind.
Right ON!! Though I would indeed vote for Kamala should she be the nominee. But then, I am white but not suburban.
Normally I try to be measured in my comments but this absolutely spot-on post has struck a nerve, so I am going to engage in a bit of a rant about my fellow white women.
Although Stephanie does not specifically call out *progressive* white women, her general critique fits many of them to a T. (I am speaking of people I know in real life and am not just extrapolating from social media comments.) I know some who sat out the 2016 election or voted for Jill Stein because they decided HIllary Clinton was a "corporate Democrat" who hadn't "earned their vote." When President Biden named Kamala Harris as his running mate in 2020, they decried her for being a "conservative cop." These people are *not* reliable Democratic voters, and they are terrible political strategists.
Incidentally, I'm still waiting for my white progressive Democratic Congressperson (Melanie Stansbury) to issue a statement supporting President Biden. Jasmine Crockett, AOC, and Ilhan Omar among others have had no trouble doing so. Something sounds very white about this discrepancy.
jill Stein is/was a Russian asset. I remember a picture of her sitting at the same dinner table with Vladimir Putin during the 2016 election. It might be archived somewhere on Facebook.
This old white woman who was a political activist during the '80s and '90s wishes that I had known more Black activists back in the day, because I kept getting pooh-poohed when I talked about the need for grassroots organizing and countering the organizing being done by white evangelicals during that era. Once I got onto Twitter and started talking politics, I encountered a LOT of Black Democrats who were saying what I had been all along. I wish I had those connections, but, sigh, Oregon. I know exactly what you're talking about. I had too much exposure to Left and Socialist circles with too damn much veiled racism and sexism. Call them out and the usual response was--"the class revolution will fix EVERYTHING."
No. It won't. Racism and sexism transcends class.
And yes, I'm Team Kamala. I'm supporting President Biden because, damn. The man has done a LOT in spite of all the obstacles he faces. Hell, the man appointed a Native woman to head up Interior! The white pundit class that keeps agitating to dump Biden and...gee whiz, ignore Harris, is too damned telling for me.
I’m vote blue no matter who but I would love to see V.P. Kamala Harris debate Donald. It would be great to see the intelligent former District Attorney of San Francisco and Attorney General of California talk about his criminality.
I don’t know how everyone is so fearful of Joe being replaced by his vice president who he chose to replace him.
Acknowledged. Understood. Agreed.
🙌🙌🙌
Thank you for sharing. I’m listening and promise to act.
"It's not a messaging problem, it's an amplification problem" - this is the most concise and devastating explanation I've seen of the media-manufactured crisis we're in.
Prior to the debate, I thought the only way the convicted felon and adjudicated rapist could win was a catastrophic drop in Democratic turnout. And now, it looks like corporate media is doing everything in its power to bring that catastrophic drop about. I don't have words for how unspeakably cynical and evil this is.
There needs to be a prolonged, concerted effort on multiple fronts to combat Operation Demoralize Democrats.
I’ve never understood this about us either. I freely admit that I didn’t vote for Kamala is the last primary, because I supported Elizabeth Warren (I’m from MA), but she was a great candidate. And she’s been an extremely effective VP. But I don’t trust white Democrats to support her.
In addition to all of the great points made in this piece, I'd like to submit one more I think is cogent. These same supposed Harris voters didn't support candidate Harris when she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination four years ago. Instead, they supported the same man they're now saying can't continue doing the job he's already doing well, and that he can't get reelected over the man he already beat for that office. Come on.
True. But many of them didn't support Biden, either. They supported Bernie and other candidates whom Biden beat and they have resented him ever since.
That's another great point.
I voted for Harris in the primaries based on her performance and record. I was thrilled when Biden selected her for hs running mate and the way she handled the debate against Mike Pence.
Famous quote---"I'm speaking..." .
Adina, I have no doubt that you did support Harris in the primaries. I have lots of doubt that a majority of those now calling for her to replace Biden supported her primary bid, or would follow through to support her atop the ticket.
The party primaries happened, the votes were cast for Joe and just like you posted in a later comment, ignoring those votes is subversion of voters' will. I'll be joining you to vote for Biden/Harris.
I’m not a fence-sitter. I’m fully behind whoever winds up being the nominee. But for now, I think Biden should go. There are a dozen very good reasons why.
Please do not tar people like me. We are not part of some conspiracy. We are terrified of another Trump term. We have weighed all information and reasonably concluded that Biden is too great a hazard. He can serve as a campaigner for Kamala or whoever the candidate is. A new candidate will blow Trump out of the water, which Biden cannot do, as we witnessed with our own eyes.
If you aren't one of the people I described in my post, you have no reason to think you're being "tarred."
"We" have not concluded anything. YOU have drawn a conclusion, which is your right. Most of us disagree with you.
But please name this "new candidate" who will "blow Trump out of the water" and explain exactly how they will collect all of the Independents and shaky Democrats, while keeping the support of all of the Black voters who will be tee-totally pissed off that our candidate was run out of the race, and all of the white women who support Joe Biden, but can't stand Kamala Harris, and all of the blue collar workers who love Joe Biden because they see him as "Scranton Joe" a working class guy like their salt-of--earth old man, and the numerous other groups in the very diverse but fragile coalition Biden has spent decades putting together?
And please explain how they're going to do that with no campaign funds.
And how are they're going to carry the Electoral College without being on the ballots in a quarter of the states.
Stephanie, EXACTLY.
What I keep telling people is that any viable candidate already took a look and decided to wait until 2028. NONE of the viable candidates that I see are agitating to replace Biden. NONE. And that choice was most likely not made based on gut feelings but private polls, focus groups, and networking discussions.
The problem is that since 1980, too damn many white people have fallen prey to what I call "the magical third party virus." The Magical Third Party Virus assumes that you can start a last-minute presidential campaign, without building a grassroots organization (which takes YEARS), and somehow get elected. It was frustrating doing organizing during the '80s and '90s because too many promising organizers skipped off to Barry Commoner or Ralph Nader or sheesh, I've forgotten all of them.
I worked on one last minute campaign, for perhaps the one person who might have been able to pull it off, Jerry Brown, back in 1992. Didn't happen then. Can't happen now.
Truth!
"The Magical Third Party Virus" is real ...
And the folks who think they can pull off a successful third party campaign every presidential election year are nowhere to be seen in the years in between - because they aren't really interested in governing or public policy.
I didn't know until recently that campaign funds don't transfer. People need to realize all of this!
This is the problem with people just believing and repeating what they hear on television and in social media without doing even the most minimal amount of research for themselves.
People just kind of shorthanded like it would be easier for Kamala Harris to win, but they don’t say why, that’s one of the many reasons
We don’t agree with you on Joe should step aside. One thing I disagree with you is what about all the other people that are older than Biden that are still in their jobs in congress. You are throwing the baby out with the bath water. Biden has been a great president, don’t let one debate with a convicted felon make you regret your decision. Ride, drive or get out our way. We are riding with Biden!!!
I love this, Patrick. You are speaking truth and asking the right questions. We need more of this. Thank you!
Same, true blue, not on the fence. But willing to speak my mind about our situation. I’m terrified of a Trump win.
My worry is — President Biden isn’t running a good campaign. He’s fighting back, since the debate - but he’s only fighting those who doubt him.
Joe doesn’t have a clear & compelling message, which is so frustrating since Trump is a a flawed opponent with highly unpopular policies. Biden can’t just stay — he needs to start earning the votes of the anti-Trump coalition.
Our country is on the line. Trump is winning. It’s okay to question Biden’s ability to do the two hardest jobs at the same time, especially at his age.
Biden actually has a very clear and compelling message and has been communicating it. The problem is that it is virtually impossible for he campaign to penetrate the media wall. It's not a messaging problem, it's an amplification problem.
That's where we come in. We know what the message is and we need to help him spread the message, which we can do within our own networks. That's what I'm doing with my Substack and other vehicles.
And we especially need to step up at times like this when the media has drowned out everything the candidate and campaign are saying and also forcing him to waste valuable time and resources countering BS.
This campaign can't rely just on the candidate - no campaign can. We all have to do our part.
FYI - It's ok to question Biden's ability to do the job. But focusing on it day after day after day after day - especially while he's showing us he is indeed doing both - is not "questioning." It's a sign that people are being manipulated by a media that is not interested in informing the public, but in forcing a particular outcome in the presidential race. Please don't participate in that.
I respect your opinion and appreciate what you’re doing on your Substack. That’s why I’m here! I want to know what everyone is thinking about this critical topic.
One note, though. When you say people are being manipulated, it implies that we can’t think for ourselves, but you can. Belittling assumptions about why or how people reach their conclusions makes it harder to have this conversation. We all want to beat Trump. I hope this hits with the collaborative intention that I intend. I look forward to reading more from you.
"It's not a messaging problem, it's an amplification problem" - this is the most concise and devastating explanation I've seen of the media-manufactured crisis we're in.
Prior to the debate, I thought the only way the convicted felon and adjudicated rapist could win was a catastrophic drop in Democratic turnout. And now, it looks like corporate media is doing everything in its power to bring that catastrophic drop about. I don't have words for how unspeakably cynical and evil this is.
There needs to be a prolonged, concerted effort on multiple fronts to combat Operation Demoralize Democrats.
Biden laid out his plan for the first 100 days of his next term in a speech yesterday. He’s been focused on that plan since the first 100 days of his first term. It’s been incredibly effective.
I really like Kamala & trust the Biden/Harris ticket to get us through these very difficult times. I’m with you.
Respectfully, Democrats aren’t saying President Biden should not have been elected or denying that he’s done a great job as president. The concern is whether Joe Biden can handle running for president right now and being president for the next four years.
It brings up a good point—would today’s Joe Biden have won the primary in 2020? Then former Vice President Biden lost Iowa and Nevada to Pete and New Hampshire to Bernie. Would Democratic voters have rallied behind Joe in South Carolina and put him in office if they had seen his current campaign and that debate performance? Like most incumbents, the President didn’t have to go through an actual primary this time. Joe won, but he was also unchallenged, which is typical.
That's not an apt comparison.
Election choices depend on a complex combination of circumstances, factors, and qualifications. It's impossible to pull one out and analyze what would have happened had that one not been present without the whole experiment falling apart like a Jenga game.
Yes, it's possible that an 81-year-old candidate with no record as president might have been judged differently in 2020 than an 81-year-old candidate with a solid record is president.
But we are not assessing an 81-year-old candidate who has never held at the office. We are assessing Joe Biden who has a record that can't be separated from him.
Many people are critical of Joe Biden current ability to campaign for President.
Respectfully, I think it’s possible to be a great president for four years, but not a great candidate for another four. I don’t believe incumbency, no matter what the record, makes one entitled to another four years. So I was speaking of Joe’s second job, as a candidate.
I was just responding to the speculation about voters picking or not picking Joe in the 2020 primary.
This "white" person, assigned female at birth, supports Biden/Harris. To replace either one of them at this stage of the game would be subverting the will of the millions of ppl who voted for them. BTW, I have never been more upset with the mainstream media and members of the donor class during this election cycle. They are far from legal scholars, speak very stridently and keep ignoring the elephant in the room---#45's dangerous Project 2025.