I read the editorial about Biden stepping down and thought it was interesting and thoughtful. However, I disagree. History has many parallels and 1968 comes to my mind. In ’68 there were many college protests about the Vietnam war: this year the college protests are about the Israel Hamas war. The protests in both cases were basically about the killing of innocent civilians, many being children. The peaceful, legal protesters were arrested in both cases. Then, as now, the news focused on the more dramatic and “newsworthy” aspects of the protest rather than on the mostly peaceful protest and the main message of wanting the governments responsible for the wars to stop killing innocents.

In ’68 there was pressure for LBJ to step down for the good of the country and be replaced with a candidate more likely to defeat the Republican Nixon. I don’t think I need to draw the parallel here. LBJ did step down, and there was an open Democratic convention in Chicago. This year’s Democratic convention is also in Chicago, another parallel on top of more parallels. Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy were strong, popular candidates at that time; Bobby Kennedy was murdered (a sad side note: there were so many assassinations of strong social movement leaders and politicians in the 1960s). The Chicago convention was a chaotic mess both inside the convention center and on the streets outside. Because of all the divisions in the Democratic party a strong popular person was not chosen, the person chosen to defeat Nixon was Hubert Humphery. Nixon beat Humphery by 301 to 191 electoral college votes. The popular vote was much closer, but as we all know, the popular vote does not count.

A new candidate will have little time to pull together a grass roots campaign, obtain the cash needed to run an effective nationwide campaign, develop a national staff, and develop a strategy to run an effective campaign. I fear a new candidate will end up being another parallel to 1968.

The media needs to stop focusing on how poorly the Biden campaign, and Biden himself, have been able to, “…parley his accomplishments into victories.” There is no doubt in my mind that his national campaign needs to change its approach from being too cerebral, trying to explain how things are better, and start using shorter message filled with emotions, as Biden did the day after the debate, “… I know right from wrong. I know how to get things done.” The Democrats need to use social media more and borrow from the Republican playbook of national campaigning, minus the outright lying. It is a vote between having a democracy or a dictator. 

We voters need to stop being pessimistic and saying Biden is going to lose the election. No one knows, and if we collectively keep repeating that mantra, it is more likely to happen, because that negative emotion is infectious. Positive emotion and confidence that Biden will win is also infectious. Again, no one knows, but I’d rather be on the positive side of uncertainty in this case since he is more than likely to be the candidate.

Peter Ryersbach

Starksboro