Politics

/

ArcaMax

Leonard Greene: Trump's win means it's time for Democrats to start looking ahead

Leonard Greene, New York Daily News on

Published in Op Eds

They still don’t get it.

While President-elect Donald Trump is working overtime assembling his White House Cabinet, Democrats in some circles are still concocting ways to elevate Kamala Harris.

They need to follow the advice of ice queen Elsa from the movie “Frozen.”

Let it go.

One nutty idea has President Joe Biden resigning from office and allowing Harris to take over and become the 47th president before Trump steps up in January and lays claim to the number.

“He could resign the presidency in the next 30 days, make Kamala Harris the president of the United States,” Jamal Simmons, Harris’ former communications director, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

If the goal is to disrupt some of Trump’s merchandising, it’s a great idea.

All the red MAGA hats and t-shirts that say “47” would have to be changed to “48.”

But if the goal is to move the needle forward for a party that lost the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, it has that closing-the-barn-door-after-the-horses-get-out feel to it.

The time for Biden to have resigned was over the summer, when the momentum of history and incumbency could have done Harris some good.

All it would be now is a quirky consolation prize, which is the last thing America and Black women need.

Nearly as short-sighted is a long-shot plan to put Harris on the U.S. Supreme Court before Biden’s term expires.

The problem with this plan is that there is no vacancy.

To create one, proponents suggest convincing Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 70, to step down because she has some health problems.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, died in the final months of Trump’s presidency, allowing him to nominate Amy Coney Barrett and moving the Supreme Court to a 6-3 conservative majority that in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion ruling.

In just four years, Trump was able to put three justices on the court.

Biden has nominated only one person to the court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the nation’s female first Black Supreme Court justice.

 

Sotomayor, the senior member of the court’s liberal minority, has given no indication that she would go along with the plan, one that would do nothing to change the court’s balance of power.

Biden, who showed his own reluctance to step aside, doesn’t appear likely to ask Sotomayor to give up her lifetime appointment.

“When it comes to those types of decisions, those are personal decisions, regardless of if it’s Justice Sotomayor or any other justice on the bench,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in March, when the idea of targeting Sotomayor’s seat was first floated.

This is backwards thinking.

If the Democrats, Biden included, were so determined to keep Trump from having another opportunity to put someone on the court, they should have come up with a better strategy — and message — to keep him out of the White House again.

But the damage has been done, and no amount of resignation roulette is going to fix it.

These aren’t real ideas. They’re internet memes. They’re intricate plots for streaming political dramas on Hulu or Netflix. They are page-turning fiction novels.

They’re candy.

Meanwhile, Trump is appointing his cabinet. Next on his list of nominees is the My Pillow guy.

What the Democrats have needed to do, from the moment the electoral votes were counted, was start looking and planning ahead.

No more wound licking. No more finger pointing.

No more kooky ideas.

Kamala Harris fought a great fight. But she lost. It’s over.

It’s time to let it go.

___


©2024 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

 

Related Channels

ACLU

ACLU

By The ACLU
Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman

By Amy Goodman
Armstrong Williams

Armstrong Williams

By Armstrong Williams
Austin Bay

Austin Bay

By Austin Bay
Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro

By Ben Shapiro
Betsy McCaughey

Betsy McCaughey

By Betsy McCaughey
Bill Press

Bill Press

By Bill Press
Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

By Bonnie Jean Feldkamp
Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas

By Cal Thomas
Christine Flowers

Christine Flowers

By Christine Flowers
Clarence Page

Clarence Page

By Clarence Page
Danny Tyree

Danny Tyree

By Danny Tyree
David Harsanyi

David Harsanyi

By David Harsanyi
Debra Saunders

Debra Saunders

By Debra Saunders
Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager

By Dennis Prager
Dick Polman

Dick Polman

By Dick Polman
Erick Erickson

Erick Erickson

By Erick Erickson
Froma Harrop

Froma Harrop

By Froma Harrop
Jacob Sullum

Jacob Sullum

By Jacob Sullum
Jamie Stiehm

Jamie Stiehm

By Jamie Stiehm
Jeff Robbins

Jeff Robbins

By Jeff Robbins
Jessica Johnson

Jessica Johnson

By Jessica Johnson
Jim Hightower

Jim Hightower

By Jim Hightower
Joe Conason

Joe Conason

By Joe Conason
Joe Guzzardi

Joe Guzzardi

By Joe Guzzardi
John Micek

John Micek

By John Micek
John Stossel

John Stossel

By John Stossel
Josh Hammer

Josh Hammer

By Josh Hammer
Judge Andrew Napolitano

Judge Andrew Napolitano

By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano
Laura Hollis

Laura Hollis

By Laura Hollis
Marc Munroe Dion

Marc Munroe Dion

By Marc Munroe Dion
Michael Barone

Michael Barone

By Michael Barone
Michael Reagan

Michael Reagan

By Michael Reagan
Mona Charen

Mona Charen

By Mona Charen
Oliver North and David L. Goetsch

Oliver North and David L. Goetsch

By Oliver North and David L. Goetsch
R. Emmett Tyrrell

R. Emmett Tyrrell

By R. Emmett Tyrrell
Rachel Marsden

Rachel Marsden

By Rachel Marsden
Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry

By Rich Lowry
Robert B. Reich

Robert B. Reich

By Robert B. Reich
Ruben Navarrett Jr

Ruben Navarrett Jr

By Ruben Navarrett Jr.
Ruth Marcus

Ruth Marcus

By Ruth Marcus
S.E. Cupp

S.E. Cupp

By S.E. Cupp
Salena Zito

Salena Zito

By Salena Zito
Star Parker

Star Parker

By Star Parker
Stephen Moore

Stephen Moore

By Stephen Moore
Susan Estrich

Susan Estrich

By Susan Estrich
Ted Rall

Ted Rall

By Ted Rall
Terence P. Jeffrey

Terence P. Jeffrey

By Terence P. Jeffrey
Tim Graham

Tim Graham

By Tim Graham
Tom Purcell

Tom Purcell

By Tom Purcell
Veronique de Rugy

Veronique de Rugy

By Veronique de Rugy
Victor Joecks

Victor Joecks

By Victor Joecks
Wayne Allyn Root

Wayne Allyn Root

By Wayne Allyn Root

Comics

Dave Whamond Jack Ohman David Horsey Gary McCoy Al Goodwyn Bob Gorrell