Enough. Get the emperor out now.

Or go down in history as the real villains of the piece

I have vivid memories of being lectured in 2016 about how it was my moral and patriotic obligation to vote for Hillary Clinton. As the severity of the Trump threat had yet to make itself fully apparent, the argument in those days differed from the argument to vote for Biden today. In Hillary’s case, I was apparently required to vote for her because she had wanted to be president since she was a fetus and we both have vaginas. These seemed insufficient imperatives, but what did I know.

Fast forward to today. Those of us who care about the future of the American democracy are being ordered by Biden, his family, and the Pretorian Guard of aides that surrounds him to vote for him despite his obvious and rapidly worsening incapacity, which will threaten not only our democracy but the stability (such as it is) of the rest of the world in the highly unlikely event that he gets reelected. In Biden’s case, the argument we’re supposed to swallow is that he really really wants to be president again and when he gets knocked down, he gets back up.

That this argument casts the stick-with-Biden Democrats as every bit as much of a craven, anti-democratic personality cult as the most avid Trump worshippers does not seem to have occurred to them, or maybe they just don’t care. Priority One is to drag Joe’s sadly diminished and ever-worsening self over the finish line because he really really wants it, and if he goes down on the wrong side of a historic landslide that results in a Trump presidency, well, at least he tried, and that’s what really matters.

I am sick of this shit.

Now, Joe Biden has done some good things. My biases being what they are, I would class his support for Israel over the past nine horrific months, particularly during the Iranian attack on us, very high on that list. (His wavering throughout the war, however, as well as his insufficient response to antisemitic incitement by Democratic members of Congress as well as antisemitic intimidation and violence on college campuses and American streets — the product, no doubt, of his desire to lock in the Arab vote, especially in Michigan — is disheartening to say the least.) Domestically, unemployment has stayed low and the economy has created a record number of jobs, though most Americans feel a serious pinch from the inflation Biden keeps insisting isn’t really that bad. He’s done good things on the infrastructure front. Violent crime is down.

But at his best, Joe Biden was never George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. All the windy encomiums Democrats are now filling the airwaves with are sounding a little silly. Let’s remember who he is. When Biden was VP, he was held in undisguised contempt by his boss, Barack Obama, who could hardly stand to listen to him. So unimpressed was Obama by his own VP that he supported Hillary, not Joe, for the Democratic nomination in 2016. And he is not a model citizen, let alone the paragon of American virtue he’s now being described as by his defenders. Remember the Joe Biden who plagiarized Neil Kinnock in 1988, spectacularly crashing out of the presidential race? Remember the Joe Biden who for decades creeped out women of all ages by rubbing up against them, stroking them, smelling their hair, and other wildly inappropriate behaviors? I certainly do, no matter how many times panicky Democrats try to convince me that he’s morphed into some kind of miraculous combination of Albert Schweitzer and Marcus Aurelius.

Who cares, you say? The other guy is worse? Yes, right, fine. Forget about the reality of the Joe Biden of old. The Joe Biden of today is a husk of his former self, completely shorn of whatever virtues he was able to claim when he was a functioning politician. He is unfit to be an assistant manager at Jamba Juice, let alone “run the world,” as he so modestly described his job while testily denying the obvious to George Stephanopoulos. He’s so bad-tempered that his staff is afraid of him. He is wont to fly into rages - even more so now that he is in age-related decline. He can only be relied upon to think and speak like a fully functional person between the hours of about 11 am and 8 pm max. I’m no expert, but I’d take that last one alone to be disqualifying for a presidential candidate. But not to worry! The phalanx of aides is on top of it. They’re always nearby, and they hustle him off to bed when he starts babbling incoherently or wanders off into a hedge.

How is it that Biden’s inner circle is so intimidating that they are being allowed to stop the Democrats from taking the step recommended by Rep. Jim Clyburn and seconded by Ezra Klein, that of conducting a “mini-primary” to find the best possible replacement, which seems to make such good sense? Is the party really going to allow itself to be clubbed into submission by a bunch of unelected handlers and family members? Doesn’t anyone care that allowing this farce to go on out of blind fealty to a vain, disintegrating leader makes the Democrats look as undemocratic as their opponent? Are they really unable to envision the way a new slate of viable candidates would energize and mobilize the Democratic base?

Time is running short. The stakes are high. For the love of God - love him or hate him, this man is simply no longer equipped to safeguard American interests across the table from Putin, Xi, or Khamenei. I agree with the Democrats who are saying the American democracy is at stake in this election. It’s their responsibility to get a candidate on the ballot who has what it takes to save it.

If they don’t, we will remember.