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*Gasp*
That is the sound I remember most from the night of the presidential debate.
I was in a room filled with mostly Democratic voters at BusBoys & Poets, a well-known restaurant and progressive hub in the heart of Washington D.C., where I was preparing to give my post-debate analysis.
Going into the evening, I admittedly had had relatively low expectations; we have all seen former President Trump and President Biden on a debate stage before, and it was not pretty. I was under no illusion that this bout would be any better.
Even though my expectations were low, the performance by both men failed to clear the lowest bar. Former President Trump lied repeatedly and oftentimes refused to answer direct questions. But it was President Biden's performance that sent the Democratic Party into chaos, from think pieces written by the President's allies calling on him to exit the race to donors going on TV to defend his candidacy.
But as a progressive, my primary response has been a single question: Should this be a fight progressives take on?
Over the past four years, even before he was the Democratic nominee, I have been critical of Joe Biden and his policies. During his presidency, I have not shied away from publicly calling him and his administration out. I do not believe his policies go far enough to address the material needs of the American people, which among other things, makes him a liability electorally.
All of which is to say, it would be easy for someone like me to call on this President to drop out of this race.
But when trying to determine whether it is the job of progressives to fight for a different nominee after last week's debate performance, we need to answer three other questions: How did we get here in the first place, what are the alternatives, and does the establishment want to listen to us?
Let's start with how we got here. In the 2020 primary, former HUD Secretary Julián Castro famously pointed out Biden's memory issues on stage, a comment that left Castro off the list of speakers at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Establishment Democrats then decided to coalesce around Biden as Senator Bernie Sanders gained momentum.
Fast forward four years and the DNC made sure that there would be no Democratic primary, that consulting firms that work for anyone running against a historically unpopular president would be blacklisted and prevented from working with other Democratic candidates, that there would not be primary debates, and even in some cases like Florida, that only President Biden's name would appear on the Democratic primary ballot.
Still, despite the enormous pressure to stand down, some candidates stepped up to primary this president. Congressman Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson ran against Biden, and even Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran as a Democrat, until it became clear the primary process was simply for show, leading him to run as an Independent.
Meanwhile, any of us advocating for debates were met with the criticism that we were somehow "helping Trump."
In the days since the debate debacle, there has been speculation on who could possibly take over at the top of the ticket. The names that have been floated are wide ranging, but the ones that consistently come up are Vice President Kamala Harris, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Maryland Governor Wes Moore. All have shut down speculation.
But the only truly viable option to take over for president Biden is the Vice President. She has name recognition, has been on the ballot nationally, and is in the line of succession. It would not make sense for the Democratic Party to skip over the first Black woman to serve as vice president. Doing so would spell disaster amongst the Democratic coalition.
But even if we progressives were to pick a candidate to push over Biden, It's clear that the Democratic Party in its current configuration of power does not care to hear progressives out. Just look at what happened two days before the presidential debate, when Democratic insiders were celebrating as New York Representative Jamaal Bowman lost his primary to a Republican-lite candidate, George Latimer, who benefitted from upwards of $14 million from AIPAC and other outside spending.
If progressives were to push to oust a historically unpopular candidate, we would not be listened to—though you'd better believe we'll be blamed when their hand-picked replacement loses (we always are).
So, where does that leave progressives?
Simple: This is someone else's problem. Pushing for Biden to be replaced is not our fight. The Democratic establishment has made clear that progressive voices are not listened to, which means the predicament establishment Democrats find themselves in is of their doing and is theirs to fix.
Our fight is to make sure that those who put us in this position, who nominated a historically unpopular president whom 72 percent of voters do not believe has the mental or cognitive health to serve as president, are held accountable.
It is on progressives within the Democratic Party to take power away from those who say that Medicare for All and tuition-free college are impractical—then believed it was practical to nominate a candidate who most Americans believe is unfit to serve, as a potential second President Trump term looms.
It is not on progressives to fight for a different candidate; it is on us to fight for a party that centers the people over the donor class.
The Honorable Nina Turner is a former Ohio State Senator. In 2016 and 2020, she served as a national surrogate and national co-chair for Senator Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns. Currently, she is a Senior Fellow at The Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at the New School. She is a contributor to the highly anticipated anthology, Wake Up: Black Women and the Future of Democracy due for release in 2024.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
