An Anxious Man’s Advice to Dems: Don’t Psych Yourself Out

Photo by Barbara Abate, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

I have suffered from generalized anxiety my entire life. It affects how I organize my day and how I write stories when I try to take in information and even when I try to brush my teeth. Whatever the situation, my brain will go to DEFCON 1 and say, “you see this event happening right in front of you? That event is going to end in catastrophe and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

I am very open with my diagnosis, as talking about it helps mitigate its effects. On top of that, if I can be honest about my anxiety, so can everyone else. Maybe then we can all eliminate the little anxiety gremlins in our stomachs preventing us from achieving our goals.

Why do I bring up my disorder? Well, it seems that the Democratic Party is having the same anxiety gremlins that I am having, only this anxiety is based on one person: President Joe Biden.

As a reporter, I have seen many people on social media, cable news, and even outside of the media sphere fret about Biden’s chances for re-election in 2024. The incumbent President will likely face former President Donald Trump again in a rematch of their 2020 race. While Biden beat Trump in 2020 by a four-point national vote margin, many people have expressed one way or another that Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign will end in some sort of disaster.

Indeed, Biden is far from as strong as he once was in 2020. His approval rating sits at a dismal 40 percent, one of the lowest in modern history; his appeal with black, Latino, and younger voters is weaker compared to 2020; his age is a topic he cannot seem to escape, and polls have him either tied or a point above or below with the former President.

These add up to pundits, voters, and even current and former big-name Democratic stars such as Jonothan Chait and James Carville calling on Biden not to run for a second term out of fear that he will lose to Donald Trump.

As someone who has mastered the art of catastrophizing, I understand the sentiment. The truth is, however, that if you truly think Biden will lose, your prophecy will be self-fulfilling.

As someone with anxiety, I have been in situations where I have become inert in my ability to achieve my goals out of fear of failure or loss. This is especially true when it comes to finding a significant other, finding the job of your dreams, and, most recently, trying to find the right weight you want to be at.

Anxiety can bring you into a “doom loop” where you get stuck in a cycle of nihilistic behavior out of fear that you will fail. Sure, you may fail, but how will you fail or succeed if you don’t try?

I understand winning the White House is much more important than my love life or career path, but Democrats are becoming so sick with worry that they will doom themselves if they don’t break this stupor.

When I became anxious, my father would tell me to do what all good reporters do when they are eager: look at the facts and use what you can work with to accomplish your goals.

This reporter can tell Democrats that these are the facts:

President Biden is likely to be your nominee.

Unless a Democrat with serious star power hops into the primary, Biden will be your nominee. Yes, he is flawed and probably was not your first pick in 2020, for that matter. That said, he does have decent political instincts, knows how to run a campaign nationally, and is still well-known to many of the Democratic base, unlike someone such as Gretchen Whitmer, who would start the clock back to zero and have to build up a profile in less than a year—something that is not easy to do.

There is a campaign — use it.

One of my favorite reporters right now is The Messenger’s Adrian Carrasquillo. Carrasquillo has done phenomenal reporting on the 2024 election, namely how Biden’s team is doing outreach to Black, Latino, and young voters. In all of his reporting, Carrasquillo lays out proof that Biden’s team understands the President knows he has work to do to regain these voters. By replacing Biden with a newcomer who would start from scratch, he would undo millions of dollars of advertising, campaign staffing, and upcoming organizing to win those voters he is hemorrhaging in polls. This brings me to my next point.

Biden’s age problem IS fixable.

A while back, I wrote an article for the Ordinary Times where I presented the results of a study I conducted, showing young voters in Massachusetts two videos of Biden. One video showed Biden at a typical White House event behind a podium; another showed him on stage at a Labor Day event in Pennsylvania. To my surprise, all the voters found the second video of Biden more engaging and told me their concerns about his age eased up a bit. By letting Biden go out on the campaign trail and hold television interviews, you can mitigate his perception of being too old. Biden has made more domestic stops in the past few days and has done two back-to-back interviews with John Harwood for ProPublica and 60 Minutes.

So, could Biden lose to Trump? Yes, he could, but the election is still far away. In reality, being in this “doom loop” will create negative feedback to voters both in your party and on the fence. Politics is very much a game of persuasion—something Democrats have been doing very well in their campaigns after the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe V. Wade.

To win, however, you need to realize that even though your candidate is unpopular, he is the one you have right now, and you cannot let your anxiety freeze you.

I’d rather not end this on the typical FDR quote about fear, so instead, I will leave you with a quote from Massachusetts Politician Tip O’Neill,

“Let us forget the frustrations of the past and think of our unfulfilled potential.”