JEFF COHEN, jeff@rootsaction.org, @Roots_Action
Cohen is co-founder of RootsAction.org, which has been sponsoring the “Step Aside Joe” campaign. He is a retired journalism professor at Ithaca College and founder of the media watch group FAIR. Cohen was a Bernie Sanders delegate to the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
The group states: “We’re glad to see that Joe Biden has finally ended his presidential run. When we launched our ‘Step Aside Joe’ campaign 20 months ago, we’d hoped he would withdraw early enough for there to be an open primary process like in 2020, allowing the Democratic Party to consolidate behind a candidate strong enough to repel Donald Trump’s neofascism. While time is now short, we still hope that the Democrats will find a candidate who will animate the same kind of multigenerational, multiracial coalition of working people and grassroots activists that defeated Trump in 2020.”
Cohen supports an open selection process. Regarding Vice President Harris, Cohen notes parallels with 1968. “If she’s the nominee, will she separate herself from Biden on Gaza? If she can’t, I feel it’s a long shot that she can win, because it will keep many young activists, racial justice organizers, Arab and Muslim activists on the sidelines. (TV news just announced that she’ll be with Biden when he meets Bibi this week.)
“We’ve been here once before in history. I was 16 when LBJ shocked the political world and announced he wasn’t running again. It was over Vietnam. Vice President Humphrey couldn’t separate himself from LBJ on the war — until it was too late and he’d lost credibility.”