The first post-Republican Convention episode of PBS’s journalistic political roundtable Washington Week with The Atlantic spent a long time emphasizing the travails of the Democrats over the mental state of President Joe Biden, with the party’s own convention looming and decisions to be made. But one panelist saw the bright side in the Democratic meltdown.
McKay Coppins, The Atlantic: This is, I think, a point of contrast though, that's worth making with the Republican Party, right? The way that the Democratic Party is operating right now, it is chaotic, and it makes a lot of people nervous. But it is also a sign of a vital, healthy political party, that there is still a willingness to kind of put pressure on what a lot of Democrats see as an increasingly kind of belligerent and detached from reality leader. The Republican Party has not had so much success in that, right? Donald Trump has, at various points, had the beginnings of a backlash and he's always managed to tamp it down. So, when I talk to Democrats, they will sometimes say, look, this might be ugly, but it is a sign of a functioning political party acting like a political party.
