Many observers misunderstood the downfall of Joe Biden and his swift replacement by Vice President Kamala Harris. Seeing the switch made without voter participation they decried it as a coup. But that is a kind of category error that assumes an intact democratic process was subverted by outside forces. In reality, if Biden is still aware of anything, it is that the party-state system that just removed him from power is the same one that installed him in the first place.

Rather than a coup, Biden’s precipitous decline forced into public view a political maneuver that would ordinarily have been carried out behind closed doors. Nevertheless it was an orderly transfer of power with party bosses Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi firmly in control of the process. Try to imagine the GOP attempting a similar replacement of Donald Trump and see how quickly your mind fills with images of mass protests and open revolt by Trump supporters. Only the Democratic Party establishment could pull off such a move months before the election. How?

// Well, it's best understood as a "palace coup"