President Joe Biden just rolled up his first primary state in the 2024 contest for the Democratic nomination.  The Florida Democratic Party announced on Friday that the only name that will appear on their party’s primary ballot on March 19th is “Everybody Loves Joe Biden.”  The pro-choice party is helpfully liberating Florida Democrats from the burden of democracy and put a lockdown on the competition.  Under Florida law, if a ballot is uncontested, as the party has decreed, it is not listed at all.

The Washington Post calls the move a “set back” for Biden’s rivals.  Long shot hopeful, Minnesota’s Representative Dean Phillips has stronger words, thundering, “Americans would expect the absence of democracy in Tehran, not Tallahassee. Our mission as Democrats is to defeat authoritarians, not become them.”  Phillips is threatening to sue his way into ballot contention.

Undoubtedly, party honchos fear the messy spectacle of a faction of party faithful dumping the uninspiring incumbent for the alternatives.  The South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board, which endorsed Biden in 2020 with a plea to “save our democracy,” calls the strong arm tactics “an insult to Democratic voters.”  The liberal paper encourages the Republican-controlled Florida legislature to override the decision when it meets January 9th, even if it serves GOP interests.  One Democratic Broward County commissioner laments, “I just don’t like to see us get into the business of cancelling elections.”