Showdown on populism and resentment

The people versus the elites

Biden is toast.

Trump, last night in Orlando, to crowd:

     "The unholy alliance of lobbyists and donors and special interests. . . . They tried to take away your voice, your destiny, but we won’t let them do it. We’re draining the swamp, and that’s why the swamp is fitting back so viciously and so violently.

Biden, last night in New York City, at high donor fundraiser: 

    "Rich people are just as patriotic as poor people. We can disagree in the margins but . . . nobody has to be punished. No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change. . . . You aren't the 'other'. I need you very much.”

Big Mistake for Biden. Big Opportunity for Warren.

Donald Trump understands right wing populism:

It is the people versus the elites. The rich and powerful don't just exploit you; they sneer at you. They meet in secret to arrange to take advantage of you. Dangerous outsiders want to sneak in and undermine your way of life. Your values and your family are under attack, but I will protect you because I am strong and I am on your side.

Trump has the opponent he wants. The populist versus the buddy of the elites.

Democrats will jump on Biden's talk last night. Biden's position is solidified as the status quo candidate, the one comfortable with credit card companies, the one clueless about women, the one tight with bankers and drug companies and special interest elites. 

Biden is stuck by his long record. Worse, he is stuck in a mindset that misunderstands the moment. Americans want a quieter, more polite version of politics than we get in this Era of Trump, but Americans--both left and right--understand that trickle down has not worked well and that privileged elites have too much of the economic and cultural power. The system is rigged.

Trump gets that. Biden does not.

Biden is sleepy, after all. He seems asleep to what has happened in America and the opportunity--and obligation--it presents a Democrat.

It is revealed numerically in question 24 in a poll by Fox News. Yes, Fox.

Question: Do Trump's economic policies benefit everyone, or just certain people, and if just certain people, are they people like you or people richer than you?

Answer: Overwhelmingly, people with more money.

Two thirds of Trump voters said his policies helped everyone equally, but only 2% thought they trickled down. More important for the Democratic primary is the answer by people who had voted for Hillary Clinton: Only 6% thought everyone was helped and 79% thought the policies primarily benefited the wealthy.

Available at the Fox News website.

Some things can be brushed off. Not this one.

Sanders and Warren cannot let this go by, and will not. This is the equivalent of the 47% comment by Romney or the "deplorable" one by Clinton. It is the one thing the public fully believes when uttered by a candidate--the unguarded revelation of their actual motive and beliefs. It is the window into their real character, the Freudian slip. Biden is not a reformer, after all. He is in cahoots with the elites.

Is that a fair characterization? It is fair enough to argue, and there is legislative and video evidence for it, and now this. Democrats who care primarily about electability will now add this to their calculation. Trump will make hay with this.

This is the beginning of the end for Biden.