Trump is the anger candidate. The one who insults and mocks. He takes up that space.
It constrains what Democrats--especially Biden--can do.
Presidential politics show an oscillation back and forth, correcting and reversing the previous administration. The most obvious is Republican to Democrat, each getting about eight years before that party wears out its welcome.
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| Click: 5 minutes Anger translator |
But there are other scales for political oscillation. Democrats JFK and LBJ became defined by activism in civil rights. The public tacked back to Nixon with his Southern Strategy. Nixon was defined by corruption, which led to pious Carter.
Obama was the cool and confident Democratic alternative to the 2008 economic chaos under the GOP watch.
Barrack Obama became defined by the Affordable Care Act, but also by his manner. Obama was noteworthy for his mild tone. It came across as thoughtful and respectful to Democrats. To people inclined to dislike him--Republicans--it became defined as feckless, weak, irresolute.
It was so powerful an image that Obama joked that he needed an "anger translator", someone to say what Obama was saying, only shouting in anger. "I'm a mellow sort of guy," Obama said. It was funny. It revealed a truth.
America had an anger deficit. Trump filled it.
Trump is scorched earth. In the campaign and as president he sneers at Democrats, at Mexicans, at immigrants. He calls a black Congresswoman "Low IQ."
He makes people pay for disagreement. He blasts former cabinet members as "dumb as a rock." He calls people who cross him failures, losers. Right now, he is blasting and insulting former close advisor John Bolton. Read the tweets.
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| Trump tweets on Bolton today |
"No matter how many witnesses you give the Democrats, no matter how much information is given, like the quickly produced Transcripts, it will NEVER be enough for them. They will always scream UNFAIR. The Impeachment Hoax is just another political CON JOB!"
Republicans understand the consequences of displeasing Trump.
What does this mean for Democrats?
Trump owns the space for anger and insults. Any Democrat who attempted to treat Trump in kind would look like a weak me-too. We saw Marco Rubio try it. It flopped. Trump calls Michael Bloomberg "Little Mike," Biden "Sleepy Joe," Buttigieg "Alfred E. Newman" and each are responding the right way, swatting it away, but not responding in kind.
This causes a problem for Joe Biden, as regards Hunter Biden. He looks like he is hiding, which makes him look embarrassed and guilty. One way out of the political bleed for Joe Biden would be for Joe to try the anger route. Perhaps:
"Trump, you miserable hypocrite.
You point to Hunter getting a job sitting on a board while your daughter Ivanka is getting multimillion trademark protection from China, what a sweetheart deal, while you are supposedly negotiating with them. Trademark protection for sunglasses, wedding dresses, brokerage firms, child care centers, multi billion dollar industries. And get this, she gets trademark protection for charities. Her brothers and you steal from your own charity money raised for veterans, get caught red handed using it for your campaign, and the state of New York has to discipline you and three of your children for misbehavior, makes you shut down your sham charity, makes them take mandatory training to teach them it's wrong to steal from charities--really!--and makes you pay back the money they stole. Shameful.
And you lecture me about Hunter?
Meanwhile, Don Junior and Eric are supposedly independent and running your DC hotel, that was specifically not to be leased to you, but is, and they have foreign delegations making a big show of putting $2,000 a night into their pockets, and yours, night after night. For a room for one night! Ka-ching.
And you put your son son in law in charge of Middle East affiairs--what are his qualifications?--and meanwhile he is desperate to salvage a gigantic failed real estate investment--get this, at 666 Fifth Avenue--and the sovereign fund of Qatar steps in to bail it out paying a price no one else in the world would pay. Bails him out. Really, really convenient, the family sure has to be grateful for that, and meanwhile he's trying to represent American interest there. Yeah, right.
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| Click: How the Trump children profit |
My son Hunter did nothing wrong on that board, but you say it looks bad.
What your children are doing looks bad and is bad. I have nothing to be ashamed of. You do."
It might work, but I wouldn't go that way if I were Biden. It isn't Biden's brand. Biden is the affable one, selling the end of hostility, not a continuation of it. I think, in the long run, it would look desperate and weak, coming from Joe Biden. Still, Democrats are desperate for a fighter and would like seeing someone saying it. It might get him through the Iowa and New Hampshire votes.
Better if someone else does it. It needs to be said, it can be said, and Democrats would love whoever says it. George Conway, perhaps, the Trump critic and husband of Kelly Anne Conway. A former Justice Department lawyer, perhaps; Sally Yates, the fired Acting Attorney General comes to mind.
Kamala Harris could do it.
Kamala Harris could do it.
If Kamala Harris does it her campaign might rise from the dead. Democrats would love her for it. If Biden survives because of it she would sure be a plausible VP. Or it might make her president right away.
Democrats need a warrior.
4 comments:
What works for Trump works because it's real (authentic in current parlance).
Your suggestions are for playacting.
"Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it"
While such a battle would be entertaining, I fear the VP would lose.
I don't think it's something a surrogate can take on.
The problem, as you have often observed, is that Trump is not expected to be virtuous, while VP Biden presents himself as the embodiment of virtue. As it stands Hunter casts a shadow on that, and I don't think he can be made to be a sympathetic actor in this drama.
The central question is "How, when, and why did Hunter Biden end up on the board of a foreign company?" Answering this question requires a detailed chronology of his actions and motives and may well be unflattering to all involved. Unfortunately, it's a valid question for a presidential candidate, and, equally unfortunate, no matter how it's answered it will not be put to rest.
There is no noble explanation unless Hunter is an undercover CIA agent and all that money he was paid is now in the Treasury.
Hunter Biden made a big error in judgement in getting on that board in Ukaine, and Joe Biden might pay for it. But when I would point out that this is Biden's only surviving son, it seemed to add to the sympathy for Biden.
Trump, meanwhile, has a whole litter of vile little brats engaged in nefarious activities and promoted to positions of unearned status. I hope that someone in a good position to advertise it gets to work on this fact soon. I agree that Kamala Harris would be good to point this out, if the issue arises in the senate hearings. I was sad to see her drop out.
Harris at this point is running for Veep, but I’m not sure she makes that much sense—for Biden anyway. Not that they could not bridge their early debate rancor. It’s just that her California is not in play, and Biden does much better with African-Americans already than she does. Maybe Bernie could better employ her services, or Warren, albeit for different reasons. Castro looms large as a Veep option if he can put Texas into play.
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