A majority of Americans disapprove of Trump. That may not be relevant.
You can't stop something with nothing.
Trump looks like the strong guy, and Biden the invisible bystander. That is what is relevant.
The political fight over replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg changes the focus for this campaign. It is still about COVID, jobs, health care, taxes, race, crime, and Trump's personality, but also one big new thing: the Supreme Court. That last point has one other consequence: it makes Biden
even less visible.
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| Gunsmoke. Showdown |
Biden says the right things on protests, on violence, on race. He comes across as a center-left moderate guy who wants everyone to get along and to bring the country together, in part by not being Trump because Trump pours gasoline of the fires of controversy. That is a good message, but it is lost in the hurricane of breaking news. Biden is saying that violence is wrong, period. Sensible, but not particularly memorable.
Meanwhile Trump is saying to cheering crowds, repeated in tweets, shared on Facebook, amplified on Fox and talk radio, that Biden loves violence, loves arson, supports killing police, that Biden will bring mobs of people to your home. He says that Biden will willfully and wantonly destroy your suburb, that Biden means the end of American civilization, that Biden wants revolution, that his supporters should be prosecuted for sedition because they will carry out armed conflict to implement totalitarian rule by socialists who will take away your home, your money, your guns, your religion, your children, your life. Watch out!!! Biden!!!
Who remembers what Biden said?
For voters who don’t follow politics closely—which is a lot of people, and likely the marginal swing voters who will decide whether to vote and for whom to vote—the image of Biden is a near cypher, made worse by his decision to campaign from his basement. (What terrible optics. It makes him look like a cowering shut-in. Crazy.) Biden won the primary quietly, by default. After all, the other rivals dropped out and it was a choice between Biden and Bernie Sanders, the guy with bold ideas that he couldn't sell even to Democrats.
Then, for Biden, especially in comparison with Trump, radio silence.
Of course, there is the consolation that Trump is saying such inflammatory things that he is hanging himself and Biden should stay out of the way. After all, Trump is praising a 17 year old who brings an AR15 to protests and shoots people, and telling people that "herd mentality" will cure the virus. Trump is the target of family members, journalists and former top officials sharing evidence that Trump is a selfish, corrupt, utterly incompetent president. Why get in the way of Trump's immolation?
One big reason, and that is the big, meta message that Trump is out there in the arena leading, while Biden is in Delaware, at home, in a basement, losing in a battle over the Supreme Court.
It creates an easy-to-understand choice between the Bold Leader vs Weak Wanna-be.
Republican voters have been taught to care about the courts. The average Democrat has other issues, e.g. health care, income inequality, racial justice. Democrats should care about the courts (and reproductive rights activists do) but the court issue is asymmetrical. Republicans care more than Democrats.
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| Biden, amid books, at home |
The marginal voters who will decide this election are in the states of Pennsylvania, Nevada, Florida, and Wisconsin. Those states poll nearly dead even. There are inattentive, undecided, indecisive people in those states. They are deciding: Who is the good guy in the drama? If so, can he win in the fights he will face?
So the quick and dirty image of the two characters emerge. Trump is a knave, sure, a con man and self-promoter, a dishonest salesman, maybe more naughty than actually evil, but he is out there, fighting the DC bureaucrats and the obstructionist Democrats. He isn't trustworthy, but he is present. Meanwhile, Biden is a cypher.
2 comments:
Peter, you said: "After all, the other rivals dropped out and it was a choice between Biden and Bernie Sanders, the guy with bold ideas that he couldn't sell even to Democrats." And then, just a few paragraphs later you say, "The average Democrat has other issues, e.g. health care, income inequality, racial justice." Gee...sounds like issues that Bernie had to hammer on for better than six years before the centrists would grant him a shrug of acknowledgment...and they still don't get it, dropping from their platform Medicare for All, subsidizing fossil fuels and, most recently, the decriminalization of marijuana (all to appease some mythic, "moderate," swing state voter). No, Bernie's ideas are wildly popular (as he correctly stated, progressives "have won the ideological battle"), just not with the DNC which is firmly in the grip of the donor class. Biden = Hillary redux?
Third time's the charm. AOC/Rashida Tliab 2024!!
BTW, I wish you'd stop repeating Trump's talking points; he gets enough repetition on PBS, CNN, MSNBC, etc. He doesn't always have to be the focus of attention...or have we crossed into the outer limits: "There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity..." (The Outer Limits television show broadcast in 1963...in the middle of Gunsmoke's 20 year run.)
Andy Seles
Andy, Bernie made his case for 40 years. He got 28% of the vote in NH. He had more money than anyone else. If his policies were wildly popular he would have won wildly. Quir acting like a victim of anything except your inability to persuade others. If Bernie--and you--were selling what people wanted, they would "buy" it with your votes.
Bernie doesn't hate democracy. Why do so many college town privileged socialists hate it? Is it because they are unhappy that the customer isn't buying what they are selling.
Run for something. Win a majority somewhere. Make your case. Don't tear down people on the left who actually get votes. You are doing Trump's work. If you want Trump to win, I get it. The best thing for progressives is to hope Biden loses, then blame it on Democrats for being so stupid as to not like Bernie. Here's a better idea: persuade people to vote for your candidates and policies.
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