Democrats call Trump a knave. He is evil and dangerous.
Republicans call Biden a fool. He is a senile bumbler.
Each Party realizes it has a flawed hero.
I was reminded of the three-part typology for branding one's opponent and oneself by yesterday's headline and lead story in the MAGA-friendly media company Newsmax. Trump said we are led by fools.
Trump isn't going away. Democrats cannot brand him as a has-been or loser. They are branding him as a knave. The January 6 hearings describe his effort to overturn the election and remain in power using legal fictions and violence. Other than his Supreme Court picks, Democrats are now saying very little about his policies. They point to his character. Yes, he was wrong, but mostly he was bad.
The typologies simplify and clarify. Republican branding of Biden had formerly been that he was both senile and evil--Stalin-like. He was a socialist or communist, a tyrant who wants to take away your guns and murder babies. That talk is still out there, but the Afghanistan exit, inflation, gas prices, and the Russian invasion have refocused GOP branding Biden as dangerous for his incompetence. A helpless old fool is different from--nearly opposite of--a scary tyrant.
Democrats are refocusing, too. The Mueller Report noted that the Trump campaign of 2016 welcomed illegal collusion with Russia but there was little of it because his campaign was too disorganized to carry it out. The January 6 committee is making the case that Trump was the mastermind quarterbacking the insurrection, laying the groundwork of election doubt long before the election. They show him working tirelessly up to the end, courting legislators, election officials, and people in the federal departments. The story now alerts voters to Trump's efforts to get people into place in election roles in battleground states and to get loyalists into offices. Democrats warn that Trump won't make the mistake of hiring a Jeff Sessions or Bill Barr again.
Trump is not hiding his intent. Trump is embracing his knave brand. He is recruiting his team and replacing RINOs. Trump justifies this by saying the whole system is rigged, that the media lies, that everyone cheats, that knavery is the way of the world both at home and worldwide. He will be better and more vicious at knavery than our enemies.
MAGA Republicans have their hero in Trump. Trump's moral flaws are irrelevant--and maybe positive in this corrupt, dangerous world. More idealistic Republicans are uncomfortable with this worldview, which is why there is space for a DeSantis who projects Trump's willingness to fight hard and dirty in the culture wars, but presumably has boundaries. He is Trump-lite. Liz Cheney is a clean-hands hero, but not to most Republicans. They think she misunderstands the world. So does Pence. The two of them think rules matter. Trump sold the idea that the world is a ruleless street-fight.
Democrats don't have their hero yet. Biden did his job and he defeated Trump. That makes him hero-enough for the past. The post Biden era is already beginning. You don't hear Democrats claiming Biden is at the top of his game. Republican criticism of Biden smooths the way to the Democratic future. Democrats are looking for their hero.
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5 comments:
Democrats don't need a "hero", nor does America.
What it needs is to unify around a leader who will represent all the coalitions that make up the party. We don't have another Joe Biden to provide a safe alternative to Republican regression.
There is only one person positioned to lead and she will need the support of every Democrat to succeed. This is not a time for personal ambitions to cloud the fundamental threat facing the Republic and certainly not a time for moderate magical thinking. We've lost the Supreme Court, and Russia and China are seeking to undermine Western democracies.
I hope this is understood by all Democrats, and thoughtful Independents.
Sometimes I marvel how even generally well-informed or educated Democrats appear to have shockingly short institutional memories. More precisely, their memories are practical and transactional.
1/6-related support for Liz Cheney is all well and good, for instance. Yet fulsome, ab initio praise for the loyal daughter of the Butcher of Baghdad, the (before Trump) personification of GOP evil?
Democrats see Republicans through the wrong end of the telescope. De Santis, "Trump lite"? The Yale then Harvard Law grad, family man and Bronze Star recipient is ALSO a political street fighter.
Democrats are refocusing....not just their Trump fixation. Biden may be (read: is) senile and incompetent, but he's also a tawdry, dishonest money-grubber. After the midterms, Dems get religion there.
Apparently the public doesn't understand the role of the Congress or the President or the Court. Without enough Representatives and Senators to enact the laws and legislation desired by the public majority there is nothing the President can do. Nancy Pelosi is an effective Speaker of the House passing Democratic legislation. At present Chuck Schumer as Senate Majority Leader has been less effective in passing popular legislation. The Republicans have effectively blocked that process. President Biden has no legislation to sign into law.
Democratic focus on the White House and not a 50 State strategy has left Biden with little support for popular legislation that fails to reach his desk. Of course he appears toothless and senile as the Congress has stolen his teeth and strength and funds.
2016 gave us a choice between a politician most people didn’t like and the pussy-grabbing chief blowhard of the birther movement. 2020 wasn’t much better, with the aged, white, male blowhard facing off against an aged, white, male statesman. Fortunately, the statesman won, but voters don’t feel they did. Maybe there’s something wrong with our nominating system.
I don’t usually agree with Mike, but he’s right this time. Something is very wrong with our nominating process.
The reforms of the 1970s replaced selection of nominees by the party leadership (caricatured as “smoke-filled rooms”) with primaries. This was supposed to empower “the people,“ but instead it empowered only the people who would turn out to vote in a primary. Those people turned out to be the most extreme party activists, and this is a large part of how we got to our current polarized politics; the extremes have taken over the parties and no one is representing the center.
Some political genius (i.e. not me) needs to come up with a way to put into place a better nominating process.
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