"I’m going to tell it like it is. I hope you can take it like it is."
Malcolm X, 1964"Talk to meSo you can seeOh, what's going on (What's going on)What's going on (What's going on)"Marvin Gaye, 1971
Every era needs a voice-over narrator, explaining things.
President Biden is handicapped in this term of office because he is not the primary narrator of what is going on in America. Trump, amid all his manifest faults, is extraordinarily good at gabbing the spotlight. He is the narrator. There is no stopping that.
Biden is not an invisible president. He may be approximately typical among 20th century presidents in headline-grabbing and visibility. He is comparable to Gerald Ford and both Bush presidents, less dominating than Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Biden offered us a return to "normal" and an America that didn't have Trump high drama chaos every day. We were tired of Trump and Biden was a relief. But Trump reset the standard for hair-on-fire look-at-me drama for a president, and he did not fade away. This remains an era of political chaos. That isn't Biden's fault, but he gets the blame. He didn't become the new, calm narrator. Trump is still around.
Gallup published this graph of consumer confidence in the U.S.
The narrative told by Trump is that he inherited "carnage" -- his word -- but that in three months it became the greatest economy of all time. In fact, Trump inherited from eight years under Obama trends that were very favorable -- low inflation and unemployment dropping -- but Trump did what Trump does; he narrated and took credit. He sold it. Then, 2020 came and it became a disaster starting in mid-March. Trump hid from Covid and mishandled most of it -- except fast-tracking vaccines -- but the American memory of Trump's America stopped at the end of 2019. Trump sold a story that Covid wasn't his fault. It was China's. So the economy of 2020 didn't count, not against Trump anyway.
But then, in 2021 when Biden was president, the frustration with the economic recovery not yet back to pre-Covid levels, the school closures, the mask and vaccination mandates all counted against Biden, and Biden did not narrate it differently. Americans got tired of Covid protocols long before Covid stopped killing Americans. Some of the Covid-theater was foolish: masks in restaurants, except while eating; government offices closed while grocery stores were open. Trump and red state governors jumped on that and blamed Democrats. Blue state governors were still thinking "public health" not "public frustration" so Democrats were slow to narrate a story of meeting public expectations on health. The CDC became a villain, not a lifesaver.
Frustration with the state of the country carried over from Covid to the economy. We are in recovery, with low unemployment, with rising economic output, with improved wages for entry level jobs, with a high market, with high home prices swelling the wealth of middle income Americans. We are not hearing that effectively narrated. Trump has a louder narration -- like a boom box in a subway car. It is unpleasant but passengers cannot fail to hear it. He says the economy is terrible. He points to the problems.
I don't blame Biden. We knew going in that Biden could never present a strong narrative that would compete with Trump. No president in history was as high-drama as is Trump. The situation is not hopeless for Democrats. Democrats have a giant pool of frustrated narrators-in-waiting, people whose careers have been stalled as they wait for Biden and others to leave the scene. There is no pulpit like the "bully pulpit" of the presidency. But in chess, three rooks and three bishops are more powerful than one queen. The Democrat who will lead the party in 2028 is alive and well today. I hope a half dozen of them step up now and go on the road. They won't talk with a single voice, which is a problem, but there will be a body language message coming out of it. Voters can vote for Biden for now, knowing he is surrounded by people ready to step up and who are telling the Democrats' story of what is going on. We are muddling through. Things are OK. America is on the mend and it has a president and congress capable of leading.
Democrats are normal and Trump and the House GOP are crazy.
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9 comments:
Encouraging words, Peter. I truly hope those younger Democrats who are in the wings get their acts together, and start changing the narrative. This November will mark my 14th Presidential vote, and I would be devastated to see that Office go to the Orange Pretender.
We all know how malevolent Donald Trump is, but I would argue that his supporters are worse. Without them, he would just be one more greedy, self-absorbed sociopath. It’s their mindless fanaticism that enabled him to turn his adolescent fantasies of absolute power into a coup attempt and ongoing threat to our democratic institutions.
People defend them by pointing out that they have legitimate grievances. Well of course, we all do. But what kind of idiots turn for redress to a crime boss and notorious liar who tells them, “I alone can fix it.”
We’ve been warned it would be a mistake to ignore or disrespect Trump and his supporters. We certainly aren’t going to ignore them – they’ve made their contempt for the law and propensity for violence far too clear. For the same reasons, it’s impossible to respect them.
Peter, spot on!
You wrote: "Democrats have a giant pool of frustrated narrators-in-waiting, people whose careers have been stalled as they wait for Biden and others to leave the scene."
Are they going to wait 4 years until they start talking? Are they going to give the Presidency to Trump, despite all of his baggage?
President Biden simply cannot take the podium and speak coherently to guide the nation, whether reading a teleprompter or speaking off the cuff.
Just who is taking care of the day-to-day decisions that need to be coming from the Executive office? Who is guiding the various agencies who might have been talking to the President and his advisors in past administrations?
I listen to Hugh Hewitt each day, and he challenged his audience yesterday about the upcoming election. He asked for members of his audience to call in "if they were undecided or uncommitted" in the Presidential election. Hugh believes that everyone's made up their mind for the upcoming election, adding that a vote for Biden is a vote for Kamela Harris., and that the other side will vote reluctantly for Trump. He sites Harris's recent higher profile.
I believe is is hard for Democrats to admit that their only choice this November is Biden/Harris.
As for the Republicans, there are many who say they won't vote Trump, but that does not mean they would vote for Biden instead.
Me? I'm hoping something changes in the coming weeks and months as I don't want Biden or Trump. Will I settle for Trump? Ask me on election day; not now.
PS It would be nice to know who is actually running the country right now, because we all know that it is not Biden. And it is not Jill Biden, either.
M2, who is running the country? People who own the corporations and media, same as always in a capitlistic society, which republicans think is just fine.
As to who is running tje government that is President Joe Biden and his appointees. They are working to protect us. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
President Biden gets things done rather than yell and insult, like TFG does.
Also, keep in mind the stability of our government: the Biden administration has had very low turnover which is good for our country. TFG's administration had huge turnover, including by people who now recommend not putting him near the White House again.
The fact that anyone is undecided at this point.is catastrophic.
The choices are between a man who gets things done for Americans, or a person who has had multiple bankruptcies, faces multiple criminal trials, thinks Putin is a good leader and has soliticited Russia's help to achieve power, tried to over throw our system of government and has jeopardize our national security.
Literally anyone running the country other than Trump is the better alternative. A pack of Wrigley's Gum would do a better job. I'm not joking.
I sincerely hope you vote for Biden over Trump, cause while there's alot to not like about the guy, at least he isn't going to turn the country into a fascist hell-hole. Biden isn't a great choice, but he's a billion times better than Trump if you care even at all about maintaining our democracy.
“We knew going in that Biden could never present a strong narrative that would compete with Trump.”
That’s the very reason we voted for Biden. Their Easter messages show the difference between them as well as anything can: Biden wishes people well and Trump goes berserk. Republicans can’t get enough of that trash talk, but they can have it. God forbid Biden should even try to compete with the venom and lies Trump spews. Meanwhile yes, I am better off than I was four years ago.
Trump is the world’s worst salesman. No one w half a brain believes his shtick except his moronic trailer park base and even they are starting to become ambivalent. The media is the one that proliferates his nonsense but that doesn’t mean he’s an effective manipulator or that it works. Marco Rubio said w out daddy’s money Trump would be selling watches in New York. I’d call that generous, more like used cars or aluminum siding at best.
Biden is doing fine in tough times and what’s left of the middle class is seeing the results in their 401Ks so please don’t insult your own intelligence by claiming Trump is some undercover genius.
Ps. Hillary Clinton handed Trump the win by running the worst campaign in presidential history. Let’s not forget to thank her for the Trump aberration and the destruction of the GOP.
The upcoming election will likely be less about changing voters’ minds and more about rousing the faithful and getting them to the polls.
A lot can and will happen between now and November. No one is comfortable with the candidates we have. Let's hope that the voters aren't so frustrated that they stay home, and don't or won't vote.
It's not just the position at the top is being voted on. The more important outcome is how the Senate and the House will look after November.
The rest of the world will be watching, too.
The Republican National Committee is making belief in the ‘stolen election’ a litmus test for hiring and is planning to put an election denier in charge of an ‘election integrity unit,’ yet we still have people deluding themselves into imagining that being Republican is still a rational alternative. Very strange.
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