"We can't forget what happened in Charlottesville. We have to remember who we are. This is America."
Joe Biden, campaign announcement video, today.
Joe Biden began his campaign with a video that looked back at Charlottesville, Trump, and white identity politics. Trump was on the wrong side, Biden said, the side of hate.
Biden takes the other side. America is an idea, an idea of equal opportunity, equal rights, and equal justice.
 Click: 3 1/2 minutes |
The video includes scenes of New York harbor, the Statue of Liberty, the landing at Normandy, and Martin Luther King. Old stuff. Sentimental stuff.
There was mostly the look and sound of Joe Biden himself, looking serious, quoting Jefferson, voicing American ideals in the high language of political speech. He was presidential in the old style.
Dignified.
Dignified.
"It's time for respected leadership on the world stage—and dignified leadership at home," reads caption for his video.
Joe Biden is leading with identity.
Biden enters the Democratic primary with what is presumed to be the multiple handicaps of being an old white man, the triple whammy of the being the wrong person at the wrong time.
Only a quarter of the Democratic electorate are white men. Sixty percent of Democratic voters are women, forty percent of Democrats are black, Latino, or Asian. Source: Gallup
Social media chatter among activists on the left contain moans over all the media hype and attention paid to new entrants that include Beto, Bernie, Buttigieg, Swalwell, Moulton, Inslee, Delaney, Ryan, and now Biden. White guys.
White men had their turn. White men have their party: Republican.
The word "intersectionality" is batted around within leftish social media. The idea is that there are multiple layers of prejudice, and it is understood best by someone who experiences its economic and social consequences personally. Theoretically, Stacy Abrams or Kamala Harris should represent the party.
So Biden is trying to define identity as an idea, not a demographic. Biden says he represents the American idea and Trump represents its contradiction. Biden versus Trump: American versus Nazi-apologist.
Biden's primary election positioning is to run a general election frame. It isn't Biden vs Harris or Booker or Castro or Buttigieg or others who represent the multiple intersections of oppression. If Biden focuses on Trump, then Biden vs. Trump is the frame, so Democrats who trash Biden as too old or moderate or white or un-woke empower Trump. Is that really what Democrats want? Of course not.
There are problems with this for Biden. By facing the identity issue head on he assures that identity is a relevant issue.
Trump and his campaign calculate that every minute that Democrats talk about identity means they dig themselves deeper into a political hole. This is still a white majority country. White voters hear candidates on the left talk about intersectionality, of black reparations, of Title IX, of ballots in multiple languages, of respect for Muslims, of bathrooms for transgenders, of welcoming new immigrants. Identity-consciousness has backlash, and a majority of whites tell pollsters they feel dissed and taken advantage of, that the country is changing too fast, that they are being displaced. Trump appeals to that feeling.
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| From Biden video. |
Trump likes that frame: white against non-white.
Biden can say it is American vs. Nazi, but white voters see whiteness associated with Nazi and many consider it an unfair smear, another example of being dissed, being associated with Nazis. Whites are white, but that doesn't make them Nazis, but here Biden is, making the association. They don't want to have to feel ashamed of the way they were born, white and American.
Biden can say it is American vs. Nazi, but white voters see whiteness associated with Nazi and many consider it an unfair smear, another example of being dissed, being associated with Nazis. Whites are white, but that doesn't make them Nazis, but here Biden is, making the association. They don't want to have to feel ashamed of the way they were born, white and American.
With Democrats talking about identity, Trump's strategists will do their best to keep Trump on message, the its-the-economy-stupid message: economic growth, the unemployment rate, the good stock market, the Fed under control, his fights with China and Mexico to protect American jobs, jobs, jobs.
Let Biden make speeches and videos about Jefferson and dignity and race. Trump will talk in simple language about paychecks for the forgotten American.
3 comments:
Take a step back and marvel that VP Biden's message is a viable Presidential campaign launch in 2109 America...
It has been said that the winning Progressive strategy would need a candidate as pugnacious and combative as Trump and it appears that Biden has volunteered for that role. As the current frontrunner he will face the full onslaught of insults and slander and clearly thinks he can go toe-to-toe and retain his dignity. It's admirable and may set the tone for the other candidates when they also realize Trump's greatest vulnerability is the man himself. It will be interesting to see what language develops in the inevitable back and forth that is coming.
Trump's racism, while overt, is not the same as the Charlottesville marchers, and more in line with his rank and file supporters, who probably think of themselves as those "good people on both sides". Having staked out this ground Biden will have to keep it up, and will suffer if he walks back even a little after the attacks you predict start. He will have to face Trump supporters who get in his face and ask "Are you calling me a racist?", and will have to say yes. It's a political calculation he has made and we will soon find out if it all adds up.
Pretty gutsy. Hope it works out for him...
But Unca Joe, we not in Mayberry no more. Can’t put that Genie back in the bottle.
And Jefferson ... what about that Sally girl?
"Joe Biden, America's Great White Male Hope"
The video is a nicely presented and emotive feel good fluff message-- for white men. But it loudly begs this question: With our selection of highly accomplished and articulate women and minority candidates, what's wrong with our party in "The Year of the Woman" that this white establishment male feels righteous in putting down these intersectional candidates as too risky to go against Trump?
Imagine yourself as a white male walking into a civil rights meeting of predominately women and minorities and when they call for volunteer leaders, you say "Hi, as a leader with decades of experience, I'm the best one to protect you from sexists and racists". That disconnect in 2019 is unthinkable, the vision of these high achieving black women looking a you unbearable. And when these women ask "why you", your answer is: "I am the best one and if I thought any of you could do it, I'd defer, but because I just don't want to risk you losing, I could not sit back." You then tell them to calm down, you're sorry-- well not "sorry" but introspective-- about so many past statements and position you took that deeply offended them. As they're shouting "Anita Hill", "incarcerate black men", "don''t touch and smell us", you are unfazed and say "calm down, you need to watch this video titled 'Joe Biden to the Rescue', it's all about how only I can save you". You then crack some jokes like he did after women denounced his touching of them, something like: "Don't worry, I checked with my black and women friends and they no problemo dude".
Biden deserves the soul cleansing pummeling he is about to get from women and minority activists. Within hours of releasing his superhero video, the focus turned to Anita Hill and Lucy Flores saying Biden's so-call kinda-apologies aren't enough, indeed are empty. His hubris, tone deafness, and insensitivity are mind numbing. In his superhero video, he praises the brave counter protesters at Charlotte. I hope he praises the women and minority activists who are lining up to demand that he join Hillary in political retirement. He can be a commentator and supportive voice, but not a candidate trying to deny the nomination to women and people of color.
Putting Joe Biden out to pasture is not just a political imperative, it's a defining moment in America of the type his video is supposedly all about.
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