# How can Biden cater to the left and centrists at the same time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 10, 2020, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496 "2020-04-10T13:44:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/21 "2020-04-10T17:21:53Z")
Biden today came out with 2 big offers to left. Dropping Medicare age from 65 to 60 and a program to forgive college debt for middle & lower class families. This is a good starting point. Warren is not a great choice for the ticket. There are enough younger candidates not to go with someone over 70 already. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/22 "2020-04-10T17:29:10Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Warren is not a great choice for the ticket. There are enough younger candidates not to go with someone over 70 already. I hope his advisors are not pulling any punches and are telling him to go with someone younger. Joe is old but worse than that, Joe looks old and frail. Bernie looks healthier and he had a heart attack not too long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/23 "2020-04-10T19:06:58Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Biden today came out with 2 big offers to left. Dropping Medicare age from 65 to 60 and a program to forgive college debt for middle & lower class families. This is a good starting point. > > Warren is not a great choice for the ticket. There are enough younger candidates not to go with someone over 70 already. The college loan thing isn’t bad, but the medicare thing doesn’t make any sense. He is offering to let people buy into medicare at 60. Thats what a public option is, but the public option is for everyone of all ages. Thats why Buttigieg called it ‘medicare for all who wanted it’. Medicare is cheaper than private insurance because it offers lower reimbursements and has lower administrative costs. The public option is taking the network of plans like medicare or medicaid, and letting people buy into it and enjoy that insurance. His plan sounds like he didn’t think it through. The option to buy into medicare at age 60 is basically the same thing as saying ‘I’ll let people age 60-64 buy into a public option’ which is vastly inferior to a public option which anyone can buy into. Now if Biden had said medicare became the mandatory insurance policy for everyone over the age of 55 or 60, that would be different. Medicare becomes the mandatory insurance for everyone over age 65. Once you hit 65 you are on medicare, you pay the premiums and you enjoy the insurance. You can opt for medicare advantage, but the medicare system becomes mandatory at the age of 65. If Biden wants to lower the mandatory medicare age to 50, 55, 60, etc, thats fine. We’d have to raise taxes to do that, which is fine. I’d be happy to pay a 4-5% payroll tax instead of the 2.9% payroll tax if it meant everyone got medicare at age 50. I think Biden will get push back for this policy idea because it shows he really don’t even understand his own policy ideas. Also, the idea that only the elderly can buy into medicare is also kind of a giveaway to private insurance companies. Private insurance companies only want to cover the wealthy and the healthy. People past a certain age group have expensive health problems. So Biden may be criticized for only letting people who private insurance doesn’t want to cover buy into medicare. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/24 "2020-04-10T19:12:14Z")
I think the best thing the Biden/VP campaigns can do is joint appearances\* with every Democrat running for Representative or Senator. Let each candidate give their own pitches, but they all need to emphasis that we need everyone to get stuff done. \*May be online rather than meatspace. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/25 "2020-04-10T20:05:21Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > “I am going to choke off the recovery with green pie in the sky” is a losing proposition. How about “I am going to jump start the economy with a huge push to build green infrastructure”? This whole ‘it’s the environment against the economy’ bit is nonsense. Damaging the environment will damage the economy; and there’s lots of potential economic benefit in the work necessary to prevent/minimize environmental damage. > [@QuickSilver](#): > > Biden/Warren would be the ideal ticket, IMO. There are at least two very strong reasons not to do that: For one, two white people in their 70’s isn’t currently a super strong ticket. And it plays very much into the hands of the people trying to claim that the Democrats will just be more of the same same so it’s not worth turning out. Biden, at his age, needs somebody younger (and, ideally, not also from the Northeast.) For two: Warren’s in the Senate and is not up for re-election till 2024. That’s an absolutely guaranteed safe D seat – so long as she stays there. Not if she’s pulled out of there to be VP; remember Scott Brown. And we’re going to need every D seat we can get. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/26 "2020-04-10T20:36:58Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > It’ll be a difficult balancing act for Biden, soothing the Sanders/Warren wing of the Democratic Party while convincing moderate/independent voters that he won’t wipe out private health plans and explode the deficit in a way that will make Trump look like a fiscal conservative. > > Maybe he can find a way to present himself as Reassuring Uncle Joe, telling the country that we can have everything we want and need, merely by making sure that the Extremely Rich Pay Their Fair Share. > > He’s not Trump, which is a major advantage all by itself. One of the problems that M4A had all along was that it would inevitably require a massive tax hike, which makes pols and peeps a little nervous during times of “growth.” The Bernistas never wanted to accept that there just wasn’t the kind of political will across the entire population to make this happen. There’s more political will now with a massive epidemic and massive unemployment than there was 8 weeks ago, but it’s still not clear whether or not there’s quite enough outrage to be the rocket fuel that makes a public health scheme takeoff politically. At the same time, I think there’s never been a better time to make people think about healthcare than now. We’re in the middle of a pretty nasty pandemic and probably a third of the country’s population is facing economic distress, and that number could rise before too long. Politics is not just ideas, but the timing of those ideas. I don’t think Biden has a mandate for a healthcare revolution and it would be a mistake to assume that, but I think he needs to show that he gets the gravity of the moment. He needs some kind of Obamacare Plus or “Bernie Light.” Otherwise he will reaffirm to a lot of people that he’s an old dude who lacks vision and imagination, but worse than that, he risks sending the message that he lacks courage. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/27 "2020-04-10T20:57:01Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I hope his advisors are not pulling any punches and are telling him to go with someone younger. Joe is old but worse than that, Joe looks old and frail. Bernie looks healthier and he had a heart attack not too long ago. On the surface, it sounds like a good idea to steal someone like Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan, but I think it’s something that wouldn’t serve the party well. I’d rather have Whitmer staying put in Michigan and defending the party at the state level than to have her press conferences look like an audition for a veep spot when a state’s trying to recover from a health and economic crisis. The veep decision may make or break Joe and unfortunately, there are no obvious choices. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/28 "2020-04-10T21:04:23Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > “I’m not Trump.” should be all he needs. If anything more is required, we’re a stupid, stupid country. While I agree, Hillary Clinton had a very negative strategy… and she lost. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/29 "2020-04-10T21:40:00Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > “I’m not Trump.” should be all he needs. If anything more is required, we’re a stupid, stupid country. More than 60 million Americans heard that message from Clinton and reacted “Yeah, you’re not Trump. We like Trump! We don’t like you. #MAGA.” And thanks to the electoral college their votes have extra weight. Biden needs more. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/30 "2020-04-10T22:11:50Z")
[nm ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/31 "2020-04-11T00:49:56Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Joe is old but worse than that, Joe looks old and frail. Bernie looks healthier and he had a heart attack not too long ago. Bernie actually doesn’t look healthier to me. He can’t stand up straight; and he’s got very much an old man’s voice. That’s kind of moot at this point, though. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/32 "2020-04-11T02:03:27Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > More than 60 million Americans heard that message from Clinton and reacted “Yeah, you’re not Trump. We like Trump! We don’t like you. #MAGA.” And thanks to the electoral college their votes have extra weight. > > Biden needs more. It does bear pointing out that the horrors of a trump administration were, at that time, merely hypothetical. We’ve seen the reality. Does anybody really want to see the next season of this shitshow? Drump unplugged? (Was he even plugged in the first place?) ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/33 "2020-04-11T02:11:47Z")
> [@Kimera757](#): > > While I agree, Hillary Clinton had a very negative strategy… and she lost. If only the Democratic candidate could secure more votes than the Republican and have it actually matter… Ha, ha, ha, what a fairy tale. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/34 "2020-04-11T02:39:35Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > “If you don’t vote for me, you’re stupid” is a major reason why we don’t hear a lot about President Hillary, but you do you. > > Regards, > > Shodan That wasn’t what he said. If you’re going to paraphrase, quote, or whatever another poster, at least sum up the post succinctly, and without adding your own invective, please. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/35 "2020-04-11T03:12:40Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > “If you don’t vote for me, you’re stupid” is a major reason why we don’t hear a lot about President Hillary, but you do you. > > Regards, > Shodan When you really have time to contemplate this, and think about it, what is the feeling you get? Pride? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/36 "2020-04-11T15:59:29Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > There are tons of ideas that appeal to both groups – emphasize those. His platform already includes several – min wage increase, climate change stuff, union strengthening stuff, etc. > > But this isn’t really about platform or policies – Matt Yglesias wrote an article recently (no link handy) arguing that the left doesn’t really trust Biden to carry out what he says he wants to. I’m not sure how to address that, but I’ve recommended before a VP that they do trust. I think there are a few possibilities, including Abrams and Warren, and maybe a few others. Most presidents at least try to do what they campaigned on during the general election. Most candidates tack to the center during the general election because they drifted so far left during the primary but Biden was getting as far right as a Democratic candidate could on many issues because there was so much traffic on the left. I suspect he might tack to the left and claim he is just compromising with the progressives. I don’t know at what point he starts losing swing voters to pick up progressive votes (which do in fact exist in swing states but you can normally count on to vote Democrat except in this election against Trump because some of them want to teach us a lesson about taking them seriously or something). ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/37 "2020-04-11T20:23:28Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > He better forget the progressives. He’s got the nomination - it’s time to run back to the center. He ran to the center during the primaries. I suspect he may drift left during the general on some issues (and to the center on others). > [@](#): > > Climate change and minimum wage increases are losing issues. The Green New Deal is a losing issue but moderate changes to move us towards lower carbon emissions, rejoining the global community (e.g. paris accord), cafeteria standards. Increasing the minimum wage to $15/hour is a losing issue but trying to increase is to maybe $10 might not be a losing issue. Let’s get rid of tips minimum wand get rid of tipping while we’re at it. > [@](#): > > We will (God willing) be starting to climb up out of recession come November, and “I am going to choke off the recovery with green pie in the sky” is a losing proposition. Maybe better to stick to how he is going to speed up the recovery. Trouble is, if he wants to do what Obama did, it’s already been done. A $4T deficit is not much better than a $3T one. After the 2 trillion dollar stimulus, I think we have abandoned the notion of fiscal conservatism. Now it’s just a matter of what form the stimulus takes. > [@](#): > > [He should push the public option for Medicare and hope nobody can count. > > Regards, > Shodan You mean making medicare a public option? because that works just fine if you price the medicare coverage properly. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/38 "2020-04-11T21:44:47Z")
He needs to not talk about gun control. In my observation, gun control as it stands today is a “centrist” position as opposed to a “left” position, if we’re taking “left” to mean “the people who really would rather have Bernie Sanders.” Gun control is for suburban soccer moms and middle to upper class East Coast professionals. Over the past few years - and I predicted this would happen when Trump, a blatant authoritarian, became president - many of the farther-left people have changed their position on gun control (sometimes to the point of actually buying guns and publicly announcing their intent to do so.) You don’t need a sociology degree to figure this one out. They’re _scared._ Not scared in an abstract way, scared in a “I might actually need to physically defend myself from a mob of right-wing bigots” way. Over the past years I’ve seen Facebook friends buying guns who - if they told me 4 years ago that they were doing so - I would be waiting in anticipation of a punch line for what I would bet every last cent to my name was the setup to some kind of joke. Not anymore. This phenomenon is _totally separate_ from the already existing gun owners in America whose voting choice is influenced largely or even entirely by this issue. Now some of these people are _actually_ up for grabs, given how deeply polarizing Trump is. It would not be the case if Mitt Romney was taking on Joe Biden. But the old books have been thrown out. Joe - stop talking about guns. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/39 "2020-04-11T22:16:37Z")
I don’t know if gun control is really an issue. I mean on the right when you mention gun control the right wing base throws a fit, but I think a lot of other people understand gun control just means background checks, limits on certain types of firearms. Maybe, maybe, there are some on the left who would balk at a ban on semi auto rifles like the AR-15. But other than that I don’t think they’d really balk at gun control that makes universal background checks or limits magazines, or prohibits sales to people convicted of violent misdemeanors. But reasonable gun control won’t limit the sales of shotguns, handguns or bolt action rifles. It may affect semi auto rifles though, which may cause some issues. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496/40 "2020-04-12T02:13:18Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > “If you don’t vote for me, you’re stupid” is a major reason why we don’t hear a lot about President Hillary, but you do you. > > Regards, > Shodan Hi, Buddy. I was wondering if you might list some of, or even one of, your favorite Trump shining moments as (so-caled) president. You know, that thing he got done, that other thing he got done. He’s had to have a bunch of them, hasn’t he? What’s your favorite? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-biden-cater-to-the-left-and-centrists-at-the-same-time/851496.md?page=3)