Could everyone stop acting as if “Back to Normal” and moderation are actual or potential themes presumptive nominee Joe Biden is going with? That’s gone by the wayside, folks; it’s conventional wisdom from pre-Covid campaign analyses. The only return to normalcy Biden is going to push will be in terms of political process; not in agenda or policy set. Look for a more ambitious FDR style, restructuring type of campaign which springboards off the pandemic and the associated economic crisis.
I know I’m not alone in noticing this sea change, because I’m reading about it from a variety of sources. Surely the bright denizens of the Dope are seeing this as well?
Now, to pjacks and anyone persuaded by the utter foolishness they’re posting:
Apathy, cynicism and ignorance are not strong arguments.
So as not to waste effort, here are a few of the things you’re wrong about in this thread:
[ul][li]You appear to believe that voter perceptions about a candidate’s plans have no relation to the acceptance of that candidate’s “messaging and marketing” which you note are primal considerations. This is an incomplete understanding of how political messaging works, how a political message is marketed and how it can be stifled, coopted or perverted by actors outside of the campaign itself.[/li]
-HRC lost votes in critical states in 2016 not because voters don’t care about political positions but because Clinton’s positions were subordinated to artificial scandals and personal dynamics between her and Trump. The “Stronger Together” messaging was not able to take hold because major media and troll-guided chatter in all the social media platforms ignored HRC’s actual positions, plans and real governmental accomplishments in favor of manufactured bullshit.
-Trump gained votes by promising to tear political structures down and to hurt the groups a significant plurality of discontented voters feared and loathed. That’s a much simpler set of political plans and positions which was only buttressed by the coverage from major media, and only amplified by Facebook and Twitter and Reddit and all those other exemplars of sober political discussion. (Plus, supported by foreign bots, trolls and fifth columnists.)
[li]You seem to admire Jared Kushner’s bold plan to fit the Republican platform onto an index card. This is cynicism and condescension toward the electorate, plus unwarranted faith in the marketing wisdom of a failed business dilettante. The 2020 context and the familiarity of the electorate with Trump are vastly different from 2016. I applaud Kushner’s elevation to chief Republican electoral strategist in the same way Sitting Bull must’ve smiled at Custer’s advance toward the Little Bighorn.[/li][li]You believe only votes in swing states matter to the outcome, which is an appeal to probability that would result, if internalized in sufficient numbers by the demoralized or disaffected, in the loss of “solid” states. It also elides the importance of down-ballot races and the criticality of constituent engagement. It’s a cynical and ultimately antidemocratic position that can only stifle a group’s political influence.[/li][li]You completely missed the context and the point of Obama’s [decidedly not nonchalant] admission that the US “tortured some folks.” I urge anyone tempted to accept this falsehood as an accurate representation of Obama’s message to watch the actual press statement and decide for yourselves. Obama: 'We tortured some folks' - YouTube believe policy positions don’t matter and that ‘generic Democrats’ or ‘generic Republicans’ as POTUS are fungible political units without agency beyond the respective party’s arbitrary stances. That’s stunningly ignorant of political history, civics and current events.[/li][li]You appear to have no ante-status quo political knowledge or memory, and believe the actions and utterances of this administration and the cover it receives from this Republican Senate are “standard” and reflective of previous administrations. I won’t attempt to guess why you would assert such a thing, but you’re dangerously wrong and no one reading should follow along that primrose path over the cliff with you.[/ul][/li]
No one should underestimate the challenges facing this country, or the degree to which opportunities have been eroded for millennials and Gens Y, Z and Alpha. But the answer isn’t glib disengagement or arrogant, cynical dismissal of our political structures, nor is it denial of citizen agency in fixing these problems. We can repair the systemic flaws and structural weaknesses of our political and economic system (along with our physical infrastructure). But it’s going to take work -not just from the older people pjacks is blaming as a bloc for all the evils of today, but from all of us, through more civic engagement and more attention to the actual possibilities and realities of government, not through disdain for compromise and disregard of existing process.
Joe Biden is not a white knight who can rescue the nation from any individual crisis or the from the current collection of crises. We’ve never had one of those as POTUS, and nobody should ever expect one, because it’s impossible. Trumpists believed “I alone can fix it” because they’re stupid. (Don’t be like them.)
Nor is Biden a righteous scourge against villainy; he will not interfere with prosecutions of the soon to be former executive branch criminals, but he will never be an Avenger and he will never seek to punish those who evade criminal charges. And, most upsetting to many of us, he’ll actively seek cooperation and compromise across the aisle, and will never shut the opposition out of political processes.
But Biden is a competent administrator with honest priorities and will be a competent executive. He will appoint and nominate other competent individuals and will be receptive to and cooperative with earnest legislative agendas, even if they’re more progressive than he’d like. He’s exactly what we’ll need in the difficult slog ahead of us, and will help to enable his hopefully more progressive successor to go further and do better.