Guest post: The Dems need somebody people actually like
Originally a comment by Bruce Gorton on Fiery, what fiery?
That, I think is the real problem with the Democrats, its as Machiavelli put it:
A prince is also much respected but he is either a true friend or a downright enemy. In other words, when he declares himself without any reservation in favour of one party against the other. This will always be more favourable than remaining neutral.
Or to put it another way – the Democratic Party has pushed so hard towards this sort of centrist “we can appeal to the other side” thing that they’ve lost a lot of what appeal they once had. It is often better to pick a side.
The line I thought that summed up best why Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 was this from Chuck Schumer:
“For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.”
And that’s the exact same thinking with Biden. He is in the lead on “electability” – but I honestly think he’s the worst option the Dems could go with in this election.
If you’re going after Trump’s sexism, you can’t pick “Handsy uncle Joe”. If you’re going to go after Trump on racism, well, who bragged about working with segregationists during this primary? If you’re going to go after Trump on corruption – Hunter Biden pretty much killed that angle.
I mean what makes Biden electable is fundamentally that he has name recognition and is awful enough that you could imagine holding your nose at the ballot box, and I can’t see that unseating a presidential incumbent. The Dems need somebody people actually like, and the first step in finding that somebody is picking someone in the primary they actually like.
And I think Warren fits that bill. She’s not perfect, nobody ever is, but she’s at least got credibility for standing up for what she believes in, for not being the neutral party – and even for those who disagree with her, that’s something that is at least respectable in a way Biden just isn’t.
But of course the Democratic supporters have been trained to see some great virtue in compromise, even when it is both unnecessary and deeply undermining the party.
They need someone that other people than college educated white liberals actually like, and that’s Biden. He’s our best hope because no one else was successful in stepping up.
Who says that’s Biden? Why would that be Biden? And saying “college educated white liberals” obscures things because I hardly think Biden appeals to black people more than Cory Booker or Kamala Harris would or would have.
This far it seems he does… Fivethirtyeight has been saying that older black voters tend to be more “strategic” than Democrats generally.
It could very well be a lot of herding going on… But it’s happening.
I don’t buy it. We’re always pushed to pick the most conservative pandering “centrist” candidate of all and then they lose. Plus with this one, he’ll be 78 at the election, which is ridiculous.
This is pretty much correct. Compromise is an occasionally useful tool, not a goal unto itself. When only one party runs toward the center, that (game theoretically) pulls the center toward the other party. This continues until the triangulating party puts forward candidates so distasteful or indistinguishable from the other side that the voters don’t turn out—or switch sides. The key, then, is to convince voters that a victory for the other party would spell the End Of The World. I honestly cannot remember a presidential election in my conscious lifetime wherein the Republican candidate wasn’t portrayed that way by Dem-leaning media (and vice versa). It’s always and ever been a lesser-of-two-evils affair in my memory.
Warren has her favored issues, and on those she will fight like a lion, I have no doubt. However, she’s been wishy-washy of late on health care, to the point that she has swung to the center with her “start with a public option and then maybe if that works and I get a whole bunch of other stuff passed see if we can get something more universal in place starting in year three” plan.
This worries me. Regardless, she’s still a hilariously easy pick over Handsy Uncle Joe or the Booty Judge.
I mean, if we go by California polling data, Bernie does better with young people, latinos, and asians.
Seriously.
I don’t know why Dems can’t put up what they supposedly stand for instead of what the other guys stand for only not as bad. The party bosses have picked Biden, and that’s who we’ll get. He can’t beat DJT because he stands for nothing.
Joe Biden, lifelong politician who never did anything other than politick – therefore he is the perfect antithesis to Donald Trump, lifelong grifter who never did anything other than grift?
Time to up the game.
If what you say about strategic voters is true, they are just as likely to strategically vote for an actually viable and intelligent candidate than they are for a dud like Biden.
Biden is exactly who the GOP want to run against – because they know they will certainly win if Biden is the alternative to Trump.
You are chosen to run as a V.P. because you bring a certain portion of voters into the balance, but you are incapable of actually upsetting the balance. The election of POTUS45 made it very clear that the balance seriously needs to be re-calibrated, something that Biden certainly can’t do.
The U.S.A. has never been well served by Presidents who were former Vice Presidents – Biden will certainly not be the exception . . .
Choosing Biden means losing the progressive vote. It’s just a fact of elections everywhere, when the left is not represented among the options before them, the left barely votes. Look at the youth vote Obama commanded in his first election, then look at the decline as every lefty realised he was just another corporate/military stooge.