That’s true. And it’s part of my biggest issue with Sleepy Joe is he’s not the best communicator and he’s still living a dream of potential unity with GOP post Trump (if that ever happens). To him the GOP is under some spell and once he’s gone they’ll magically go back to a John McCain style of politics....which isn’t much different policy wise, but a little more subtle in their disdain for 80% of the country
I wish he’d pick his VP already and let her do the talking. This is where a policy junky like Warren would help. I think she’s smart enough on messaging and we know she’s brilliant with the details.
Let Joe do what Joe does best, connect with people.
I gotta disagree here. Joe may be a genuine "aw shucks" sorta guy. But he's also politically savvy enough to know what lane to fill when running against Trump. He saw 2018 like the rest of us, and how moderates, independents and women were shifting away from Trump on a moral/personality level, and they had seen what Trump had done for 2 years.
Biden knew that in order to capitalize on what was already happening, he had to appeal to those groups and not turn away people that are ready to vote for a decent Trump alternative. Biden was part of the Obama white house for 8 years. He knows better than anyone that Republicans have become the party of blocking anything from the opposing party, pretty much no matter what. McTurtle vowed to oppose anything Obama put forward without ever looking at it.
Now it's gone up a level. These same groups are now dealing with job losses, losing loved ones from Covid, protesting in the streets, and all the while they see Trump making each situation worse, not better. 80% of the public feel the country is in chaos. 3.5 years of Trump has been a non-stop, daily scandal, corruption, abuse of power, shameful and disgusting rhetoric, etc... They want some sense of normalcy and comfort from someone with experience that they can trust.
You see this born out in the primaries. People were not looking for a revolution. People were looking for stabilization. And if it means Biden outwardly projects an aura of "we all have to pull together, and work together for a better country", then that's the angle that he's using to build a coalition. And from what we've seen in the past few weeks of polling, it's working. Well.
And he never said there would be "unity" with Republicans. He said that he could imagine there "could be a few" that may see the light after Trump is gone. But you know that he isn't under any illusion that this actually will happen. He's seen obstruction at it's highest.
The good part about how things are right now, is that Biden actually is a good communicator when he is making speeches. And he's been able to do that over these past few weeks, to really show a contrast with Trump. But I agree, a VP like (Val, Stacey, or Kamala) could be out just tearing it up right now.
I know that behind the scenes, they have set up an advisory committee made up of equal parts Sanders people and Biden people. And they discuss and hash out the best way forward to be able to appeal to a wide range of Dems. So far the Sanders people have been happy with what Joe has put forward on police justice reform, but are still pushing a couple of areas for him to go further.
The other problem IMO is that the phrase "defund the police" actually knee-capped and was counterproductive to Biden actually going further. If defund the police hadn't been picked up by Trump and started to be used as a political weapon, I think Biden could have come out stronger. But now, how is Biden gonna come out and say, yes we have to cut police budgets across the board? Just watch the blue tide that has gathered wash away... As much as you want the average voter to get the nuanced definition of "defund the police" - 90% do not. They take it for what it sounds like and what narrative gets shoved out by Trump.
The bill put forward by Dems is a great start, and it already has been declared DOA by republicans. Biden's plan is a good start as well. But again, none of it matters if Biden isn't in office, and we don't have the Senate. None of it. Because if Dems get the white house and the Senate, then these bills will change, not to try to compromise with Reps, but to shift to much more progressive and full scale change.
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