Is it true that all Democrat candidates need from here on out is to be more like Joe Biden?
Now that it appears America is destined to have Joe Biden as the country’s 46th president, liberal pundits and academics begin the arduous task of dissecting the recently concluded campaign to determine what went right for the successful candidate (not getting into fraud here, since it speaks for itself) and how other Democrats might borrow from the 78-year-old’s example and come to the voting booth next time with a better shot at prevailing.
No doubt there will be volumes written about outgoing President Donald Trump and his lasting influence on the Republican Party. From the outset, Trump’s outsider campaign blew a gaping hole in the notion that the GOP would remain the “Stupid Party” in perpetuity, as his characteristic eagerness to address real issues while offering blunt appraisals of the failures of the establishment touched a nerve with millions of frustrated voters.
It turns out that paying lip service to the Bush presidents and their anti-liberty, big government neoconservative foreign policy misadventures wasn’t a prerequisite after all.
Thanks to Trump, conservative and Republican candidates were freed from the constraining rhetorical cages they’d been forced to occupy for years. Being “nice” and dignified and “presidential” didn’t guarantee love from the grassroots. If you don’t believe it, just ask Mitt Romney or John Kasich. Avoiding the hard stuff might win you the undying affinity of liberal Republicans and what we now call the #NeverTrump establishment crowd, but it will more often than not be a loser where it counts -- with the voters.
But what about Grampa Joe? Has he set a new standard for leftists to aspire to? Liberal Fox News commentator Jessica Tarlov wrote at The Hill, “The truth is that all politics is national at this point. There is no other explanation as to why Democrats were unable to win everything from statehouse races to Senate elections in which they were favored.
“In a general election, no one will penalize you for being too moderate or conciliatory — it can only help to reach out to voters who might not normally support Democratic candidates. We are a different party than even just 12 years ago when Barack Obama won the White House for the first time. The coalition that propelled Biden’s win is ripe for the taking on a long-term basis because Republicans continue to show no backbone when it comes to Trumpism.
“All Democratic candidates can’t be Joe Biden, but they certainly can talk like him in a general election.”
Talk like Joe Biden? Wouldn’t you love to ask Tarlov to provide specific examples of what Grampa Joe said that liberal Democrats should emulate in their campaigns? Should they stumble over words? Or call people names (“fat”, “damn liar,” “lying dog faced pony soldier”, “shut up man”, “you ain’t black”, “we choose truth over facts”, or the ultimate creepy utterance, “And I want to see these beautiful young ladies. I want to see them dancing when they’re four years older, too”)? How about saying that his sister was his wife? And telling everyone that his corrupted idiot son was a great guy and he’s proud of him?
Chances are Tarlov wasn’t being literal in suggesting Democrats expand on Biden’s repertoire of gaffes. But she also probably wasn’t referring to the president-elect’s penchant for appropriating others’ words, either. It’s astonishing that people don’t talk about it much anymore, but what originally derailed Biden’s 1988 presidential campaign was his wholesale borrowing/stealing of someone else’s life story to make himself sound like a more compelling character. In most people’s books, that’s called plagiarism.
The truth is, Biden didn’t have to talk about much of anything this year, which no doubt was the basis for electing him president in most of his voters’ outlooks. Locked away from sight, the doddering, mentally faltering half-century swamp dweller politician used COVID-19 as the ultimate get-out-of-campaigning-free card, a wonderful excuse to sit in his basement and snack on ice cream while his supporters were busy marching on big city streets using their federal stimulus checks to stage street protests, riot, assault innocent bystanders, loot and pull down and deface historic statues. What was Grampa Joe saying when all this was happening? Nothing?
Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign will go down in history as the only modern example of victory by keeping his mouth closed. Not even the party convention deviated from the “less is more” theme. If there’s a lesson to be learned here, it’s that Democrats’ best chance to win is by sitting back and letting the media talkers lie through their teeth to generate support. That, and pursue mail-in voting using “health concerns” as the basis to trash every last bit of elections integrity.
It’s doubtful future Democrat candidates could “Be like Joe” and end up in an equally good spot.
All candidates, not just Democrats, should nationalize elections
Tarlov was correct about one thing. To be successful, office seekers need to talk about the big national themes and tout the issues that motivate people. But Democrats are all the same, aren’t they?
Presumably Tarlov was referring to Biden’s “moderate” reputation as the model for future Democrat candidates, not his penchant and proven talent for sticking his foot in his mouth. In this regard, Biden didn’t have much to say at all, since his primary opponents and the media were already doing the truth bending and fibbing for him. The only true “moderate” in the 2020 Democrat field was Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, but only because she enthusiastically bucked the party line on certain issues (like her recent willingness to support biological female-only sports and opposing military interventions that liberals are fond of).
The media basically divided the Democrat candidates between the radical socialists (primarily Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, but all of them essentially espouse the same beliefs) and the so-called centrists (Biden, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, “Beto” O’Rourke, Michael Bloomberg, etc.). Their only real differences were in the degree of left-wing activism. Did he or she believe in total government control of healthcare (Medicare for All)? How about the Green New Deal (for it or against it)? Gun rights (total gun confiscation or just an assault rifle ban and liability for gun manufacturers)?
How about racial politics? Can a candidate come out with measured statements condemning rioting and still give proper deference to the “anger and hurt” of the garden variety racial justice warrior? How about LGBTQ issues? Joe Biden told an Iowa girl that there were “at least three” genders but then wouldn’t name them when pressed for the information. Would anyone who disputes that transgenderism is real have a chance in the Democrat party?
Would a “moderate” on climate change be welcomed by Democrat general election voters? If for example, a candidate denied that the purportedly warming climate was an “existential threat” requiring massive government mobilization to save the planet, could they attract the wackos who swear climate is everything? What if a Democrat candidate championed further research on the subject and maybe proposed “investments” in green energy and jobs, but also would allow American fossil fuel production to continue to grow?
How about abortion? Could a Democrat candidate be pro-life and still win? To my knowledge, there aren’t any such creatures on the national level any longer. All Democrats, Joe Biden included, must bow and pay homage to the “women’s reproductive rights” deity along with promises to end the federal ban on abortion funding. With the party moving ever closer to standing for abortion on demand up until the moment of birth, the old Big Bubba Bill Clinton “moderate” position (abortion should be safe, legal and rare) has been replaced by “it’s all fair game” mentality.
Lastly, what about immigration? The old Democrat view was illegal immigration hurt the working man and woman because undocumented migrants competed for jobs and benefits that unions sought to provide to their members. Today, all Democrats perfunctorily must be for tearing down the border wall, abolishing (or vastly curtailing) ICE, supporting sanctuary cities and removing any and all restrictions on legal immigration. The “travel ban”? Don’t make me laugh!
Sorry, Ms. Tarlov, talking like Joe Biden wouldn’t win future Democrats a primary race much less give them a leg-up on the general election. Why? No one would fall for it. No one but a fool and the hopelessly uninformed truly considers Joe Biden a “moderate” on anything. And no one believes a word that comes out of his mouth either. Should Democrats really be like Joe then?
If anything, Democrat hopefuls need to be more like Trump, not doofus Joe
Tarlov and her fellow Democrat pundits would never admit it, but for the party to start doing better at all levels, they should take after Donald J. Trump, not the compromised and principle-free meanderings of spineless Joe Biden.
How so? People may not always like the way Trump phrases things, but they are drawn to his courage and willingness to enter the fray without fear. After the years-long onslaught of negativity that Trump endured, American voters still gave him high marks for his handling of the economy. This indicates they weren’t buying the Biden-pushed idea that Trump inherited a strong foundation from Obama. No, they appreciated that Trump’s America First policies paid dividends.
Trump pushed optimism and American know-how. Democrats sat back like Joe Biden and promoted fear and hysteria. Remember how Democrats devoted an entire day of their party convention to defending vote-by-mail and accused Trump of stealing mailboxes? Who would go out of their way to back the always-in-trouble U.S. Postal Service? You might as well say you’d devote billions to bailing out AMTRAK. Oh wait, Biden did that.
While Biden and Democrats talked about shoring up the government, Trump touched on the viability and talents of ordinary Americans. Trump’s was a positive message that motivated tens of millions to work for his reelection. Biden “won” because tech billionaires dumped hundreds of millions into helping government entities harvest votes for the Democrats in inner cities.
It didn’t trickle down ballot. Democrats lost at the state level because they’re empty suits who didn’t offer an agenda beyond bashing Donald Trump. Who should candidates truly be more like, Joe Biden or Trump? Do people want results or platitudes? Can Democrats win anything without cheating or distorting the truth?
In order to turn the page, you must first open the book
Doing what he does best, Joe Biden took Monday’s Electoral College vote and spun it into some sort of momentous and historic victory and mandate for his presidency. In the process, he didn’t even acknowledge that millions felt the system is badly broken. Dave Boyer reported at The Washington Times, “President-elect Joseph R. Biden asked Americans to ‘turn the page’ on Monday night after his victory was confirmed in Electoral College voting across the nation, while President Trump showed no sign of conceding, even as he lost another election challenge in Wisconsin.
“Mr. Biden, addressing Republican suspicions that he stole the election from Mr. Trump, said after one of the longest post-election disputes in history that the system worked.
“’In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed,’ Mr. Biden said. ‘‘We the People’ voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so, now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal.’ He promised, ‘I will be a president for all Americans. I will work just as hard for those of you who didn’t vote for me as I will for those who did.’”
Any Democrats who emulate Biden are bound for a rude awakening. First he insultingly claims he won the “battle for the soul of America” and then asks for unity and healing. Translation: the dark forces on the other side who fought against the “soul” were defeated. In other words, you lost. Turn the page. Get over it. Get used to the new reality.
Joe Biden’s assurance that he will “work hard” for us isn’t much comfort, because the things he’s working towards are culturally destructive and budget busting expensive. We’d rather be ignored entirely. No matter how you figure it, the president-elect is no “moderate” and he won’t act like one either. Brace yourself for years of his pontificating and lies.
2020 Election
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