The lesson Democrats learned from Trump supporters:
You don’t always have to love the guy at the top. It’s the base that defines the heart of the party.
My conservative friends, who consume mostly right-wing media sites, are convinced that Democrats don’t enthusiastically support Joe Biden. With Fox News and other sources feeding them the usual tales of Democratic disarray, chaos, and dissent, they are asking questions like, “Will left-wing Democrats mount a write-in campaign against Biden?”
You don’t always have to love the guy at the top. It’s the base that defines the heart of the party.
My conservative friends, who consume mostly right-wing media sites, are convinced that Democrats don’t enthusiastically support Joe Biden. With Fox News and other sources feeding them the usual tales of Democratic disarray, chaos, and dissent, they are asking questions like, “Will left-wing Democrats mount a write-in campaign against Biden?”
This breathless wishful thinking can be understood, to some degree. Biden certainly is not perfect. His age stands in stark contrast to the youth movement that has been a hallmark of recent Democratic politics. He is white, at time when racism and race relations have become the most pressing issues of the day. He’s consistently more moderate and cautious than his base. And he can be awkward, blurting out things that have to be walked back at times.
But the polling shows no disarray or second thoughts about the presumptive nominee. Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters are solidly behind Biden. And he leads Trump today in both national and swing-state polls.
But the polling shows no disarray or second thoughts about the presumptive nominee. Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters are solidly behind Biden. And he leads Trump today in both national and swing-state polls.
So the question rings from a million social media posts: “How can Democrats and liberals support a guy with so many flaws??”
Hey, have you noticed who is in the White House right now?
Running from the President
It’s become a cliched part of political theater in the Trump era: Republicans, both elected officials and rank-and-file voters, dancing as hard as they can to make the point that, even if they don’t support the President’s actions or words, they still support Donald Trump!
Clips of Republican lawmakers literally running away from cameras as journalist ask their thoughts on the latest outrageous tweet from Trump have become the norm. Unlike Trump, GOP officials are not always comfortable with alienating voters who aren’t in their base. They don’t want to say publicly that they support the racism, the misogyny, the bullying, the temper-driven policies. Yet they know they can’t stay in office if they go against Trump—the base will not stand for any sign of disloyalty, and Trump has no loyalty himself; he will turn viciously against any GOP official who crosses him in the least.
The base itself does a slightly different two-step: they concede that Trump is rough, crude, a “salty sailor,” but they like him because he “gets things done.” And the fact that many of those things being done consist of policies that are divisive and hateful, well, the GOP Man-On-the-Street doesn’t know the details, he’s not a scientist/doctor/legal scholar.
It’s a kind of circular process that Trump has used to his advantage: feed the emotions, starve the intellect, ride the whirlwind as long as he can. He really does believe you can fool most of the people most of the time.
The GOP base also ignores the head-scratching contradictions of Trump’s story: a New York City elitist millionaire who went to tony East Coast schools and partied with the rich and famous has been embraced as a Man of the People by rural and small-town voters. As with so many things in modern politics, it works better if you don’t think too much about it.
Hey, have you noticed who is in the White House right now?
Running from the President
It’s become a cliched part of political theater in the Trump era: Republicans, both elected officials and rank-and-file voters, dancing as hard as they can to make the point that, even if they don’t support the President’s actions or words, they still support Donald Trump!
Clips of Republican lawmakers literally running away from cameras as journalist ask their thoughts on the latest outrageous tweet from Trump have become the norm. Unlike Trump, GOP officials are not always comfortable with alienating voters who aren’t in their base. They don’t want to say publicly that they support the racism, the misogyny, the bullying, the temper-driven policies. Yet they know they can’t stay in office if they go against Trump—the base will not stand for any sign of disloyalty, and Trump has no loyalty himself; he will turn viciously against any GOP official who crosses him in the least.
The base itself does a slightly different two-step: they concede that Trump is rough, crude, a “salty sailor,” but they like him because he “gets things done.” And the fact that many of those things being done consist of policies that are divisive and hateful, well, the GOP Man-On-the-Street doesn’t know the details, he’s not a scientist/doctor/legal scholar.
It’s a kind of circular process that Trump has used to his advantage: feed the emotions, starve the intellect, ride the whirlwind as long as he can. He really does believe you can fool most of the people most of the time.
The GOP base also ignores the head-scratching contradictions of Trump’s story: a New York City elitist millionaire who went to tony East Coast schools and partied with the rich and famous has been embraced as a Man of the People by rural and small-town voters. As with so many things in modern politics, it works better if you don’t think too much about it.
Protests and primaries—Biden becomes a figurehead for a larger movement
It’s often been noted that Biden has been relatively quiet as he moves steadily toward nomination. This is of course partly a result of events on the ground: the pandemic and now protests have sucked the oxygen out of the room to a large extent. The COVID-19 crisis also made a drawn-out primary logistically unworkable, as the base—especially African Americans—rallied around the most electable candidate. And with our current president creating so many problems for himself, it makes sense for the former Vice President to sit back and let Trump self-destruct.
But another element is in play: Biden has thrived as a politician who is willing to subsume his own ego to a larger movement. He relished his role as the #2 man in the Obama administration, finding ways to support his boss, stepping up occasionally to break ground on issues that were tough for Obama to take a stand on (gay marriage comes to mind), and generally providing a softer, human response to the riotous warfare of modern American politics.
It could be said he is doing the same today—softening the hard edges of the American Left, providing a more moderate and soothing counterpart to the AOCs and Al Sharptons on our screens. What many Americans—and Democrats most particularly—long for is a more civil society, one that has a place for compassion, empathy, and decency. For all his flaws, Biden can provide that.
He may not be on the barricades; he will not call for revolution. But the bottom line is that the base knows Biden has their backs, just as he had Obama’s back. Just as with Trump supporters, the Democratic base knows his heart. And they think it’s in the right place.
What that statement suggests about the two parties is something for another post.
But another element is in play: Biden has thrived as a politician who is willing to subsume his own ego to a larger movement. He relished his role as the #2 man in the Obama administration, finding ways to support his boss, stepping up occasionally to break ground on issues that were tough for Obama to take a stand on (gay marriage comes to mind), and generally providing a softer, human response to the riotous warfare of modern American politics.
It could be said he is doing the same today—softening the hard edges of the American Left, providing a more moderate and soothing counterpart to the AOCs and Al Sharptons on our screens. What many Americans—and Democrats most particularly—long for is a more civil society, one that has a place for compassion, empathy, and decency. For all his flaws, Biden can provide that.
He may not be on the barricades; he will not call for revolution. But the bottom line is that the base knows Biden has their backs, just as he had Obama’s back. Just as with Trump supporters, the Democratic base knows his heart. And they think it’s in the right place.
What that statement suggests about the two parties is something for another post.
