So I’ve been trying to figure out what to do about our Biden problem. On one hand, he’s done the most progressive stuff for the middle class since LBJ. He’s the first President since LBJ that’s actually trying to shore up and build upon the New Deal, instead of chipping away at it. That’s Awesome.
On the other hand, everyone hates him and thinks he’s too old. And so he’s going to lose the next election and he should have apparently stepped aside already and let someone else run next year. Up until now, I’ve been trying to argue that sure he’s frickin old, but he’s getting more stuff done than anyone in decades. But no one can see that so I’m giving up. You can’t shout into the wind forever.
Then I listened to the Al Franken interview with David Axelrod who sounds exhausted by the way. He’s clearly deflated and extremely worried, and for some pretty good reasons. But he has a good strategy. It’s obvious, and I didn’t think it could work, but it’s probably a lot better than trying to prove that Biden is just fine to people who don’t want to hear that.
Here’s the rub. Trump is going to win the next election if perceptions stay as they are. I also don’t think that at this point any other Democrat could win either. Don’t get me wrong, any Democrat will win the popular by at least 5 million votes but that’s not enough to win out over our electoral college problem.
Here’s the other rub. Trump’s not really our main problem. He never was but people focus on him so much that it’s kind of hard to see. If this was just another 4 years of Trump bumbling around mucking up all of the muckety muck until he leaves office again I would be bummed about losing another four years of not solving our major problems, I’d feel sorry the kids and the world we left them, but I wouldn’t be as deflated as David Axelrod surely is.
No, a republican win, and right now, especially a Trump win, is a generational game-changer that will last for decades. Especially if they keep the house and get the Senate which is also pretty likely.
If you haven’t noticed what Trump has been talking about lately here are a few boring highlights:
He’s going to purge the government of non-loyalists at every level, purging the communists and anti-American leftist vermin that plague our country. Yes, that’s the language. I think we had some other people in history using language like that.
He wants to execute Mark Milly for talking to China and purge the military of anyone who disagrees with White House policy. It’s a crowd-pleaser at his rallies these days.
There are plans to create massive detainment camps on the border to hold migrants until we can deport them.
There are plans to prosecute any perceived political enemies, kind of like what the House is doing right now with their Biden investigations but just amping up the scale and making the reality of actual prosecutions and incarceration possible.
There are plans for rounding up millions of undocumented immigrants who have been here for years and deporting them.
Trump’s team is assembling a whole new group of lawyers that will sweep through and solidify methods to maintain one-party rule and to achieve everything mentioned above.
Blahdity, blahdity, blah, and a bunch more stuff along those lines.
So once again this wouldn’t be a problem if this was just Trump bumbling around and hugging flags and stuff. Walking around saying all the crazy stuff he’s almost surely never going to actually do. No, our real problem is all of these other people who want to end Democracy and install a one-party rule system here. Because now they’re ready to actually make all of this stuff happen for real. Trump just happens to be the quickest way to get there.
There is an army of organizations openly calling for what Trump is saying on the campaign trail these days. And they have plans and personnel ready to carry it out. Just look up Project 2025 as one example. Or check out what the Heritage Foundation is up to these days. A Trump Presidency this time will be extremely organized and ready to do all of that stuff that most people thought could never happen here. But it could be any Republican who is willing to go along with what’s already set in motion at this point. Trump just happens to have been, and so far continues to be, a pretty good vehicle to achieve their goals.
So, back to Axelrod, we can’t convince people that Biden isn’t too old, that’s impossible. We just have to constantly remind people what the Republicans are up to. And that having a President who is too old isn’t nearly as bad as that.
I know seems obvious, and it seems likely that not enough people will believe it. But Trump won’t get more than 46% of the vote. That’s his ceiling. So we need to make sure that the ceiling doesn’t drop low enough for that to be enough to win. Right now Democratic voters are splintering, but that Trump 46% is almost guaranteed. Running around yelling that the sky is falling typically doesn’t work. But that seems like the best bet at this point.
Me, I like most of what Biden is doing, not all of it, but a lot of it. So it’s easy for me to see the difference. CHIPS act or massive detainment camps filled with women and children. Jeez, I don’t know. Cap on insulin or executing military personnel, kind of a toss up don’t ya think? Tackling climate change or jailing political opponents, I really don’t like most politicians but I like my gas stove!
So, for sure, a lot of our population will love detainment camps, jailing political opponents, purging the government of anyone perceived to be a leftist, and deporting millions of our neighbors. They really will, this is America, some people here, more than we like to admit, really dig that stuff. But I’m hoping that enough of us will find that horribly wrong and dangerous. We just need to make sure that everyone realizes that it’s either a President who just happens to be too old or all of that other stuff happening for real. Don’t think it won’t, there’s an army of people working on it right now. I’m going to choose too old, I can handle too old.