I have heard some Biden skeptics compare him to Jimmy Carter while predicting failure on his behalf. The comparison doesn't really hold up, though. Carter was an outsider in Washington. He and Congress had clear differences. You could argue which side was more right/less wrong, but there were definitely sides.
The last thing Joe Biden is would be an outsider. He was elected to the Senate when the Vietnam War was still raging and stayed there until Obama swept him into the Vice Presidency. Nor is there much of a schism. The overwhelming majority of Democrats in Congress appear to be all in on what his administration--whoever is running that show--proposes. So is the political establishment in general and most of the media.
Which may not be a good thing. Tuesday's results hint at the large number of Americans who don't love the agenda behind "Build Back Better" (or alternately "Why Did You Make Me Hit You?") Some in the party may be catching on that they've bet the rent on a pair of threes. James Carville, while no deep thinker, does seem to see that something's amiss. They don't seem in a hurry to do anything about it, though.
2 comments:
You're right that Joe Biden is the exact opposite of an outsider in American politics - in truth he's so far inside he's managed in a few short months to be outside of what most Americans actually want in a president. Our favorite outsider win this past week was seeing The Republican truck driver in New Jersey beat the twenty year veteran Democrat Senate president. He spent $153. on his campaign, most of it at Starbucks and the rest on flyers and business cards.
What we've been seeing this time is voters turning on the outrageous policies of the new administration. Their handling of the pandemic, the retreat from Afganistan, the border policy, the plan to defund the police, and the BLM and Antifa riots have all contributed to the general disgust. What's weird, of course, is they appear to believe government by diktat is what the people want - and they don't have a true majority in either house. The fact the Republicans are becoming the 'party of the people' seems almost laughable, but somebody has to be. Jer has noticed every time the Democrats lose they get more money so we'll have to see how that goes in future.
Carville has always been a strange guy, but he had some interesting points to make about the stupidity of 'wokeness' and 'faculty lounge politics' deserves a spot right next to 'laptop politics'.
So far in he's out indeed. By and large the media he's gotten has been ridiculously friendly. What scrutiny there's been I think Kamala has gotten the brunt of, although I think if he runs again he'll keep her as VP. Edward Durr, the new state senator in New Jersey, is refreshing. I think the $153 was just the primary total, but the general election spending isn't that much more. It's actually good to have people in government without a lot of set ideas and allegiances. The governor's race in that state was closer than anyone expected too, and might have gone the other way if the national GOP had paid more attention to it.
A significant part of the country saw Trump as a foreign invader--perhaps figurative, perhaps literal--and believed any method of expelling him was legitimate. That was enough for the Dems to win the presidency, but brought no mandate for action. And it certainly hasn't helped that many of the actions it does take are--not to put too fine a point on it--stupid. Republicans are likely to start inspiring hostility among swing voters too, if they win everything. But that doesn't mean their opponents will be adored, either.
Carville has a bit of the salesman about him, so despite the Cajun lilt he's hard to trust. But the thing about faculty lounge politics is spot on. A lot of people think their prejudices are more enlightened just because they test well.
Post a Comment