One of Joe Biden's problems is that he has a hard time taking credit for his successes. He's taken oil and gas production to new records, but never mentions it because fossil fuels are unpopular with his liberal base. He got us out of Afghanistan, but can't brag about it because the press insists the withdrawal was a chaotic fiasco. He's been tough with China, but can't get any mileage out of it because Donald Trump will always be tougher. He's made the US economy the envy of the world, but can't get that across because our brief burst of inflation overshadows everything. He only occasionally tries to make hay over Trump's insane blathering because most voters have decided Trump is a blowhard and nothing he says matters. Crime has declined substantially on his watch, but that's hard to boast about for fear of alienating progressives who are allergic to anything that might be taken as cop friendly. He's brought hundreds of January 6 insurrectionists to justice but doesn't say much about it because—well, in this case I'm not sure why.
I don't have a profound point to make here. It's just sort of remarkable that Biden has been surprisingly successful as a president while simultaneously being surprisingly constrained from saying so. I'm not sure that's happened to such a degree in recent memory.
fox ensures that the negatives get airplay whether you brag or not so there's no real downside to bragging
but hand-wringing dems will convince him otherwise
the 'liberal media' knows that liberals can't pass up a story about how the world is falling apart (e.g., joe biden is losing!) and the few republicans that might glance their way will only do so if it the story is about 'joe biden is losing'! Win-win!
He''s announcing some of this stuff...just no one really listens.
Fox News and Trump still drive the media cycles.
What infuriates me is the lack of credit he gets from many leftists. GOP/Fox is baked in, but he’s the first president in my lifetime to support unions wholeheartedly, he’s done more on climate than anyone, doing what he can on student loans, etc, and mostly the left spits in his face. The left needs to look in a mirror when they wonder why they don’t have more power. The right cheers their side, but too often we’re just endlessly critical of ours for failing to deliver a socialist utopia. I work in healthcare, and frequently find myself defending Obamacare from the MFA crowd. I keep asking “but how do you get there in our political system?” Not only do they never have an answer, they haven’t even thought about it.
The obvious conclusion for politicians to draw is that there’s no benefit to them for trying to implement leftist policies.
"The right cheers their side..."
It's easier to cheer the destruction of everything than it is to cheer the building up of something. When you're destroying stuff, nobody cares as much about "well you didn't destroy it the way I would have preferred." When you're building up stuff, people care a lot about how it's built... especially since the US goes decades without building up anything at all, so there's millions of individual pent-up demands that no single program or project is ever going to be able to meet. So the left will always have a more difficult time cheering for anything in particular the Democrats do for them. Still, I too wish the left would just fall in line sometimes... but it simply isn't as easy to do when your whole reason-for-existing is to improve things, not make them worse.
Nursing their grievance is the easy answer to the complicated question.
What infuriates me is the lack of credit he gets from many leftists.
Lack of credit? Wake up. Most of them want him to lose. Full stop.The hard left hates contemporary American liberalism—and its standard bearer, the Democratic Party—with the intensity of a thousand suns. Ever read Greenwald? Sirota? (They latter blocked me on Twitter!). Freddie DeBoer?
He and other Democrats talk about this stuff all the time. You just don't hear about it because the press ignores it in favor of Biden is old inflation is still not zero etc.
Politics is not a spectator sport. If the electorate refuses to distinguish between legitimate political practice and illegitimate political malpractice, what do you want Biden to do? Take away everyone's allowance? Put everyone in detention?
Everyone has to learn to distinguish between political practice, which is getting elected by serving one's constituency, the whole constituency, and political malpractice, which is getting elected by serving a part at the expense of the whole.
That doesn't mean that the Biden-Harris campaign can't do better, but don't live in a glass house and throw stones.
By and large, the electorate gets the government it votes for and deserves. If too many people in the electorate cannot see that Biden/Democrats actually does more for them than Trump/Republicans do when they're in control, our democracy is already failed/lost and we're just all now haggling over how long we can pretend it's still thriving.
Incidentally related,
Is McDonald's the real reason people are complaining about food prices?
https://old.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1crt6ri/mcdonalds_menu_prices_have_collectively_doubled/
I never eat fast food so this was news to me.
Certain prices are just sticky in people's minds. Gas, because it's in foot high numbers on every street corner, so you see it multiple times every day. The places you regularly eat lunch at, because (for most people who don't work in a CBD) there are only like 10-12 possible places to get to, eat at and get back to work within a 30-60 minute lunch break. So I wouldn't be surprised if McDonalds has an oversized impact on people's perceptions of inflation.
I heard on the evening TV news about someone complaining about an "$18 Big Mac." I then went on my McDonalds app (yes, I sometimes order from them) and looked at the price of a Big Mac. It was $5.39. So what the F?
This is why the problems is 100% the media -- not Fox but the "mainstream" media. "Skyrocketing" inflation (which has stabilized between 3.0 and 3.5% for the last 12 months) is catnip for the advertisers, facts be damned.
Of course, someone at a rest stop in Connecticut did pay $18 for a Big Mac MEAL (not just the sandwich), but that's not the norm at all. But far more importantly, it has NOTHING to do with Joe Biden. McDonalds has hiked prices in anticipation of some STATE-level increases in minimum wage.
Goddamn those greedy burger-flippers! What do they think, they deserve a living wage? After all, if they can't afford to feed their families, they can just go on welfare . . . which is paid for by the government . . . which gets the money from our taxes . . .
Oops, never mind.
The Afghanistan withdrawal was where I decisively parted ways with every last Iraq-War-backing, fresh-ripe-pear-eating William Shawn anecdote haver ("He once said 'Hello' to me on the staircase!") at the New Yorker and every email security protocol PhD at the New Yorrk Times.
When the only reason to read a periodical is to avoid giving money to Rupert Murdoch, it's time to unsubscribe.
Always so many thoughtful, measured words from these zombies explaining why we must stick with military mistakes that are going nowhere.
Biden should not take credit for bringing the January 6 insurrectionists to justice - justice is supposed to be impartial. Saying he did it himself would be affirming Trump's claim that the prosecutions were political.
It's still early for direct advertising. This may be how Biden gets his message across, as the media give equal - or more - space to Trump's lies and emphasize the horse race.
All prosecutions are political.
That's idiotic.
If by idiotic you mean accurate.
Prosecutions are a determination by the state that someone has committed what the state defines as a crime and that this can be proven using standards created, maintained, and administered by the state to a sufficiency to, in the states opinion, justify a trial. If convicted, the person on trial will be punished in whatever manner the state wishes.
All prosecutions are political actions, because everything, literally everything, about them is determined by politics.
That's a cute piece of sophistry there. And there is some truth to it, but murder is illegal in every society. So is burglary and so forth. But yes, the state defies what a statutory crime is.
"As your president, I took an oath to defend our nation's constitution. And so I've made it a priority to make sure those who want to tear it down get sent to jail."
This is about the most anodyne form of campaign messaging I can think of. You seriously think that's beyond the pale?
This is politics. Not 11th grade social studies.
Yesterday, the WaPo had a terrific story about Mayor Pete, flying around the nation in seats not first-class to help understand the nations flier woes.
It was fantastic policy-driven journalism. Sadly, every wink and nod and fart trump emits in court is of more interest.
I want more stories about how people in government do their jobs, how they're successful, their notions of what they would need to do better.
I worked for a state government, for five years, and I loved it. Most of my co-workers loved their jobs, too. We felt like we helped make people's lives better. My newphew now works for a state government, and has the same sense of reward.
Rebecca Solnit was right; we spend too much time moaning and whining about what's wrong and forget what's right, what's working, and the joy around us. And that includes the joy of working for the people around you, and making a difference in the quality of their lives.
Years ago I worked on a contract for the Social Security Administration, in the Disability division. The determination of elegibility is done by medical doctors, psychologists and other personnel employed by the states, but paid by the Federal government. I was impressed by the same attitude you describe; employees really were conscious that they were helping people in need. I worked in private industry when 'mission statememts' were a thing, but I never saw an organization that came close to SSA for the degree to which workers understood and pursued the mission.
"I want more stories about how people in government do their jobs, how they're successful, their notions of what they would need to do better."
You need to go to Canada for that sort of no-nonsense, feel-good, public-interest journalism. There's no way any American news outlet is going to run regular pieces on "meet Barb who works at the health department, making sure thousands of restaurants in our region aren't poisoning people." America is all about pleasure seeking right here right now at all times, and good government stories just aren't as interesting as hearing about the rare government employee performing assholery on a grand scale, like those judges in Texas do routinely.
we spend too much time moaning and whining about what's wrong and forget what's right, what's working, and the joy around us.
If there's a bright side, it's this: it's quite likely that the overwhelming majority of people who will decide this election—so called "normies" (ie, people who don't closely follow the news, and politics)—aren't nearly as doom-driven as the good liberals who populate environs such as Kevin's blog. Even more good news: they're likely paying a lot less attention to the election than they will be after Labor Day.
I'm not going to lie: I'm as scared AF right now of a Trump restoration. But I'm going to try to not let it destroy my mental health, and there's still a very good chance (I'd like to think more than a 50% chance) it won't happen.
find Fetterman's former social media manager and pay him 10x
Pres. Biden has been traveling around touting projects funded by the infrastructure bill and the chipmakers' bill. But that stuff is boring. Trump falls asleep again in court! Trump scowls at a witness! Trump looks mean! Now that's newsworthy!!
- every damn MSM reporter/editor
Very true. Obviously press biases, including Fox News’ very successful propaganda machine, are the biggest problem here. I think an under appreciated aspect is that Biden needs some votes from nominal Republicans, who don’t want to hear about his successes. Also, as the Middle East and oil issues show, Biden has to hold together a fractious base.
I hope as we get closer to the election, voters will start weighing the options more rationally. Refusing to vote for Biden over a single issue, especially when the only other candidate with a chance to win is worse on that issue, is just nuts. Or, "I refuse to accept a choice of the lesser of two evils!" So you'll sit out the election, or vote for some vanity candidate, and take the chance that we get the greater of two evils?
Very personally-comfortable people will very much do both of those, and then sit around and bitch about everything Trump does after he's back in office. Politics is either a turn-off for them, or pure entertainment for them, but they are so materially comfortable that politics simply doesn't matter to their lifestyles.
Wingnuts actually crapping themselves to own the libs,
https://old.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/1croi7v/golden_diapers/
I swear to god.
I seem to recall then-president Obama having a similar problem.
And I suspect a major factor is one that you, Kevin, have long identified: Fox News and its pervasive influence as the heart of the right-wing media complex.
I also think virtually none of that will change for most of us. Because of our quirky presidential election system (and the current state of our partisan politics), the campaign will take place almost exclusively in 6-8 mid-sized states. Those of us in the other 40+ states will not, for the most part, be the recipients of campaign appearances, TV ads, text and email blasts, doorknocking and phone calls and GOTV efforts from either national party.
Barring some major external event, it will be a close election, and the decision will come down to a (very) few million voters in those 6-8 states and what they decide when they finally start paying attention to the election (probably not until 4 months from now, at the earliest).
This is not a policy success. This is a massive policy failure.
What absolute hogswallop.
Progressives love talking about how crime is down, and we especially love talking about it in conjunction with the policies of members of our own political coalition, both because we recognize that crime being down is a good thing, and because crime being down helps make our case for not having the pigs be armed to the teeth and allowed to murder people because the poor dears were afeared for their safety.
Imagine having the centrist brain worms so bad you think "a President can't talk about how crime is down and take credit for it because those mean progressives will get het up about it."
You sound like a left-wing POS! The problem lefties have is they don't understand how unpopular their policies are with mainstream voters.
Tell us you are a Trump supporter without saying you are a Trump supporter.
Just because some random BLM folks shortened "reallocate police funding to train first responders to deal with domestic disputes" to "Defund the Police" does not mean lefties in general...
This is not a policy success. This is a massive policy failure.
That's completely absurd. What matters is global decarbonization. The United States doesn't get a special prize for having to import a higher percentage of its fossil fuels, nor is it in anyway penalized for taking market share away from the odious regimes in Russia and Saudi Arabia.
It should not be Biden's job to correct disinformation -- no voters trust anything said by the politicians themselves. It's the job -- or should be -- of the *information industry* to make the public better informed. They sit on their high horses proclaiming how they "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," but their conception of the "comfortable" always means whoever controls the government.
Ask this question: if we had the best damn president in history, who did everything exactly right, how would we know?
Yeah. Biden may be the best American President of my lifetime, but his accomplishments don't get much attention.
Biden recently visited Wisconsin to highlight the jobs created their by Biden's policies, and the coverage on MSNBC highlighted Trump's 2018 photo op where Trump took credit for a deal with FoxConn that would fail to generate the promised jobs. Probably the Biden campaign is happy with the MSNBC coverage because it compared Biden favorably to Trump. However, it illustrates that MSNBC is much happier talking about Trump’s failings than Biden’s virtues.
It should not be Biden's job to correct disinformation
It most certainly is the job of his campaign to do so—at least if this campaign wants to actually prevail in November. Which isn't really all that clear at the moment.
Trump says that closing his eyes in court is to signal that he doesn't care,
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-sleep-in-court-defiance/
So, it's alright then, he's giving 'big personality problem' energy.
Come to grips with it. Most people really don’t want or need what democrats are pushing. And if they do need it? They don’t want it to come from you!
Most people sure as hell don't want what you and Trump are pushing. So I guess you're here just to stir up trouble in support of the only outright criminal to hold the White House. You should maybe find a place more congenial to your nut case views.
I’m not pushing anything. And I’m voting for Biden. But clearly I’ve moved beyond the idea that the American political system is capable of governing the country. It’s not. I understand this is irritating to all of you. What more evidence do you need than the observations made by Mr. Drum in this post?
Oh well. We’ll all have to come to grips with reality in 6 months. Then I’ll be happy if I’m wrong. Good luck.
Anyway, you know you’re not suppose to reply to my comments. 😂
Sadly, you are correct. I'm voting for Biden, but he's a lousy candidate and the mainstream media is brain-dead.
So time spent worrying about the outcome is wasted time. Like you, I'll be happy if I'm wrong.
I think he should ignore the progressives. Despite what they call themselves, they are not interested in progress. They, like MAGA, will only be satisfied with total victory.
In a constitutional system deliberately designed to force compromise, those are both bullshit outliers that should be ignored.
I think the problem is more simple and obvious...Mr Biden is a Very, very poor speaker....his dry, raspy voice, spoken in halting almost broken whispers....is no fun to listen to.
President Biden does not project strength, but rather physical and even intellectual weakness.
Biden is the President ffs, hire him a speech coach & a decent PR person.
No one, not even hyper political me, enjoys listening to Mr Biden speak...on anything.
IMO....Best Wishes, Traveller
Biden is the President ffs, hire him a speech coach
I don't recall the specifics, but Biden has a physical problem with his vocal cords. For better or worse this is beyond speech coach territory. If it comes down to which candidate better emulates the physical strength of a bull moose, Trump is going to win (unfairly as that is, given the obvious fact that Biden is much more physically fit than Trump). But I don't think that's what it's going to come down to. Like most of our recent elections, it'll be decided by national conditions, and how such conditions are perceived in a handful of states.
I hope you are right...I confess that I am a lot twitchy with anxiety this political season...sigh, thanks for trying to clear this up. Best Wishes, Traveller
PS The State of the Union was Okay...but Biden needs to bring his game every day until November. Trump does, he's out there blustering every day...as stupid as Trump is, people like it.
Biden, maybe needing a more controlled environment could have, FDR.like, fireside chats....but he needs something to connect with the voters. Traveller
Biden needs to bring his game every day until November. Trump does, he's out there blustering every day...as stupid as Trump is, people like it.
Trump's unfavorables are worse than Biden's. The former might well win, mind you (and I think would do so if the election were held tomorrow), but Joe Biden is both more popular than Trump and more popular than any leader in any major democracy.
Team Biden needs to remind voters what a disaster trump was especially in 2020/21. I'm definitely better off today than 4 years ago