Biden's Flawed Campaign

On her afternoon show this week, Nicole Wallace asked one of her Progressive guests why Democrats (especially) have such extreme anxiety over the possibility of a Trump victory. He then waxed on about misleading polling in 2016 and facing a political déjà vu. He was wrong, or at best grossly incomplete.

Despite the jaw dropping, stomach twisting experience many felt (including me) in November 2016, what we are feeling today is quite different. Although it had seemed unbelievable that a comically excessive, reality TV host had won the Presidency there was still an unknown factor. What kind of President would Trump become?  He had been almost everything during his life, Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, pro-choice, pro-life and so on. No one, not even Republicans, were comfortable speculating.

I for one have always believed that the weight of the office always sculpted the holder into something new, something better. I don’t believe that anymore. Trump took his buffoonery and manic desire for adoration to the White House and never let go.

This time around we don’t need to or have the luxury of speculating on what kind of President Trump would be over the next four years. We know precisely and that realization is devastating and truly frightening. We know not because we are in a mishandled pandemic, we know from nearly four years of grueling incompetence, self-dealing, and absolutely shameful displays of crass authoritarianism. (see my 8/22/20 post “Lest We Forget”)

However, the utter exhaustion from Trump’s Presidency seems to have been lost on the Biden Campaign and I fear there are consequences to be had, even if Biden wins.

The brain trust at the Biden Camp, whoever that may be, decided months ago to wage their war primarily on a single issue: Covid-19. A single issue? Think about it. Here you have our National leader so defective that he feels comfortable saying and doing virtually anything that comes into his head. Since 2017 he has acted no differently than if he were on the set of The Apprentice, only without producers or a director. Yet the focus of his opponent is on one issue.

The Biden strategy may be a winning strategy. Given the clown car incompetence Trump applied to the Pandemic, it likely will be. But it creates this question: might Trump have been the logical winner on election night 2020 had the Pandemic not occurred?

That question should not even be contemplated. Trump has been the worst President in modern American history and probably competes with James Buchanan for the top spot overall.

However, when Biden takes over many of the arguments the Trump devotees have made in the Fox News echo chamber may actually come to pass, at least in part. The pandemic will not go away, the extent of the contagion will still be out of control, total compliance to mask wearing will not be achieved, and social distancing and isolation will erode We will find ourselves with many more months of “living with” the virus, partially offset by therapeutics, until an accepted vaccine takes hold.

Biden will be faced with a sick nation, frustrated and not caring about who did what when. The economic problems and pandemic fatigue may make it impossible to initiate reforms in health care, immigration, foreign relations, infrastructure, climate change, and inequality (social and economic). Even worse it might result in the loss of Congress, House and Senate, in 2022. Republicans will be assembling in back rooms in January 2020 on these very points.

One thing for sure, it will be too late to try and resurrect the reality that there were a hundred reasons not to re-elect Trump before Covid, with every supporter held accountable. The Fox News crowd (plus the new network: Trump News) may be perfectly positioned to rewrite history, never having to defend it before an election, and ask the Nation to Make America Great Again.

Just enough people may listen.