Hey, so, I was hoping someone could break down the strategy or rationale behind team Biden’s current messaging? Cards on the table, I plan on voting for him in the general election and primary, but the Biden camp’s messaging seems insane to me. I know a single person irl who’s doing well financially right now, everyone else is feeling the pain. The messaging so far seems to be (and please correct me if I’m wrong): everything is fine actually, and we should all be praising him, and it doesn’t matter if you disagree because the other guy is Hitler. It just comes across as super disconnected, I don’t know any IRL left/Dem voters that resonate with it, and it honestly reminds me of the general vibe of the HRC campaign from 16. This election is too important to fuck up, so this messaging has got me concerned. Can someone explain how this is supposed to win Biden the election?
Pretty simple really, it is precisely a riff on HRC’s overall strat. He’s trying to court the moderates, who generally think the economy should be priority #1.
He has a finite number of things he can say, and what appeals to one group is less appealing to another. If you can think of a platform that might appeal to both newer leftists and the older boomer dems and the independents all simultaneously, then that would be better than what he’s doing.
But otherwise he’s going to feel like he needs to shore up his support wherever its weakest, that’s just logical. So, he talks up his economy. He’s not appealing to his base like Trump does, he’s trying to recruit people that don’t particularly like him. Trying to compromise, like a veteran statesman from a checks-and-balances government. Build coalitions. Reach across the aisle. All that crap.
My thoughts anyway.
I guess that makes sense, but why tell people how they’re feeling? That seems like a poor strategy.
I agree. Frankly, he’s not the most charismatic guy around, he’s never really been good at it. It’s a bit of an asset for him sometimes, as certain political attacks kinda slide off his back, since he just comes across as mild-mannered grandpa who speaks his mind too much and kinda just wants everyone to shut the fuck up and focus on the problem.
But it’s a double edged sword. HRC also had the charisma of a muddy log, which is why Obama trounced her so hard. She’s an analytical policy wonk, she needs chalk, blackboards and essays, not people. He had both policy chops and charisma, so won pretty handily.
Bernie also has policy and charisma.
Importantly, it’s useful to remember that the trait of charisma itself is considered profoundly negative by certain workin-man sorts. Kinda a “shut up and get to work, stop manipulating people” kinda thing. So they actually like these dry, crusty sorts. I think you’d have to be older than 40 though, you’d have to pre-date things like The Simpsons and South Park, which utterly trashed this worldview for every generation for probably the next few decades at least.