I can't believe I'm saying this.
Andrew Cuomo is right.
As someone who was intensely critical of former New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus response — for example, here, here, and here — it pains me to say this, but Cuomo is right about the problems ailing Joe Biden’s struggling reelection campaign. In an op-ed published in The Hill, Cuomo makes some important points about beating Donald Trump as part of a broader discussion of responding to the current border crisis.
We’re in the middle of the NFL playoffs, leading to the Super Bowl. Winning teams focus on perfecting their strategy — they do not rely on the hope that the other team loses. Today, Democrats are too reliant on Trump being unelectable rather than focusing on the positive case for their victory.
To me, the Democratic Party, at its best, doesn’t deny problems, it solves them. It is ideologically driven, but also realistic. It is the “progressive” party because it actually makes progress. We must regain that focus.
…
Yes, we are a big-tent party, but we must move forward. Our claim to be “progressives” must not be rhetoric but reality. If we want the American people to follow our agenda, we must lead.
Donald Trump cannot win the election, but Democrats can lose the election. We cannot wager that citizens will vote against Trump, but rather give them a reason to vote for Democrats. We must make the positive case for a Democratic future — the negative case against Trump makes itself.
Cuomo’s broad point is that Democrats actually have to inspire trust that they can make progress on solving big problems to win reelection rather than rely on the shortcomings of their opponent. (I’ve made a similar argument in more detail here.) The former governor’s language resonated with me, because his op-ed was published at about the same time as the Biden campaign told the press that a central part of their strategy for beating Donald Trump would be “triggering” him with high school insults.
“Loser” is at the top of the Biden campaign lists of attacks. It’s also, Biden aides believe, a good way to reinforce their core message of 2024 as a battle for American democracy.
“It is Donald Trump who continues to deny the truth about the 2020 election. We are stating facts: Joe Biden is a winner. He won that one. Donald Trump is a loser. He lost that one,” said senior Biden campaign adviser T.J. Ducklo. “So us calling him a loser is simply a response to an issue that he continues to raise himself.”
…
But Ducklo said the campaign’s main focus remains appealing to both base voters and those who aren’t paying close attention to politics. Aides point to several examples of such taunting videos they say are some of their most viewed to date – and which they say should lead to more engagement.
“The goal is to break through a fragmented media environment by delivering our message in a compelling way that cuts through. That’s the goal,” Ducklo said. “If that’s triggering to our opponent, that sounds like a him problem.”
At a time when housing has never been more unaffordable and Americans continue to express frustration about the economy and irregular immigration, it’s disturbing that the Biden campaign is apparently spending more time crafting insults than policy. Moreover, the “loser” diction is problematic insofar as the man that beat Trump in 2020 is now looking like he will be the loser in 2024. It’s bizarre to use language that might do more to remind voters about Biden’s polling troubles than to bolster the case against Trump!
As Cuomo argued, Democrats have to “make the positive case for a Democratic future,” because “the negative case against Trump makes itself.” While there’s nothing wrong with ridiculing Trump’s absurd election denialism and making some jokes at his expense here and there, voters will take notice when a campaign appears chronically shy about articulating an ambitious agenda. Ambivalent Biden voters, like this middle-aged Black man from a depressed Michigan city, are saying they might stay home as a result:
He voted for President Biden in 2020, but this time Killian-Bey says he and others in his predominantly Black neighborhood aren’t so sure. “I’m torn between voting and not voting at all. A lot of us are,” Killian-Bey said. “I don’t think Biden is it, but I don’t see what else is out there.” He wants Democrats to “give me substance. You can’t dangle carrots and assume we’ll vote for you just because we don’t like the other platform.”
Killian-Bey is declaring that, in order for Biden to earn his vote again, he wants big, meaty ideas. That probably means something closer to Medicare for All than reducing the cost of a handful of prescription drugs for seniors on Medicare. That probably means something closer to substantial government involvement in ending homelessness than just sending out more grant money to a handful of non-profits. I wrote this about Hillary in July 2016 and I think it applies to Biden right now:
Hillary will not win if she makes this campaign about Trump being an asshole. She will win if she makes this campaign about celebrating good public policy for the public good.
Election Day is in nine months. And time is running out for Biden to articulate an actual agenda for a second term — one that is worth voting for.
