MAC McCORKLE: Democrats need 'Progressive Joe' and 'Scranton Joe'
Friday, April 5, 2024 -- Joe Biden's hybrid political character cannot match the intensity of Donald Trump's appeal to his MAGA base. Still it can spread further across the electorate than Trump's MAGA-ism or the one-dimensional targeting of the political center or the Democratic base.
Posted — UpdatedDemocrats are understandably feeling better about President Biden’s 2024 presidential re-election chances after his State of the Union address.
The president’s forceful delivery about his record and plans seemed to dispel the notion that he was too old for the job. He even provided a “progressive” answer to the age issue, declaring:
“My fellow Americans the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are, it’s how old our ideas are. Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back. To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future of what America can and should be.”
Those critics are correct that President Biden needs to go beyond the progressive Democratic base and pick up a healthy share of up-for-grabs voters to repeat his 2020 victory. But the prospects are dim for an incumbent president pulling off a major course correction with less than eight months before election day.
The larger problem is the unstated assumption centrist critics share with progressive advocates: the singular key to a Biden victory is nailing down a series of policy positions in an ideological sweet spot on the political spectrum. According to this view, a candidate’s underlying biography of values does not really matter.
Both sides are denying the hybrid reality and strength of Biden’s 2020 candidacy. His appeal was that he wanted to continue the progressive policy path he helped to chart during the Obama presidency with his rooted identity as an average “Scranton Joe.” Biden merged progressive policy stances with being an unapologetic capitalist, churchgoer, and patriot.
The State of the Union address distilled Biden’s main progressive policy side for the 2024 campaign. Now his campaign needs to weave in more of the capitalist, religious, and patriotic values of “Scranton Joe.”
Trump’s insurrectionist January 6 actions and his calls for terminating the Constitution put America’s way of political life at stake. It is not a matter of the Constitution being some perfect document. But it represents the only endurable basis for the American experiment.
Biden’s hybrid political character cannot match the intensity of Trump’s appeal to his MAGA base. Still it can spread further across the electorate than Trump’s MAGA-ism or the one-dimensional targeting of the political center or the Democratic base.
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