What do Americans really know about Trump and Biden?
4 June 2024
Trump as dictator:
I recommend this post by Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor.
His conclusions:
Ask Americans the following question, repeatedly: Do they want a sociopathic infant at the helm again or a sane grown-up?
Draw the starkest possible contrast between Trump’s unhinged childishness and Biden’s competent adulthood. Rather than sell Biden’s policies, sell Biden’s character. Rather than dispute Trump’s arguments, condemn his temperament.
Point out the many ways Biden is sticking it to big corporations and Wall Street (through antitrust litigation, labor law, tax policy, non-compete agreements, lower prices of insulin and other prescription drugs, etc.). This is in contrast with the tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks Trump gave big corporations and Wall Street (which is why corporate America and Wall Street are putting big money into Trump’s campaign) and his promises to eliminate Obamacare (with no replacement) and to cut Medicare and Social Security to pay for his tax cuts.
Why isn’t any of this getting through?
Americans suffer from a form of collective amnesia. There’s simply too much going on. We’re also very vulnerable to the power of suggestion — things we learn after the fact that become incorporated into our memory, fooling us into thinking they were real.
Our memories are also affected by our biases — experiences, beliefs, prior knowledge, and what our friends and associates believe. When we retrieve a memory, these biases influence what information we actually recall.
Anyone who watches a lot of Fox News or hears lots of right-wing radio is vulnerable to both suggestion and bias.
Biden is an adult. He quietly and competently does the work of governing the nation. His Cabinet is talented and committed. His White House staff is one of the best I’ve seen.
In contrast, Trump is a wildly narcissistic child. He struggles to behave, even when a Judge in his criminal case tells him to do so.
When voters tell pollsters they think Trump is “stronger” than Biden on foreign policy or the economy, the “strength” they feel comes from the emotions Trump stirs up — rage, ferocity, vindictiveness, and anger. These emotions are connected to brute strength. They have nothing to do with effectivness.
Biden projects strength the old-fashioned way — through mature and responsible leadership. But mature and responsible leadership doesn’t break through today’s media and reach today’s public nearly as well as brute strength.
More here.
My related posts
President Biden’s record, 21 May 2024
Electing leaders who will not give up power, 20 May 2024
Why I am grateful that Joe Biden is our President, 21 April 2024
President Biden is good for the Palestinians, 25 February 2024
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