Baby Blues
Wanted: A strategy to include and expand the 2024 voter pool.
January 24
Today was a good day for Presidential campaigner, Joe Biden. While entranced corporate independent types fawned over Nikki Haley’s adroit courting of the anti-Trump donor class, Joe Biden was endorsed by the UAW.
Biden’s endorsement, the earliest by a major union, (1) followed by 24 hours the largest walkout of university teachers and allies in California history. (2)
To those who care about the future of workers in America, notwithstanding that Trump’s dismissal of workers is a political Achilles heel, Biden’s announcement that he is the most pro-Labor President in US history is gratifying, albeit somewhat untested.
Consider the alternative.
The labor corralling dimension is Biden’s best shot at addressing voter apathy. Who can argue with the labor progress of the summer of ‘23? Who can argue with Michigan repealing its right to work laws, the first state in 60-odd years? Who can argue with California teachers on one coast demanding equity, and Harvard faculty on another coast demanding release from the latest version of “pay to speak?”
Consider another underestimated political lever, the “youth vote.”
Listen to gun control advocate, David Hogg. Listen to Nancy Pelosi. The young voters who have come of age in the past four years are key to Biden’s future as President and for that matter America’s future as recognizable.
Biden’s “problem” is not the economy, not Bibi hugging, nor his determined tarmac shuffle. It’s the “young vote.”
Here’s the problem: the “young vote,” considered by some pundits to be largely non-existent, is fragile. It comes with an economic shadow. (3) It comes with a “not ready for prime time” MM (‘mainstream media’) culture dismissal: even superwoman Taylor Swift’s Biden rapture couldn’t survive the 24 hour news cycle tentacles.
What will seal the deal with young voters is sealing “the deal.” Marijuana brought out the young voters in ’20. Abortion in 22.
In ‘24? The script hasn’t been inked yet.
America’s future is waiting.
It’s not Biden that’s aging, it’s America’s future engaged citizens.
January 25
Notes
1-UAW endorsement
2-California walkout
3-Author, “Biden’s Last Gaffe”, medium.com, January 7, 2024
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