It’s Not the Economy
The Re-elect Biden Campaign rethinks their messaging
June 16
A communications misfire occurred in the West Wing this past week. Jumping on Trump’s revealing swagger that any politician would cringe at uttering, “I don’t care about you, I just want your vote,” the Biden team ran the clip as a Biden campaign ad with nary a comment.
Hmm. In my book, that’s an unsolicited pitch to vote for your opponent. Why? Because your opponent is very clear about his ambitions — tear the house down. Summed up during the 2016 campaign, before a crowd of black voters, recall your opponent avowed, “It can’t get any worse, can it?”
Forget reflecting on what “it,” your opponent was fingering. The point is, your opponent doesn’t care, really about anything except one thing, loyalty to him. Everybody understands that.
And in this election, loyalty is being framed as transactional: I don’t care about you, so do as I say and things will change. Yours is not a vote in the small ‘d’ democracy, text book way; yours is a transaction. Vote for me and you’ll see. There is no parallel, there is only one choice.
Imagine why if the economy has improved on your watch, what gives voters the impulse to feel counter to the economy performance.
