Perhaps Trump has actually changed the game, and Biden is literally following the Trumpian populist playbook to survive.
President Biden’s efforts to remain the Democratic presidential nominee have sparked something of an unusual phenomenon. I think I can synthesize it as such: Joe Biden is aping Donald Trump.
More and more, Biden is starting to look like Trump, and I mean that both literally and figuratively.
Call it the Bronze Age. Since his disastrous debate, Biden has appeared dramatically more orange. It is a sad commentary on our political culture to say that this is both wise and necessary, but it is. Trump patented the presidential pumpkin look, and now it’s de rigueur.
Unfortunately, the nascent similarities between Trump and Biden don’t end with spray tans. Biden and his team have started railing against “elites” in the Democratic Party and the mainstream media. The former slur was invoked while phoning into a morning TV show — another tactic that Trump perfected first. The latter came from a Zoom call with donors.
Trump wasn’t the first pol to run against the press (Spiro Agnew and others did it), but he did take it to a new low by painting the media as “enemies of the people” and purveyors of “fake news.”
Biden hasn’t stooped to that level, but the goal is the same: Discredit your critics. Cast anyone who questions you as out of touch. Put your personal objectives ahead of the party and the country. Play the victim. Never ever accept defeat.
To be fair, Biden’s back is against the wall. And it wouldn’t surprise me if he has conflated his political career and his literal mortality; people who find ultimate meaning in their work often do that (see Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s stubborn refusal to retire and the ensuing consequences).
Biden might also have a rational, if selfish, view of the situation: If he bows out now, his legacy will forever be that of an old man who got pushed out of his job. In this macho political era, the last thing you can afford to be remembered as is weak. If Joe stays in, he at least has a puncher’s chance of winning reelection.
The most compelling reason for Biden to exit stage left would be if he cares more about defeating Donald Trump (an “existential threat”!) than he does about his own ego or image. But with Biden refusing to budge, Democrats are facing a sort of Catch-22: Stick with a likely loser — or get blamed for creating one.
The best scenario for Democrats would be for Biden to leave quickly and willingly. If that’s not possible, the next-best scenario would be for Democrats to rally around Biden, warts and all.
The absolute worst scenario — the one that has been playing out for the last week or so — is for Biden to stubbornly stay in the race while his party and the press spend weeks trying to push him out.
This is to say that Biden has the leverage.
Just as Trump has held his own party hostage, Democrats are beginning to realize that criticizing a recalcitrant Biden is tantamount to shooting his hostages (in this case, down-ballot Democrats running for Senate and House seats).
When asked whether Biden should drop out, Democrats are forced to engage in tautologies, such as, “President Biden is the nominee.”
Trump put Republicans in a similar situation. When asked whether the 2020 election was stolen from him, the best many Republican officials could muster was to say, “Look, Joe Biden is the president.”
It’s a sad state of affairs when a down-ballot politician can’t morally endorse his party’s standard bearer, yet is unable to criticize him. What does it say about the state of American politics?
One possibility is that we are all more selfish, careerist, partisan and tribalistic than we would like to admit. Another possibility is that Trump has actually changed the game, and Biden is literally following Trump’s populist playbook to survive.
A corollary to this theory is that Trumpism is an accelerant that justifies norm-breaking just to keep even. For example, it is plausible that Democrats who are willing to reluctantly support an unfit president (i.e., Biden) are simply making a rational decision: Slow and senile is less dangerous than chaotic and crazy.
Whatever the case, we have two old guys as the de facto major party presidential nominees, and neither is what you might call fit to occupy this great office. Both are forcing their partisan supporters to defend the indefensible and pretend that two plus two equals five.
And just like an old married couple, the two men (and their followers) are starting to more closely resemble one another with each passing day.
Matt K. Lewis is a columnist, podcaster and author of the books “Too Dumb to Fail” and “Filthy Rich Politicians.”
