Joe Biden: The 2020 Dream Candidate?
Does Biden have what it takes?
By Ahmed Tabbakh
The Progressive Teen Staff Writer
SINCE ANNOUNCING HIS CANDIDACY in April of 2019, former Vice President and Senator Joe Biden garnered a great deal of illustrious praise as well as a surprising volume of pushback on behalf of a growing new wing of the Democratic Party. Not only has his reputation been called into question, but a variety of typically liberal news outlets have even gone so far as to denounce and chastise Joe for his “old fashioned” and “racist” track record which is no longer suited to the Democratic ideal. As a result, it has become obvious in recent days that how Joe’s campaign handles such matters will be key to deciding whether or not he will win the Democratic nomination and by extension the 2020 race.
Joe’s campaign has a lot going for it. Namely, of course, his association with 44th President Barack Obama has helped to draw a large bloc of sentimental Democratic voters who yearn once again for the era of relatively moderate yet firm Progressive control over the nation. In addition, Biden’s naturally centrist and big-tent political ideology brings in throngs of on-the-fence independents, Trump-skeptic Republicans, and even a good deal of the younger crowd who believe in meaningful Progressive change with the record to back it up. He has done this with an expert’s hand, being sure to attack Trump and stand in line with modern Democratic ideals while carefully stepping clear of the kind of extra left-wing dialogue that Bernie Sanders has favored since the 2016 election in an appeal to many young Democrats.
These shining merits have given Biden the propulsion to take many center-line and relatively inoffensive Democrats in his fold and become the Democratic 2020 frontrunner as of now. Not to mention, Biden’s propensity for appealing to labor, shown perhaps most clearly by his very first campaign rally in April which took place in Pennsylvania (a Trump-taken state in 2016) where he vowed to fight for unions, and has rallied a good deal of support amongst workers of the middle class who want a candidate who takes their issues seriously.
Every candidate has their challenges, however, and Biden is no exception. As expected, attacks from the right-wing come frequently and do not generate much trouble, but it is backlash within his own party that has revealed serious flaws in his candidacy, and the context for such backlash can perhaps best be summarized in a short history.
Before the 2016 Presidential Election, both the Democratic and Republican parties maintained a steady centrist approach with Republicans dominating the center-right and Democrats the center-left. In brief, it has been this way ever since the Nixon era in which he used the “silent majority” of relatively inoffensive middle-class centrist voters as his primary voter base to win the 1968 election. From then until 2016, the two parties both did their best to coax in this group and, being that this voter bloc was so large, were able to easily carry more than enough states to win election after election, from the local to Presidential level. This strategy also kept the parties relatively in line with each other and allowed American political discourse to maintain a non-radical and down-to-earth approach for those decades.
Beginning in 2015 with Donald Trump’s announcement that he was seeking the Presidency, this strategy collapsed entirely. Trump had done something entirely extraordinary. He had brought back the era of fringe politics and political tribalism, in which each party kept to a strict and almost sacred code of beliefs and thus drifted left and right as to avoid any association with the other. In the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders led the Democratic reaction to this change and brought to the table farther left-wing views and a more stringently Progressive platform. With the 2018 midterm elections and the Democrats gaining seats in the House and Senate, the polarized politics only continued, and voters on either side became extremely passionate, something U.S. politics has not seen in many decades.
Joe Biden’s primary 2020 flaw is that he has not adapted to that change. He remains, much like Clinton in 2016, on the center of the spectrum, trying to use the old-fashioned strategy of big-tent politics to draw in the silent majority. What happens, however, when the silent majority isn’t there? What happens when the majority of Democrats are polarized to candidates on the farther left? What does this mean for Joe Biden? The answer could be one of two options. He may either pull a narrow victory in the primaries on account of his being so well known and beloved during his Vice Presidency, or the mass-polarization that Trump set into motion will deny Biden the voter base he needs to win the nomination and it will go to another, more “Post-2016” Democrat.
This effect is only exacerbated by the fact that in his long Senate career, he voted for bills not on the line of the new 2019 Democratic Party, but on the old, more center, and the comparatively more conservative one that he is a seasoned veteran of (examples include: busing during post-segregation, his handling of the Anita Hill hearings, and the 1998 Crime Bill). These have led to a variety of accusations of being racist, bigoted, or even an outright liar.
Perhaps these charges are unfair, and that claim has some truth to it. Joe Biden has most certainly proven his commitment to equality, as he supports the LGBTQ+ rights movement and has at least given an attempt to adapt to the new political climate, which is heating up quickly. Joe Biden, no matter how one sees it, is a strong candidate. He has the political merit and gumption to pursue the presidency, and his energy for an older man is outstanding. While many challenges face him, his lead has sustained itself. His character and strength define his values. His job as Vice President was an excellent one. He has been one of the most popular Vice Presidents in U.S. history, and it is his light, characteristic charm and hard-working attitude that propelled him there. Maybe Joe is the dream candidate, the one to restore us to normalcy, or perhaps he will be another footnote in Presidential Election history. Only time (and our votes) will tell.
