Introduction: From what I hear from many friends, and from what I am experiencing myself, this is not an easy time for people who know what’s going on and who care deeply about America’s future.
Sometimes being aware of our situation is almost unendurable. The possibility that Trump might get re-elected – by winning, or by stealing – weighs on many people.
And that weight – the sinking of the pit of the stomach in fear over whether the dark might yet triumph over the light – is not only burdensome. It interferes with the achievement of the victory that is so desperately needed.
Rallying ourselves away from fear and into courageous action is not only a task facing each one of us, individually. It is also an essential task facing our leadership. In particular, it is the task facing Joe Biden because it is he who represents our alternative leadership leading to that alternative brighter future; it is he who represents – as he defined the struggle in his acceptance speech – the choice of love over hate, hope over fear, the light over darkness.
Given the difficult times we face, and the important task facing the best part of America over the coming months, when America will choose its path forward, my thoughts have been going continuously to how Biden should conceive of, and how he should conduct, his campaign to maximize our chances of success.
In a series of three pieces, I will articulate what I would say to Biden if I had his ear:
- The first installment – the present piece – will argue that Biden should find ways to get as much attention as President Trump, and not leave it to Trump to dominate the scene.
- The second installment will present a historical example of leadership – under circumstances significantly parallel to our own – where the leader inspired his people to a courageous and even heroic capacity to wage the necessary battle, and a fearless determination to prevail. That vital piece of history provides a way for Biden to conceive of his challenge: how can he do for Americans now what Winston Churchill did for the people of Britain in the dark days early in WW II when the victory of the dark forces seemed frighteningly possible.
- The third installment will provide a framework for presenting to the American people generally— to address potential swing voters — the essential nature of the choice they will make—moving from the abstract level of a choice between love/hate, hope/fear, and light/dark to the more concrete level of the starkly contrasting paths offered by the two candidates for dealing with the several major crises we face (the pandemic, climate change, the American constitutional order, racial justice).
***************************
Seize Center Stage As Much as Is Advantageous
If Biden and his team were to decide that the attention Trump is continually getting was working to Biden’s advantage, then it would make sense for Biden to leave Trump to dominate the stage. As they say, if your opponent is digging himself into a hole, do nothing to distract from that.
But the evidence suggests that is not the case. That evidence is that Trump did get some sort of bounce from his convention, despite the convention being loaded to the saturation point with lies, and despite how the convention put on full display this President’s continual willingness to abuse his powers, and to violate the law, for his own personal political advantage.
If Trump could win back some “swing” voters with that disgraceful performance, it would seem that it would be a mistake for Biden to cede to Trump his usual domination of the national picture and conversation.
Between now and Election Day, therefore, Vice President Biden should find ways of getting however much attention as would be advantageous, all the way up to a level matching the level of attention garnered by Donald Trump.
Admittedly, matching Trump – if that is what would be best for maximizing Biden’s chances for victory – would be a challenge to accomplish, for two big reasons: 1) Trump is President, and commands the “bully pulpit,” and 2) Trump’s only real claim to “genius” is his extraordinary capacity to make himself the center of attention pretty much continuously.
Nonetheless, Biden has already shown that the team he commands is exceptionally skilled and creative: the four-night presentation that team composed for the Democratic National Convention demonstrated that. The people who assembled that impressive performance should be able to devise the means to capture the attention of the media and the American public for Biden, i.e. for the one man who represents an alternative future for America to the dark future threatened by a second term for Donald Trump.
Which leads to the second point: i.e. that not only should Biden seek the maximally advantageous level of attention, but that he is entitled to as much attention as his election rival, the President.
While it is true that Trump is President, and Biden is not, we have entered the home stretch toward a day where American people will be choosing between two starkly different alternatives for the presidency over the next four years. In the context of the centrality of that choosing process, the American people should have their choices displayed before them side-by-side, with more or less equal availability for the two alternatives to be examined and evaluated by the voters.
And, while it is true that Trump is President, every indication – futures markets, polling analysis – indicates that Biden is more likely than not tobe President in a matter of months. That prospect gives Mr. Biden a kind of presidential status as well.
Because the American people deserve the opportunity to appraise what a Biden presidency would entail, Mr. Biden has the right to get as much attention as his opponent, who has a few more months left in a presidency to which the American public has been fully exposed now for more than three and a half years.
The following two installments will discuss what Biden should do with the attention he gets:
- First, in order to rally his following for the battle, to move those who are already with him from a state of fearfulness and anxiety to a more courageous and bold frame of mind, to inspire them to wage the fight that will raise Biden into the presidency; and
- Second, to present the American people generally with the true picture of the extraordinarily fundamental choice they will be making in this presidential election, the starkly different paths the two (major party) nominees represent on the crises — the life-and-death issues — facing the nation.