The Biden Bait-and-Switch
He runs on normalcy and nostalgia while quietly promising to enact radical policies and be the most revolutionary president in US history.
Joe Biden is attempting to replicate Nancy Pelosi’s successful 2006 midterm strategy of making the election a referendum on an incumbent Republican president mired in controversy rather than offering a compelling alternative vision. But voters should consider the choice: Mr Biden quietly promises to be the most radical president in US history.
The parallels to 2006 are clear: George W. Bush faced the aftermath of Katrina and Iraq; Donald Trump is blamed for the coronavirus and the violence plaguing America’s cities. Mrs. Pelosi kept her Democratic troops out of the way, as the saying goes, when their enemy was in the process of destroying himself; Mr Biden hides in his basement and keeps the focus on Mr Trump.
Mr Biden reassures voters that Mr Trump is an aberration and denies the need for them to consider, much less address, the legitimate frustrations that caused so many “deplorables” to support him. Voters weary of lurching from one sensational crisis to the next are promised a respite. The international condemnation, Twitter tirades and polarisation can be swept away simply by voting for inoffensive, bland Mr Biden.
Media coverage of the nation’s standing would change dramatically after a Biden victory, even if the reality does not. Mr Biden promises increased federal coronavirus spending, but as president he couldn’t override governors’ authority to restrict economic activity, and he doesn’t propose to alter Mr Trump’s program to accelerate vaccine and treatment development. With Mr Trump embracing masks and trillions in federal spending, and high case totals in blue California and red Florida alike, a Biden victory wouldn’t change the epidemic’s trajectory.
Yet, as the media hailed Governor Andrew Cuomo despite his disastrous policy of transferring coronavirus patients into nursing homes and New York’s record high deaths, Mr Biden’s election would also miraculously transform the virus from an existential threat into a manageable hindrance.
From day one, Donald Trump downplayed the threat COVID-19 posed, ignored scientists, and refused to take action.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 5, 2020
Now, nearly 5 million cases and more than 150,000 deaths later, it's crystal clear we're paying the price for his failed leadership.
Mr Biden, liberal activists and the media are holding the country hostage, threatening voters with exhausting crises, refusing to reopen schools and the economy, and filling the streets with violent protests. Normalcy, they claim, is only a vote away. Given Mr Biden’s affable personality and lack of a radical record, it is tempting to hope he would bring temperance to the White House and allow the country to exhale and heal.
Yet while Mr Biden is no radical, he is also no steadfast moderate. He has reversed his own long-held positions as the Democratic Party has moved dangerously left. His one enduring belief seems to be the importance of his election. Mr Biden would turn the country toward the same radical goals espoused by Bernie Sanders in Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, but he would simply take longer to get there.
Rather than making the traditional move to the centre after he secured the nomination, Mr Biden has continued to move left. He seems more worried about persuading Mr Sanders’s supporters to turn out than convincing Mr Trump’s voters to consider a moderate alternative.
Mr Biden embraced identity politics by promising to name a female running mate. Anticipating a sweep of Congress, Democrats have announced their support for abolishing the Senate filibuster and pay-as-you-go rules. Democrats covet these new powers for the majority not to pursue moderate bipartisan policies. They would likely try to expand the courts, grant statehood to the District of Columbia, restrict gun ownership, give unions more power, and ease immigration restrictions and their enforcement.
Weapons of war have no place in our communities. When I was a senator, I took on the @NRA and secured a 10-year ban on assault weapons — and as president, I’ll ban these weapons again. pic.twitter.com/ggqSaj40EJ
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 5, 2020
Mr Biden abandoned his decades-long support for the Hyde Amendment, restricting federal funding for abortion, and promises to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide employees with insurance for contraception, including abortifacients. He proposes expanding ObamaCare to include a government-run plan, more subsidies and more government control over drug prices. The party platform explicitly welcomes Medicare for All supporters for the first time; the tent is big enough to include single-payer advocates, but not pro-life Democrats.
Mr Biden’s platform rejects regime change in Iran as a foreign-policy goal, and, unlike the 2016 document, opposes expansions of Israeli settlements. Last year Mr Biden promised to spend $1.7 trillion over 10 years on the environment and infrastructure; he recently increased that to $2 trillion over four years. He has accelerated his timeline for a carbon-free power sector to 2035, and wants an emission-free economy by 2050. He promises to increase corporate, payroll, income, capital gains, and other taxes by a record-breaking $3.8 trillion over the next decade. Hillary Clinton wanted only $1.1 trillion.
Donald Trump promised to bring back jobs, but his policies crushed the manufacturing sector—and that was true even before COVID-19.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 6, 2020
I’ll revitalize American manufacturing and innovation and create millions of good-paying jobs so we can build back better. https://t.co/HrOOkWWQof
The media portrays Uncle Joe as a familiar face, reliable statesman, and known quantity in contrast with the volatile Mr Trump. In reality, he promises to be the most liberal president in history. Voters seeking a return to normalcy would get a radical new future instead.
Mr Jindal was governor of Louisiana, 2008-16, and a candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
Wall Street Journal
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