Monday, March 28, 2022

Biden needs to go on the attack on domestic issues against the GOP as he did in Warsaw on Putin

Update: March 31, 2022 Biden's plan to reduce gas prices at the pump, including a huge dump on the market of strategic reserves, the largest in history to increase supply, and levying fees on those with well permits on federal lands who do not begin drilling and pumping.  FACT SHEET: President Biden’s Plan to Respond to Putin’s Price Hike at the Pump | The White House    As Biden said in announcing this, it will take a few weeks before the prices at the pump come down and the retailers work their way through the inventory of more expensive fuel first. 

Biden needs to go on the attack on domestic issues as he did in Warsaw on Putin.  It is a gut thing. and in political messaging gut feelings count. Outrage and indignation count.    

OMG. Biden said publicly what most were saying privately, "For the sake of God, this man cannot remain in power". Unfortunately, that sentence eclipsed the rest of his important speech on March 26 in Warsaw. That was an adlibbed outcry of moral outrage, It did leave the impression that US policy was to encourage regime change in Russia and it did create a diplomatic flap. Biden's spokespersons tried to walk back the regime change implications, but Biden has not walked it back himself. (Later in the day, Biden confirmed "he was not walking anything back"; he was expressing moral outrage.) Maybe he intended to be ambiguous. The use of "cannot" seems awkward and contrived for the purpose of ambiguity; Why not "should not", or "will not" or "ought not"?  Republicans in the US tried to make hay from it as a gaff and used it to step on his main message and powerful delivery, but the fire he lit may have been an appeal to the gut of others as well as sending a message to Putin in terms Putin could understand. It was in the context of a message to the Russian people. Putin got a message indeed and snapped buck by text, that was for the Russian people to decide, not Biden.  Biden's chunk of a lifetime of dealing with Putin is an experience none of us have had. Biden's speech in Warsaw was a passionate attack on  Putin, calling him a butcher and, earlier, a war criminal. It is hard to get more inflammatory than that except to do what Biden did, to send a message to the Russian people themselves, that hit at the core of  Putin's attempt to remain a dictator for life. Biden says he was expressing 'moral outrage' when he said Putin can't remain in power: 'I make no apologies for it' (yahoo.com)

Continuing with the original post:

 As Biden went on the attack in Warsaw he needs to go on the attack  in tone and substance on domestic issues as well,  perhaps  more  explicitly expressed. .There are some opportunities to do so. Painting Trump supporting candidates with the broad brush of Trumpsterism is fair game. Using candidate's own words praising Putin and his "strong man" leadership style against them is a good strategy given the revelation that Putin's war in Ukraine was brutal and the work of an evil mind.   Biden was  on target  about framing the Ukraine war as Putin's, and putting it in context of democracy v autocracy. That is a message that have relevance to domestic politics as well, since Trump spent four years extolling the advantages of autocracy in his bromance with Putin.80 times Trump talked about Putin - CNN.com


Updated comment March 30 posted on Facebook: For the third time in Trump's political life, he calls on Putin to help him. The first when he asked Putin to find Hillary's missing emails; the second,, got him impeached when he tried to pressure Ukraine President Zelensky to find dirt on Hunter and Joe Biden, using the provision of Javelin Anti Tank weapons as a bargaining chip, and yesterday, calling on Putin to once again provide dirt on Biden...in the midst of our country giving full support to Ukraine in their resistance to Putin's War invasion.. Columnist Charlie Sykes called him a traitor. I agree. Here is why. Why defend Ukraine? Because it is in the US's national security interest to defend NATO now,, to avoid an eventual World War III by making it clear to Putin we will not roll over and let him get away with such invasions, including his announced goal to re=establish the empire of the USSR>. Trump spent four years trying to defang NATO, refusing to support the heart of the mutual defense clause, saying the Baltic states were not worth defending, and praising the management style of Putin as a dictator while licking Putin's ego boots.. While the US considers Putin an acute threat to the European continent, Trump still looks to Putin for his support, Trump is a traitor with no concern for US national security interests in his obsession to relitigate the 2020 election. The term "acute threat" was clarified by the Pentagon spokesperson meaning" at this time, relevant, a threat to the European continent" in a press briefing March 30.


 While Biden's poll numbers remain dismal, his taking leadership of the free world has added nothing to his popularity,  Historians of this moment will see what he has done as pivotal to the continuation of democracy in the face of autocracy. History may give him praise, but right now, no one seems to give him credit, yet. ,However,.  I have noted a cultural shift in social media postings and in local tones and stories in local press that is not yet showing up in the polls.  Blue collar workers, firefighters, and law enforcers get it and have been quick to donate surplus equipment  and fly the colors of Ukraine.  They understand that Putin is a threat to their way of life in the long run even if they are not inspired by political science theory of democracy v autocracy. It is a gut thing. 

Using the same passionate delivery style as in Warsaw, Biden can lay the groundwork for messaging which can be used by challengers to incumbent Trumpsters running for re-election  in the midterm elections...On a district by district advertising  strategy, Democrats in the general election (and more traditional Republicans in the primaries) can replay opponents' records of bootlicking Putin such as " Putin is so clever and smart and it is a worthy goal to have his one man power rule" with comments that are on the record, to remind voters that  that particular G OP  legislator was a danger to our democracy. 

Soft on crime is another GOP  talking point attacking Biden and democrats that need to be called  out for what it is.  He should turn on his outraged counter attack on this issue, too. Biden's record is not and never has been that, but it is understandable since most of the per capita murders take place in Trump country.  Therein lies a counter attack: Trump supporters ought to pay attention to what is happening in their own districts. That crime increase is due to Democrat's soft on crime policy is a bunch of BS given a study that showed 8 out of 10 highest per capita murder rates occur in states voting for Donald Trump. .   Per The Red State Murder Problem – Third Way

  • "In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.
  •  8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century."

COViID is fast fading as an issue, at least until this next variety hits us, but there is also a correlation between Trump counties having the highest death rates and those that do not.  Trumpsters have been bad for the health of the ones they love the most in promoting their anti-vax messages.  Counties That Voted for Trump Have Higher COVID Death Rates | Healthiest Communities Health News | US News

Inflation is still a quagmire and hopefully the fed slowly raising rates will begin to take effect and the COVID hangover will slowly work it way through the supply chain and readjustments., Slowly may still be too slow to help by November midterms.  

 It is critical that Biden do what he can to lower the price at the pump . It is a matter Biden cannot fix himself easily, but to claim this is due to his policies is a matter of  ignorance or  of the willfully ignorant spreading ignorance to the more ignorant.  This one is a hard one because prices are mostly set by international cartels seeking to maximize their profits and this  runs counter to self serving interest of producers who do not see it in their interest to reduce prices by increasing the supply by pumping more.  . The US is at the mercy of the international cartels and energy interests who love the inflated prices. They can manipulate supply by refusing to pump more at this time. They love those margins.. Biden has little ability to affect oil and gas prices so long as we are so dependent upon fossil fuels..,  When it comes to Ukraine, the best he can do is to minimize the impact of stopping our Russian imports.  This, too, is a gut thing.. Over 75 percent of those polled in the US like not importing Russian oil and support sanctions and  more complain about high prices at the pump.  Rational thinking is a tough sell in politics, but calling out  BS  in some explicit terms may be the best Biden can do. 

With gas prices high, Colorado oil production is ramping up | Colorado Public Radio (cpr.org)

CBS News poll: Strong support for Russian sanctions even if gas prices increase - CBS News

Poll: More voters blame Biden, not Russia or oil companies, for soaring gas prices - Washington Times

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