Before he appeared at his first solo news conference of 2022, President Joe Biden knew he had a communications problem he had to deal with.
Namely, how to get off the defensive.
How to avoid spending his time with the White House press corps defending his decisions and explaining his actions as allegations of failure, one after another, were tossed up at him?
Biden entered knowing what issues would be paramount and what questions would be raised:
Why had he been unable to control a coronavirus pandemic now killing 2,000 Americans a day? Why was he unable to contain an inflation eating up the wages, salaries and savings of American families at a yearly rate of 7%? Why was he unable to secure a southern border that 150,000 illegal immigrants were crossing every month?
To get off the defensive and onto offense, Biden brought his own questions for his GOP inquisitors and conservative critics:
“What are Republicans for? What are they for? Name me one thing they’re for,” Biden demanded to know.
Turning the tables, Biden charged his Republican critics with having no policy goals, other than the willful obstruction of his goals.
“The fundamental question is: What’s Mitch (McConnell) for? … What’s he for on immigration? What’s he for? What’s he proposing to make anything better? … What’s he for on these things? What are they for?”
Biden was making the case that while the Democratic Party has an agenda of declared goals, providing benefits to millions, the GOP is the party of “No.”
Why not fight our battles on this terrain for a change? Biden was demanding. And, behind his exasperation, he has a point.
Democrats do have an agenda. They do have things they want to accomplish. And the party of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is basically an opposition party whose goal is to prevent them from succeeding.
There is another reason Biden would like to force Republicans to identify their goals. Naming them would reveal the divisions inside the GOP on priorities and open Republicans up to the kind of attacks the GOP is mounting against Biden’s agenda.
In short, behind Biden’s demand that the GOP identify its goals was an attempt to shift the debate onto terrain more familiar and favorable for the Democratic Party.
For the truth is that Democrats are the party of government, and Republicans are the party of the private sector. These are their historic roles. Biden is seeking to re-elevate that critical difference.
Democrats, for example, are almost unanimous in their support of federally funded universal pre-K, child care, the child tax credit, student loan forgiveness and federal standards for voting in federal elections.
Historically, Democrats led the fight for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, civil rights, voting rights, welfare and most of the rest of a federal monolith that now consumes perhaps a fourth of our GDP.
Republicans have been the party that resisted the expansion of government over our lifetimes, and its role has often been to conduct an orderly retreat to a new defense perimeter after the most recent defeat.
The most celebrated Republican of the last century was Ronald Reagan, who famously declared that the nine most terrifying words in the English language were, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
Republicans have emphasized, as a major role of government, providing the security that citizens cannot provide for themselves.
Security against crime and violence, security against an invasion of the country, security against hostile foreign powers.
Biden’s problem is that while millions might agree on aspects of his Build Back Better plan, the present primary concerns of the electorate are those government duties that his party is visibly failing to perform: controlling the pandemic, stopping the shootings and killings of cops, halting the invasion across our southern border, preventing the loss of incomes and savings to inflation.
Yet, despite the imperiled position of Biden’s party today, it has relative strengths and long-term trends in its favor.
America’s white majority, home to the base of the GOP, is a diminishing majority, on average older than the core constituencies of the Democratic Party — the young, the migrants and people of color.
Second, the Democratic mega-states in presidential elections — California, New York, Illinois — seem solidly blue, while Republican mega-states like Texas and Florida seem less solidly red.
Third, America’s major media centered in New York and Washington, D.C., is liberal and Democratic, as are our cultural institutions — museums, Hollywood, higher education, the entertainment industry.
Fourth, the trend for democracies is toward transferring more and more power to central governments, not less. Under President Calvin Coolidge, the U.S. government share of GDP was 3%.
As for the culture wars, traditionalism has been in retreat since the 1950s.
Biden appears to be a failing president who believes in the inevitable victory of the ideology toward which he himself has been moving over his half-century career since arriving in Washington as a 30-year-old centrist Democrat.
Unfortunately, he may not be wrong.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever.” To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.
If Joe is right and the Left owns the future, there will be no future to be left.
Conservatives believe in “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” A proactive Christian Concept, born of a trust in the human goodness of the Creators design.
Secular Democrats believe in “Do unto others before they can do it to you.” The reactive concept of fake Impeachments, born of a fear of being found that forces them to accuse their opponents of doing the very things they themselves designed and are guilty of doing already.
Joe Biden has 50 years of political training to go with and follow the power that is, to insure he gets his fair share of the spoils. When things so South he can turn on a dime 180 degrees to save his own skin. Moral people’s words you can take to the bank,,,Immoral people you can work wtih as well because they are proud of the fact they can take from you bank and openly brag about it. It is the AMORAL people like Biden who can put on the face of Moral or Immoral to confuse and beguile those they seek to manipulate who are the most dangerous, because you never know who they really are, where they really stand, or what places of destruction they care capable of taking you to.
RULE or ruin, that’s the dems goal. IF they can’t rule it, they will ruin it!
“In short, behind Biden’s demand that the GOP identify its goals was an attempt to shift the debate onto terrain more familiar and favorable for the Democratic Party.”
Republicans tend not to rise to the occasion when it comes to articulating their values and their agenda—they tend to be reactionary—and not always that. How many times during Trump’s Presidency did Republicans come to his defense when the Dems in Congress and the Media were spreading lies and distorted information? In Adam Schiff’s basement replay of the Mueller investigation where Republicans were systematically silenced and shut down—where was the pushback? Republicans have shown little backbone and they need to correct that.
The Republicans have shown to the Democrats what the Biden administration is showing to the rest of the world—weakness, lack of strength, and an unwillingness to show force when necessary.
Unfortunately, we’ve known for a good 2 decades now, REPUBLICANS generally are spineless..
This treasonous, dishonest, dishonorable, destructive, corrupt, unethical, immoral, demonic, socialist Democrat Party ONLY cares about power and control.
This Treasonous, Dishonest, disgraceful, Socialist Democrat Party game plan is to lie, cheat and steal in order to take total control of the American people, increase Taxes on everything and bring American commerce and economy to its knees and to promote Socialism.
Then access power and retain it by any means available –
no matter the costs to the people, the government or the nation.
This treasonous, dishonest, corrupt, unethical, immoral, socialist Democrat Party is our country’s most destructive and deadliest ENEMY!
joe doesn’t even know who owns him. But russia, china, north korea and iran remind him daily.
Of those 3, China is top dawg.. THEN russia.. North korea and iran, are distant third..