I continue to think out loud and argue that the biggest issue we face with Biden is not his age or any particular policy position. It’s that Biden has yet to present a clear, compelling alternative “heuristic” framework within which ordinary people can easily understand and identify with what he and the Dems overall have set out to do.
Trump’s framework is very straightforward: You are right: the system is rigged by liberal and/or corrupt elites so that life is unfair -- and you’ll never get anything but the sh*t end of the stick. So I’m declaring a plague (and leading a veritable sh*t storm) on both (or all) their houses.
Trump means that he want all of us to join him in making this the world’s biggest-ever sh*t storm so that the elites can’t escape the fact that they totally stink and deserve to be flushed down the toilet.
Then he’ll make America what The People want it to be: America will be great again.
Against this populist Trump framework, Biden & co need a more compelling alternative narrative — story — by which to win back the trust of the disenchanted and disaffected. What is that? It’s not a series of promises and programs.
It’s a whole new world.
It’s a world of difference.
It’s a world of dignity. It’s a world within which the disenchanted and disaffected are ennobled and “centered.”
It’s a world of opportunity. It’s a world in which hoped-for opportunities are overtaken by unimagined opportunities.
It’s a world of wellbeing. It’s a world in which all of the base, avoidable insecurities, what FDR called the four fears, are eliminated. For good.
And together building this world of dignity, opportunity, and wellbeing must become the vision of a greater America within which “We, the People” find agency, meaning, purpose -- the good life.
This, or something like it must become an explicit overarching alternative frame of reference that makes a world of near-term positive, powerful, concrete, and meaningful difference in people’s lives.
Perhaps, just perhaps, with enough brain power, imagination, and commitment, something like the forward-looking “Make a World of Difference “ can win out over the retro-facing, Make America Great Again.
But whatever that something is, we need it now.
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