Is Sleepy Joe already acting like a weak president?
Double-digit leads in the polls might be Joe Biden’s greatest danger at this point. There’s already the overly sweet aroma of complacency coming from Democrats, some of whom act as though the only remaining doubt about their victory in November is a matter of scale and penetration into red heartlands.
More pernicious, however, is the degree to which Joe Biden is already conceding ground to Trump, whose last remaining strength is that which comes with the presidency. As Trump uses federal power to impose his will on Democratic cities, Joe Biden is beginning to resemble the weak president that this president would have us believe “old Sleepy Joe” is destined to become.
Trump acted with impunity when he sent federal troops – “officers” seems too mild a term for the body armour, gas masks, and excessive force – into Portland, Oregon. He has now announced plans to do the same in Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the threat that “this bloodshed will end”, where “this bloodshed” looks to be largely anybody muttering darkly about him.
His posturing is obvious and was predicted well ahead of recent events. Less predictable, however, was Biden’s response. In a statement released yesterday, he condemned “Homeland Security agents – without a clearly defined mandate or authority – […] stripped of badges and insignia and identifying markings.” It is, he says, “egregious tactics” that “stoke the fires of division in this country.”
It is a calculated stance but also the minimum we could expect from the challenger. Biden is offering a calm voice in contrast to Trump’s stridency. Given his lead, it is reasonable to argue that he needn’t push back against the Presidency’s growing authoritarianism. Yet it does, perhaps, speak of a certain timidity. The perennial critique of Democrats is that they lack guile in a street fight.
Rick Wilson, the former GOP strategist, puts it in typically blunt fashion when talking about the Democrat’s habit of fighting a conventional battle. It is, he says. “the political equivalent of standing outside a monkey cage at the zoo. Unless your objective is to be splattered with monkey faeces […] you’re going to get the inevitable, sh**ty result every time.”
He certainly has a point. Consider the words of Chicago’s Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, when talking about the imposition of troops. “Militarised assistance within our borders that would not be within our control or within the direct command of the Chicago Police Department would spell disaster,” she said. Strong, certainly, but too qualified by the double “would”. Compare it with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, a Republican, who said: “it would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities”.
Biden and Democrats have an opportunity to speak to the administration, as well as the traditional Republican base. Hardly a week has passed throughout this presidency when Trump hasn’t threatened to prosecute the previous administration for a range of fantasy crimes. Yet Biden seems reluctant to remind Trump that these matters do not end with the November election. Biden too should promise to be the “Law and Order President”, beginning by holding this administration to account.
He would also be reminding Republicans of convictions previously held but now apparently forgotten. If was five long years ago, in 2015, when Texans began to fear a coup at the hand of that “tyrant” and “ruler-by-diktat”, President Obama. Troops began exercising in the Lone Star state and the movements gave people cause to worry. They feared that the state was about to be brought under martial law. So acute was the paranoia, Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas State Guard to monitor the training exercise.
It’s a fear that goes to the heart of the constitutional republic. One of the distinguishing features of Jeffersonian democracy is that, unlike the Hamiltonian model, it opposes a strong federal system. The irony is that it is under a Republican administration that the federal government is interceding in ways that would be unimaginable just a few years ago. It is also an ideological mess, with the Trump administration devolving power to states so the president can’t be held accountable for the coronavirus, but then putting federal troops on the streets to impose his version of law and order. This contradiction is startling and there to be exploited.
Biden should strengthen his appeal to traditional Republicans by invoking the words of Ronald Reagan who said that “as government expands, liberty contracts.” He should also make it clear that America will not allow Trump to escape the consequences of his actions. There will be no repeat of Nixon’s valediction. Within six months, a Democratic House and Senate could well have the power to investigate the events of Cleveland and beyond. If so, there will be no repeat of the deadlocked Senate we’ve seen for the past two years.
Even if that thought doesn’t make Trump pause, it should remind the people around him that they will have to answer for their part in pushing America the closest it’s ever come to authoritarian rule.