The Moral and Strategic Calculus of Voting for Joe Biden to Defeat Trump
or Not
Jeremy Scahill
April 20 2020, 1:28 p.m.
trump-biden-feature-theintercept-2Photo illustration: The Intercept, Getty
Images
DONALD TRUMP ran for president in 2016 on an often ad-libbed and reactionary
campaign of hate, greed, xenophobia, misogyny, and racism. He clearly viewed
the fact that a black man had ascended to the presidency as an abomination
and rightly assessed that there were a lot of racists in this country who
saw the eight years the Obamas spent living in the White House as a crime
against the real, white America. Trump already had a brand, realized early
on the power of being an outsider in U.S. presidential elections, and
focused on some key economic issues, including trade, that would play well
with people dissatisfied with the two party systems regular offerings. And
he focused on hate.
To directly call Trump fascistic is not incorrect, but it also may give him
too much credit. He has largely been an incompetent authoritarian, albeit
one whose key policies have caused massive suffering and death. What we have
seen throughout his career and his three and a half years in power is that
Trump is primarily concerned with making money for himself, his family, and
his cronies. Literally everything this man does is a racket.
His foreign policy has been hawkish and reckless, but aside from his often
insane rhetoric and public threats to annihilate various countries, it has
not represented a radical departure from that of his predecessors. He acts
like an unstable buffoon on the international stage, and he burns bridges
with traditional U.S. allies, governments, and international bodies across
the globe. Trump openly embraces vile authoritarians and mocks democratic
leaders and institutions. All of this is certainly dangerous and unsettling,
though some of it is disproportionately offensive to establishment foreign
policy elites. Trumps predecessor started his own share of wars, did some
regime change, ratcheted up an existing war, downsized another, and greatly
expanded the use of weaponized drones and so-called targeted killings. But
Barack Obama delivered these policies with an intelligently crafted, though
at times absurd, justification wrapped in the notion of inventing a
smarter way to wage war. Liberals ate it up. Obamas policies killed a lot
of innocent people.
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The few times Trump has signaled his openness to pursue a less militaristic
approach to long-existing crises, such as the war in Afghanistan or the
conflict with North Korea, he has been ridiculed by leading Democrats and
liberal pundits. In terms of Trumps military pursuits, he has proven less
murderous than George W. Bush and more of a war criminal than Jimmy Carter.
So far. That can certainly change with a second term.
Perhaps the gravest threat posed by the unstable narcissist in the White
House is that of the use of a first strike nuclear weapon. It has never been
beyond the pale to imagine an apocalyptic nuclear scenario that begins with
a tweet from a foreign leader Trump hates. The fact that we can even imagine
this is nothing to wag a stick at.
Trumps monumentally incompetent handling of the coronavirus pandemic
hammers home some of the greatest dangers posed by his presidency. It has
highlighted the extent to which he is motivated not by any sense of duty or
concern for his fellow citizens, but by money and his popularity among a
fairly small circle of corporations, television hosts, and special
interests. That Trump uses the daily platform of what are supposed to be
public health briefings by professionals to pontificate ignorantly, babble
incoherently, or to score points politically underscores how little he
actually cares about the U.S. public and our lives. Instead, he is obsessed
with the stock market as an imagined extension of his own ego. It is the
sign of a deeply sick individual that he would effectively make aid
conditional on how nice governors are to him. Trump encourages group
protests against Democratic governors during a pandemic with scores of
people refusing to wear protective gear, while his administration has
insisted on testing visitors for coronavirus before meeting with the
president or vice president. All of this costs lives, as sure as any
military operation.
Demonstrators gather in front of the Colorado State Capitol building to
protest coronavirus stay-at-home orders during a "ReOpen Colorado" rally in
Denver, Colorado, on April 19, 2020. - Hundreds protested on April 18 in
cities across America against coronavirus-related lockdowns -- with
encouragement from President Donald Trump -- as resentment grows against the
crippling economic cost of confinement. (Photo by Jason Connolly / AFP)
(Photo by JASON CONNOLLY/AFP via Getty Images)Demonstrators gather in front
of the Colorado State Capitol building to protest coronavirus stay-at-home
orders during a ReOpen Colorado rally in Denver, Colorado, on April 19,
2020. Photo: Jason Connolly/AFP via Getty Images
PERHAPS THE MOST devastating dimension of Trumps time in office, on a
policy level, is how the Republican establishment brilliantly exploited
Trump as a Trojan horse for its extreme agenda. It is unlikely that any of
the GOPs preferred candidates could have beaten Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Trump dragged the Republican Party kicking and screaming back into executive
power. For them, he was a messiah they chided and scorned when he first
appeared, but now they prostrate themselves before him every minute of every
day.
The real terror of the past three and a half years boils down to this: the
consolidation of power by some of the most vile figures and interests in the
Republican party.
The public still does not know the full story of how Mike Pence ended up on
the ticket as Trumps running mate, but when it was announced, it was clear
that the professional Republicans and the extremist evangelical lobby had
their inside man. With Mitch McConnell running the Senate and Pence
babysitting the president, Trump could focus on barking for the crowds in
between golf outings and Twitter rants while the political hitmen in
Washington dust off every extreme right-wing initiative theyve cooked up
for decades and which they work day and night to methodically ram through.
Trump has had his signature moments, but much of his policy has been
outsourced to craftier and more sophisticated policymakers.
Trump is famously not a fan of reading detailed briefings, but give him a
few nuggets of oversimplified policy talking points to pepper throughout his
rants, and hes going to be your gaudy QVC host pitching the crappy product
to his base. The bonus is that none of it actually has to be true, it just
needs to be acceptable to the right people and truthfully exposed or
documented by journalists whom he can then dismiss as the fake news media.
More broadly, the real terror of the past three and a half years boils down
to this: The consolidation of power by some of the most vile figures and
interests in the Republican party. This includes the scores of federal
judges named to the bench, the shaping of the Supreme Court, the radical
drive toward deregulation, and the canceling of even the most minimal
commitments the U.S. has made to try to confront climate change. What the
Republicans have managed to accomplish on a policy level in Trumps time in
office is profound and terrifying.
Out in full view, Trump has presided over the separation of families and the
locking up of immigrant children in cages, empowering ICE agents to act as
storm troopers. He has intervened to protect war criminals from
accountability, threatened to kill the families of suspected terrorists,
sought to ban and in some ways has succeeded in banning Muslims from
entering the country. His threat to fill Guantanamo prison back up still
looms, especially in the era of the coronavirus pandemic. Is it so hard to
imagine it becoming a disease-ridden black hole for migrants seeking refuge?
Trumps economic policies have enriched corporations and special interest
groups beyond their imaginations, while sawing off the already inadequate
social programs in this country. We still have no idea of the extent to
which Trump and his family are financially benefiting from his presidency.
He talks about women in disgusting ways, including attempting to publicly
humiliate the women he is accused of raping and assaulting. And the sick
reality is that a significant number of people in the U.S. clearly like
these things even if they wont openly admit it, though a disturbing number
of them do feel emboldened to admire it. Trump has offered up an IPO on
ignorance and hatred as a source of pride, and a lot of people
enthusiastically bought in.
Trumps rise to power is, in many ways, the logical product of the U.S. as a
failed state. Trump says the quiet parts about the system out loud.
Donald Trumps presidency is not an aberration of U.S. history in substance.
His rise to power and the policies he has implemented are, in many ways, the
logical product of the U.S. as a failed state, politically and functionally.
Trump says the quiet parts about the system out loud, but his agenda is
firmly rooted in the bloody history of this republic. And his rise was made
possible by the failed two-party system and the corporate dominance of
electoral politics in the U.S. Also, lets not pretend that congressional
Democrats have not enabled Trump by regularly voting for his obscene
military budgets and sweeping surveillance powers while simultaneously
calling him the most dangerous president in history.
What would happen if Trump wins the election in November? In practical
terms, it would be a nightmare. Trump would emerge emboldened beyond
imagination. What minuscule restraints that currently exist would be wiped
out entirely. He would almost certainly be in a position to replace Supreme
Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with yet another atrocious extremist. An
ability to further stack the court will have a multigenerational impact on a
legion of issues; among them are voting rights, civil liberties, corporate
power, workers rights, civil rights, womens reproductive rights, LGBTQ
rights, executive power, and the climate. No one should minimize the dangers
of Trump remaining in office. And his reign will hit the most vulnerable the
hardest, much like the coronavirus, and the terrors will ricochet for many
years to come. Trump encourages and emboldens racists and bigots and
embraces far-right ideology and action. Four more years of this will be
deadly.
IT IS IN contemplating all of the above that the emergence of Joe Biden as
the Democratic Partys presumptive choice to take on Trump is a deeply
disturbing and risky response to the threats we face. It is easy to
underestimate Bidens chance of winning in November. Biden is a terrible
candidate in many ways, but it is possible that Im not Trump combined
with Biden having been Obamas vice president will appeal to enough of the
population to win not only the popular vote (a virtual certainty) but the
Electoral College especially if the party keeps him under wraps until the
final stretch, as appears to be the strategy. Still, that seems to be a
dangerous gamble given what is at stake.
There is also another factor that must not be ignored: Republicans are
masters of voter suppression and disenfranchisement. That, combined with
Trumps core belief that corruption isnt corrupt if he does it places an
ominous cloud over the elections integrity before it even occurs. And we
know that the pandemic will cast a long enough shadow over normal life that
there will be plenty of opportunities for irregularities.
Biden has an abominable public policy record on a wide range of issues. He
has a penchant for lying about his role in the civil rights movement and
about being arrested in apartheid South Africa. He continues to lie and
mislead about his support for the war in Iraq, the most consequential
foreign policy decision of the post-Vietnam era. He has been accused by
eight women of misconduct, including one allegation of very serious sexual
assault by his former Senate staffer Tara Reade. Bidens cognitive health
and mental acuity is, to say the least, questionable, particularly when you
compare his current performance with videos from just a few years ago. He
frequently rambles without a clear point, forgets what office he is running
for, and has to rely on teleprompters and notes to make it through
interviews and speeches without saying something embarrassing. In numerous
interactions with voters, Biden has poked their chests in an aggressive
manner; told an immigrant rights activist to vote for Trump; called voters
childish names; and threatened a union worker in Detroit, telling the man to
stop objecting to Biden pointing his finger in his face unless the worker
want[s] to go outside with me. Lets not even discuss the tale of his
showdown with a rusty razor-wielding Corn Pop at the pool. Trumps
temperament is frightening, but Biden isnt exactly a cool head who exudes
competence or confidence.
Liberals may poo poo the whole Hunter Biden-Burisma-Ukraine-China attacks
from Trump, but this is going to be a problem in the general election. On
many of the key issues where Democrats could attack Trump, Biden is going to
be virtually incapacitated by his own skeletons. What Sen. Elizabeth Warren
did to Mike Bloomberg at a February debate would be impossible for Biden to
do to Trump. You have more allegations of sexual assault than I do,
Donald, is not a good line. Your sons have profited off the presidency
more than my son did off my vice presidency also not a winning zinger.
And dont think for a moment that Trump wont hammer away on Bidens Iraq
War vote and his trade policies. The Democratic primary is not the general
election.
Its always worth remembering that Biden was picked in 2008 to make Obama
less threatening to moderates so we cant even bank on a return to Obamas
brand of neoliberalism.
There is no point to going through and listing all of the terrible aspects
of Bidens career, his policy record, his mental stamina, or his substantial
failures to make himself visible or consistently cogent since securing the
presumptive nomination. All of this is going to be put on display for the
next six months. The Democratic Party and the voters in the roughly 50
percent of primaries that were held have committed our fate to Bidens
candidacy. Obama and other senior party leaders, major news organizations,
and a lot of money deployed to attack Sen. Bernie Sanders also played a role
in manufacturing this reality. Sanders ending his campaign and vowing to
support Biden leaves people with two viable candidates on the ballot.
Barring a health crisis or death of one of these older men, the only two
candidates with enough public support to win the presidency will be Donald
Trump and Joe Biden.
What we get with Trump is as clear as it is terrifying. What we get with
Biden, in his current form, is less apparent. Biden will have a team of
competent (for better and worse) technocrats and, in all likelihood, an
incredibly influential vice president and an unelected chief of staff
running the show. Bidens administration will also include appointments
aimed at throwing some bones to progressives and likely other Cabinet
appointments that recognize the growing influence of progressive ideas. It
will, without a doubt, also be riddled with a disproportionate number of
hawkish, corporatist Democratic apparatchiks. It will be an administration
that does the bidding of Wall Street, believes in bloated war budgets, and
will put a friendlier face on the worst excesses of empire. Its always
worth remembering that Biden was picked in 2008 to make Obama less
threatening to moderates so we cant even bank on a return to Obamas
brand of neoliberalism. But there will be policy areas where some victories
may be possible for a well-organized and militant left willing to take Biden
on. Such a dynamic wouldnt be the worst thing in the world and would be
better for more people than a second Trump term in virtually every tangible
way.
Biden isnt great on many issues that motivate young voters. His health care
plan keeps the profit-driven system intact, and it will result in millions
of Americans remaining uninsured. His policy to confront massive student and
consumer debt is anemic. Bidens climate plan is uninspiring and generally
milquetoast when weighed against the severity of the crisis the planet
faces, though this is an area in which he might be susceptible to pressure
from activists. Some of his foreign policy positions are downright
disturbing, if not explicitly right-wing. The latest Biden campaign ad is a
fearmongering attack on China and an effort to outbid Trumps xenophobic
rhetoric. Bidens long record indicates that he could prove more inclined to
authorize military interventions than Trump, who has been quite belligerent
himself, without following through on most of his threats. Biden is almost
certainly going to start and continue wars, impose deadly economic
sanctions, and support or enact regime change efforts.
There is an abundance of justification to oppose a Biden presidency. And
principled people are right to ring loud alarms over Bidens record,
policies, and some of his personal conduct. At the same time, it is not
honest to imply there would be no difference between a Biden and Trump
administration.
The Obama-Biden administrations immigration policy has now been dwarfed in
awfulness by Trump, but in its own right it operated as a cruel, mass
deportation machine that also separated families. During the campaign, Biden
has responded to extraordinary activist pressure and eventually began to
carefully distance himself from the record of the deporter in chief, as
Obama was labeled by immigrant rights activists. When pressed on the mass
deportations under Obama, Biden acknowledged that deporting people without
criminal records was a big mistake. At a Democratic debate, Biden was
asked whether he would resume Obamas torrid pace of deportations.
Absolutely not, he said, adding that he was vice president, not president,
drawing a rebuke from Julián Castro, who observed accurately that Biden was
content to bathe in the glow of his former Obama boss while looking to
sidestep responsibility for his more unpopular policies. At the same time,
Bidens campaign has made a sweeping series of pledges that he could
implement as president that would potentially protect millions of vulnerable
people. On immigration, the alternative to that is four more years of Trump
adviser Stephen Miller, an extremist nut who shouldnt be allowed within 100
feet of a consequential decision-making process.
We are not actually being asked to vote for Biden as the candidate, because
the Biden we see is a shell of his former self. We are being asked to vote
for a spin-off of the Obama show.
Biden has pledged to immediately lift the Muslim travel ban, as well as
other racist immigration and asylum policies Trump has put in place. It is
also worth noting that toward the end of the Obama administration, under
pressure from Black Lives Matter activists, Obama placed a dozen city police
forces under Department of Justice consent decrees in response to police
killings and other abuses. Trump cannot be pressured by BLM, but Biden can.
Biden has a troubling record on Iran, including his support for deadly
sanctions, but he has emphatically said he would reenter the Iran nuclear
agreement, which is also no small matter. Similarly, Biden has been
politically forced to denounce the genocidal Saudi war against Yemen,
despite the fact that it was initiated under the Obama-Biden administration.
He has also had to publicly accept that viewing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman as an unsavory murderer is now widely held by many Democrats,
including centrist figures. Remarkably, Biden has vowed to turn Saudi Arabia
into a pariah. Thats an incredible statement given the long bipartisan
love affair with the kingdoms despots and raises all sorts of questions
about what that would mean if Biden is elected.
Former US Vice President and Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden
arrives to speak about COVID-19, known as the Coronavirus, during a press
event in Wilmington, Delaware on March 12, 2020. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)Former US Vice President and
Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden arrives to speak about COVID-19,
known as the Coronavirus, during a press event in Wilmington, Delaware on
March 12, 2020. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Among the wild cards of a Biden administration will be the issue of whether
he has the actual mental stamina to govern, or if he is going to be
frequently disoriented and infrequently seen or heard. Setting aside the
protestations of people who pretend they dont see exactly what everyone
else does when Biden speaks in public, we are not actually being asked to
vote for Biden as the candidate, because the Biden we see is a shell of his
former self. We are being asked to vote for a spin-off of the Obama show, a
cast of familiar characters and a few exciting new additions who would take
charge of the executive branch, without the popular star of the original
show among the visible cast. The fact that the Democrats have forced through
a candidate that many people dont believe is fully functional and will rely
on the strength of the team assembled around him is a pretty grim
statement about the state of democracy in the U.S. If Biden is the best the
Democrats have to offer in the face of Trump, the system is rotten.
So what should people who want Trump gone but cannot stand Biden do? First
of all, no one should be shamed for letting their conscience dictate their
vote or decision not to vote. (Full disclosure: I always vote.) Our system
is dominated by corporate influence, big money, and the skewed rules of a
default duopoly, and it actively fights to prevent third parties from
receiving federal matching funds, joining debates, or gaining ballot access.
There is no mandatory voting in the U.S., roughly 40 percent of Americans do
not belong to either major political party, and people have a right to
register their dissatisfaction with the entire system by not voting. In an
atmosphere where tens of millions of U.S. citizens choose not to vote,
shaming the minuscule number of people who vote for the Green Party is a
disgrace. There are hundreds of thousands of voters whose principled belief
is that breaking the two-party stranglehold on U.S. democracy is the only
path to meaningful systemic change. Votes for Jill Stein or Howie Hawkins
are not being taken away from corporate Democrats. Those votes belong to the
people who cast them and they have a right to vote however they choose, and
the candidates they support have a right to run for office.
It is also an understandable and morally principled decision to say, I
believe Tara Reade was sexually assaulted by Joe Biden, and I will not vote
for a rapist. It is an understandable and morally principled position to
say, I will not vote for anyone who supported the war against Iraq. None
of these peoples votes belong to Biden or Hillary Clinton or the Democratic
Party or Twitter mobs and they are not votes for Trump.
In an atmosphere where tens of millions of U.S. citizens choose not to vote,
shaming the minuscule number of people who vote for the Green Party is a
disgrace.
Ultimately, however, given the abomination of our two-party system,
progressive voters are forced to make not just a moral but a strategic
choice with their votes. Recognizing that Biden is a terrible candidate and
being honest about that but voting for him in an effort to prevent Trump
from further consolidating his agenda is a strategically sound position.
This is ultimately what the majority of Sanders supporters will do, just as
they did in 2016. It certainly has a better chance of improving the country
and the world than enthusiastically pledging to vote for Biden while closing
your ears to everything that is wrong about him and his record. Voters in
swing states, where voting for a candidate other than Biden or not voting at
all may help tip the balance to Trump, face a more consequential moral and
strategic choice than people in New York or California. In 2004, the Green
Party candidate told his supporters to vote their conscience in swing
states, including if they believed they needed to hold their nose and vote
for John Kerry to defeat Bush.
If you believe that progressives or leftists should be bending the knee
for Biden by promising right this second that they will vote for him in six
months and that they will never utter an inconvenient fact about him or
express their anger with their meager Election Day options, please show them
all of your work fighting for Medicare for All, for ending the carceral
state, for serious radical action on climate change, your work opposing the
most dangerous aspects of the Obama-Biden administration, including on
issues of war, immigration, and, yes, health care.
Many of the social and political movements that backed Sanders were
populated by people in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. It was an
incredibly diverse coalition of supporters and drew millions of primary
voters in 2016 and 2020. Its backbone was young voters, including young
African Americans, Latinos, students, immigrants, and independents. These
groups and many of Sanderss supporters have spent nearly four years
fighting Trump nonstop. Many of them organized against Obamas troubling
policies before that. That should be commended not scorned. You want to
label these people Trump supporters because they are intensely disturbed by
the corporatist candidate you have chosen to take on Trump? Show them your
work on the issues they care about, explain what Bidens policies are on
those issues and make the most convincing case you can for why they should
vote for him. Better yet, explain to them how you are fighting to make
Bidens platform one that even minimally pretends to want their votes.
In the bigger picture, Sanders organized the most significant challenge to
the Democratic Partys centrist and center-right establishment since Jesse
Jackson ran twice for president in the 1980s. Unlike Ralph Naders
independent runs for president, Sanders attempted to deliver sweeping change
within the Democratic Partys own framework. He fought against an extremely
hostile corporate media environment and some pretty vile smear campaigns,
where he was compared to the coronavirus, his supporters were called brown
shirts, and his primary victories described as akin to the Nazi invasion of
France on liberal TV networks. Despite the powerful chorus of red-baiting
and lies, Sanders still came extremely close to pulling off a victory.
Biden was usually the frontrunner and always the favorite, even though he
came close to being defeated by Sanders early on. The establishment fiercely
defended its territory in an effort capped off by the last-minute secret
diplomacy from Obama ahead of Super Tuesday to pressure other candidates and
the party to coalesce around Biden. Ultimately, the partys primary voters,
at the crucial moment, threw their weight behind a name they know and who
served as vice president of an administration they trusted. These voters
should not be collectively shamed either. Most of them are not party cogs,
but people genuinely scared of what four more years of Trump will mean for
their survival, particularly older African American voters.
The traditional, moderate, and right-wing forces within the Democratic Party
united and won the primary battle. Sanders may have surrendered too early,
but there is little value to debating that right now or wasting energy
attacking Sanders.
Most people on the left who oppose Biden but also view Trump as the gravest
danger are going to vote against Trump by voting for Biden. But those who
disagree with that strategy do not support Trump.
The war for the future of the Democratic Party is intensifying. There is a
possibility of a fracture or at least more clearly defined factions within
the party. There will be serious discussions around forming a new party that
isnt the Green Party, but rather an outgrowth of the Not Me, Us framework
of the Sanders campaign and the growing popularity of groups like the
Justice Democrats, the Sunrise Movement, prison abolitionists, immigrant
rights groups, and Democratic Socialists of America. It would be a great
thing for this country to have a democratic socialist party grow, one that
runs serious political campaigns. We have already seen early stage efforts
at this with mixed results. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez understands the need to
engage in strategic partnerships with establishment Democrats to achieve
meaningful policy change and strengthen the areas of common ground. But
there will need to be a lot more like-minded politicians elected for the
strategy to succeed. This primary has shaken the Democratic establishment to
its core, and that is a good thing and should be built on.
But none of that is going to happen before November.
Some Sanders supporters who are deeply concerned by the candidacy of Biden
have said he can have their vote but not their soul. For many people that
will be their strategic rationale. For others, it will be a question of
individual or collective morality in the face of Trumps horrors. Leftist
voters in swing states shoulder a greater moral burden than the rest of us,
and many will decide to vote against Trump by pulling the lever for Biden.
There are also very vocal opponents of Biden who are fed up and are flat out
going to refuse to vote for him. They recognize that the opposite of Trump
is not Biden. They want a society where free health care is a right and wars
are ended, where everyone has housing and work that pays livable wages,
where you dont amass a mountain of debt to get an education, and one that
treats immigrants and workers with dignity and defends a womans absolute
right to choose. They want the racist justice system dismantled and ICE to
be abolished. They believe we are in a climate emergency and that Biden is a
part of the problem. Mainstream Democrats tell them they want much of that
too and electing Biden is a strategic step in that direction or that
President Biden will be more susceptible to progressive pressure. They
reject that. They dont believe that forcing a choice between two bad
candidates is right, even if one is admittedly worse. Electing Biden might
solve some problems, but it also could result in a strengthening of the far
right in the U.S. and could produce a worse threat than Trump in 2024. A
Biden administration, they believe, will undoubtedly be a massive
corporate-friendly juggernaut that wages military and economic wars and, for
them, voting in the affirmative for that is a bridge too far. And many of
these people hold the Democratic Party responsible for Trump because of the
terrible campaign it ran in 2016, so trying to convince them to buy into the
same strategy twice is a losing battle. They are tired of being Democrats
cheap dates treated with contempt, offered few and paltry concessions, and
expected to go along. As a strategic matter, at this juncture, they regard
supporting Biden as tantamount to telling Democrats to continue to take them
for granted.
If Democrats want to try to win them over, they should use the next six
months to show them you take their concerns about 2016 seriously and map out
the ways this campaign is different. Most people on the left who oppose
Biden but also view Trump as the gravest danger are going to vote against
Trump by voting for Biden. But those who disagree with that strategy do not
support Trump. For them, Hes not Trump is not a gamble worth taking. The
onus is on the Biden campaign and its supporters to make their case to every
eligible voter in this country and earn their votes. No one should be taken
for granted.
