Many political analysts are singling out Joe Biden as the best hope Democrats have for beating Trump in 2020. They point to his supposed connection to working class voters and his gravitas as a former Vice President. Grass roots members of the party, on the other hand, aren’t sold.
The progressive wing of the party, which has been in a quest for dominance in the last few years, sees Biden as part of the establishment, and that’s a problem.
Ryan C. Brooks writes at BuzzFeed:
The Progressives Who Shook Up This Year’s Primaries Are Skeptical Of Joe Biden’s PoliticsA cadre of progressive groups and activists that has elevated leftist candidates and helped shift Democratic policy further left in primary elections across the country this year is now questioning the politics of a potential presidential candidate — Joe Biden.The activists, some frustrated with how the former vice president has weighed in on several primaries this year and others concerned about some of his past policy positions, are in some cases already speaking publicly to warn Biden and other moderate Democrats mulling presidential bids that they’re going to make a potential centrist’s path to the presidency uncomfortable.Biden has been explicitly mulling a presidential bid since leaving the White House, and he’s patched together the framework for a potential campaign: forming a think tank to tackle domestic policy, going on an extensive cross-country book tour, and stepping in to endorse some establishment candidates over progressive primary challengers in races across the country. The moves have caught the attention of some in progressive circles, who say that Biden’s centrist political outlook is incongruent with the current political moment.
Biden isn’t connecting with the Democratic Socialists, in some cases he is even seen as working against them:
“Establishment Democrats like Joe Biden could be throwing their muscle behind some of these policies, and maybe without the sort of risk they thought they were under before,” Nasim Thompson, the communications director of Justice Democrats explained about Biden endorsing against candidates who support policies like Medicare for All and getting corporate money out of politics. “If this is the path he’s trying to pave and define the field for his own run, then he’s definitely, with his choices, aligning himself with the sorts of candidates that will leave marks on his record and alienate him from the progressive grassroots.”Justice Democrats, which has helped boost progressive congressional candidates this year, has taken several shots at Biden on social media, labeling him as part of an “establishment” whose work in the midterms is emblematic of what’s “wrong” with the Democratic Party.
But wait! Biden can probably make up the difference by appealing to all those Rust Belt Obama voters who flipped to Trump in 2016, right? Maybe not.
Tammy Bruce writes at the Washington Times:
Haters now call Trump supporters the ‘dregs of society’Watch out Trump supporters! Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden is on the trail and has downgraded you from “deplorables” to the “dregs of society.” It’s the September before an election, and like well-oiled machines, Democratic leadership crawls out of their basement, ready to instill fear, division and loathing into the American electorate. And they hate you even more than they did before.One would think they would have learned that denigrating the American people is passe, but it’s all they have, and yet they still have to have you rubes, rednecks and deplorables for your vote. But their biggest insult is to their own base whom they believe are so unhinged and lacking of a moral compass, that casting their neighbors as something less than human will inspire them…“Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden assailed President Trump’s supporters during a speech Saturday at the annual Human Rights Campaign dinner in Washington, lamenting that ‘virulent people’ and the ‘dregs of society’ still had a friend in the White House,” The Washington Times reported.” ‘They’re a small percentage of the American people, virulent people,’ he continued. ‘Some of them the dregs of society. And instead of using the full might of the executive branch to secure justice, dignity [and] safety for all, the president uses the White House as a literal, literal bully pulpit, callously exerting his power over those who have little or none.’”
Here’s the video:
If Biden runs, count on seeing that clip in a Trump campaign ad.
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