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| © Jae C. Hong, AP President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush after Obama was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2009 in Washington, D.C. |
By Erin McPike, Opinion contributor, USA TODAY
Should former Vice President Joe Biden defeat President Donald Trump in the November election, his victory will cement a pattern that influential Democratic messengers would be wise to exploit savagely in order to change.
Many Americans have not yet grasped that every time they have given Republicans the keys to the White House over the past half-century, they turn to Democrats to extinguish the fire. This arrangement hampers party priorities each time Democrats come to power because their first orders of business are to clean up the ashes. Once the country is sturdy enough, the electorate returns to Republicans to get a little extra walking around cash in the form of marginal tax cuts, and Democratic policy goes back underground.
This pattern began when Richard Nixon and his successor, Gerald Ford, presided over a three-year recession that darkened the outlook for Ford before the 1976 campaign launched in earnest. Democrat Jimmy Carter glided into office on a message of reform, after the country felt betrayed by Watergate and Nixon’s corrupt inner circle, and of recovery from poor GOP stewardship of the economy.
Should former Vice President Joe Biden defeat President Donald Trump in the November election, his victory will cement a pattern that influential Democratic messengers would be wise to exploit savagely in order to change.
Many Americans have not yet grasped that every time they have given Republicans the keys to the White House over the past half-century, they turn to Democrats to extinguish the fire. This arrangement hampers party priorities each time Democrats come to power because their first orders of business are to clean up the ashes. Once the country is sturdy enough, the electorate returns to Republicans to get a little extra walking around cash in the form of marginal tax cuts, and Democratic policy goes back underground.
This pattern began when Richard Nixon and his successor, Gerald Ford, presided over a three-year recession that darkened the outlook for Ford before the 1976 campaign launched in earnest. Democrat Jimmy Carter glided into office on a message of reform, after the country felt betrayed by Watergate and Nixon’s corrupt inner circle, and of recovery from poor GOP stewardship of the economy.
Legacy of crises from Reagan to Trump
Ronald Reagan made his first priority slashing taxes, which Congress reversed soon after in a four-stage response through 1987. Then the Gipper handed the baton to George H. W. Bush as the savings and loan crisis spiraled out of control. That sent the economy into another recession and led voters to Democrat Bill Clinton. In 2000, a plurality of voters thought the country was on the right track, two-thirds thought Clinton left the economy in good shape, and education was the top issue on voters’ minds. And lo, the George W. Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 were born.
The hangover from the GOP’s "culture of corruption" in 2006, the younger Bush’s unpopular wars and the financial crisis didn’t hurt Barack Obama’s prospects against Republican John McCain in the 2008 election. But they limited his ability to accomplish more as president, because he had to stanch the blood spilled and oversee a major economic stimulus. There’s no denying President Obama brought the country back from the brink and delivered a strong economy to Trump, who in turn pushed through foolhardy tax cuts as his only real legislative achievement.
Despite this history, Republicans incomprehensibly enjoyed a reputation for decades throughout much of the country for being better at managing government. The Pew Research Center tracked sentiment moving in favor of Democrats toward the end of Obama’s presidency, but it was no match for candidate Trump’s marketing genius.
If Biden becomes the 46th president of the United States, the carnage he’ll have to contend with might be even larger in scope than what President Obama faced. America’s image was deteriorating around the world long before the coronavirus infected anyone in the lower 48. Trump’s first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, razed the State Department by hollowing out the diplomatic corps and refusing to populate some ambassadorships.
Biden should commit to having a full slate of ambassadors nominated before he ever steps out onto the West Front of the Capitol to deliver his inaugural address. He’ll need all the help he can get abroad: He’ll have to rejoin the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization, patch up a fraying and aggravated NATO, and even repair decimated individual relationships throughout Europe.
The hangover from the GOP’s "culture of corruption" in 2006, the younger Bush’s unpopular wars and the financial crisis didn’t hurt Barack Obama’s prospects against Republican John McCain in the 2008 election. But they limited his ability to accomplish more as president, because he had to stanch the blood spilled and oversee a major economic stimulus. There’s no denying President Obama brought the country back from the brink and delivered a strong economy to Trump, who in turn pushed through foolhardy tax cuts as his only real legislative achievement.
Despite this history, Republicans incomprehensibly enjoyed a reputation for decades throughout much of the country for being better at managing government. The Pew Research Center tracked sentiment moving in favor of Democrats toward the end of Obama’s presidency, but it was no match for candidate Trump’s marketing genius.
If Biden becomes the 46th president of the United States, the carnage he’ll have to contend with might be even larger in scope than what President Obama faced. America’s image was deteriorating around the world long before the coronavirus infected anyone in the lower 48. Trump’s first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, razed the State Department by hollowing out the diplomatic corps and refusing to populate some ambassadorships.
Biden should commit to having a full slate of ambassadors nominated before he ever steps out onto the West Front of the Capitol to deliver his inaugural address. He’ll need all the help he can get abroad: He’ll have to rejoin the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization, patch up a fraying and aggravated NATO, and even repair decimated individual relationships throughout Europe.
Health damage and blighted economy
Domestically, he’ll have to undo the extraordinary damage Trump has done to public health by failing to contain the spread of COVID-19. He’ll need to recharge the blighted economy. Note that every single one of the aforementioned tasks amounts to a cleanup effort versus a new policy priority that can advance the country.
Biden himself seems to recognize that; The New York Times reported in May that he said during a fundraiser, "I view myself as the transition candidate."
Really, he would be the transition president. Democrats need to remind the country that going back to GOP control would be disastrous once the Biden administration completes the great American restoration project. In the same way the Republican Party successfully branded "liberal" as having negative connotations, it’s time to do the same to the word, "conservative." Conservative rule is chaos and invariably requires a massive cleanup.
And the subtext: Democrats need to find a simple way to say they’ll get more money into Americans’ pockets when times are good. Take away the one strength Republicans have left.
Read more at USA TODAY
Biden himself seems to recognize that; The New York Times reported in May that he said during a fundraiser, "I view myself as the transition candidate."
Really, he would be the transition president. Democrats need to remind the country that going back to GOP control would be disastrous once the Biden administration completes the great American restoration project. In the same way the Republican Party successfully branded "liberal" as having negative connotations, it’s time to do the same to the word, "conservative." Conservative rule is chaos and invariably requires a massive cleanup.
And the subtext: Democrats need to find a simple way to say they’ll get more money into Americans’ pockets when times are good. Take away the one strength Republicans have left.
Read more at USA TODAY
