Christmas Mailbag

Biden, the polls, the youth, the woke, the pod, the puns

(Photo by Carol Yepes)

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Rob: How worried are you with the polls increasingly showing young voters disengaging with politics and increasingly frustrated with liberal politicians? Are you concerned Democrats are setting themselves back with an entire generation of new voters?

John: What can the Biden campaign and Dem establishment realistically do in 11 months to turn the vibes around and inspire voters (keep them from not voting or going third party) again?

Taking these two questions together, because they’re related in obvious ways. First, yes I’m concerned about Dems setting themselves back with younger voters, but not really for any specific grievance current young voters have with the current president. Youth disaffection has been a challenge for Democrats for my entire life, with some passing breakthroughs early in the Obama era and late in the Trump era. Something that worries me newly now is the risk that this or future generations of young people will join the reactionary right. There’s no law of nature that determines young people will be progressive; some modern fascists in Europe are popular with their nations’ youth. 

As for what Biden et al can do about it in the short term: Policy has something to do with it, but not as much as we’d like. Biden adopted and implemented youth-friendly student loan and climate policies, and it didn’t stop young people from hating him. Withdrawing U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza might stanch the bleeding somewhat. But I think young voters more than old voters need a more cathartic politics. They have more years ahead of them than older voters and need to be able to believe that they’ll be better years, rather than a lifetime of crises. Biden should act in ways that convey that. I’ve recommended he simply concede to young voters that they’re totally justified in their frustration with the Democratic gerontocracy, and put in place party-wide reforms that’ll discourage the sinecuring of long-serving Dems, and allow the party’s best talent to rise quickly. Simply using fighting words improves the vibe. 

David: One issue that might be worth discussing some day is why the Democrats in the House and Senate and the Biden administration did not prepare their own immigration legislation and push for its adoption when they were in a better position to in the last Congress.

This one’s pretty easy: They didn’t have the votes in the Senate! They probably didn’t even have 50 votes, because their majority was so narrow, but even if they did, it wouldn’t have been enough to overcome a GOP filibuster. Democrats actually tried to reform immigration through the budget process, which circumvents the filibuster, but the Senate parliamentarian concluded it wasn’t budgetary in nature, and it was thus stricken. It’d be great if Democrats had organized themselves better over the years so that they could abolish the filibuster or overturn the parliamentarian’s opinions. But they didn’t, and so they don’t have the votes to do that either.

Susan: I would love it if someone (you?) would address the word ‘woke’. As a progressive, I see it as describing someone who cares about democracy, other/ALL people, justice, and what well-being of everything on the planet. What’s so bad about that in Republicans’ eyes?

I think that’s a fair definition of woke! You could also say being woke is recognizing that there’s a lot of passing and structural injustice in America, denying citizens racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, and democratic equality. You could also say being woke requires adopting an unwritten set of policy commitments, speech norms, etc., supposedly meant to advance equality where it is wanting. Which is just to say, “woke” is a hazy enough concept that Republicans have had an easy time a) defining it by its most eccentric adherents, and b) turning it into an appeal to reptilian brains, making people believe that Democrats are woke, and wokism is about catering to the needs of various Others (black people, trans people, etc) over the needs of “regular people.” Republicans don’t like woke politics because they don’t support equality, but they turned woke into a pejorative because they’re cynics. 

Leigh: Do you think that a lot of progressive dissatisfaction with Biden is that he's unwilling to break the rules in order to do things that progressive voters think should be done? His predecessor (and current top-polling opponent) had NO problem breaking ALL SORTS of rules, and while I think we can all agree that *that* guy broke wrong rules to do evil things...it does sort of raise the question of why Biden couldn't go full Dark Brandon mode and break the *right* rules to do *good* things. Or, heck, at least try. At least try. And if that's so, what can Biden say/do on the campaign trail that wouldn't betray his principles as someone who represented the incredibly pro-establishment and pro-business state of Delaware in the U.S. Senate for approximately 40,000 years?

I personally am demoralized by the fact that Democrats don’t fight Republican procedural fire with procedural fire of their own. I don’t imagine I’m typical, exactly, but I don’t think my reaction to the party is uncommon among other liberals and progressives, either. So I’d say at least some progressive dissatisfaction with Biden is that he’s too beholden to norms and comity given the threats we face. Unfortunately, with the loss of the House, and after 3.5 years of administrative action, I don’t think there are many things Biden alone can do to stretch the rules in ways that amp up his supporters. He could revive a version of his big student-loan forgiveness plan (the one the Supreme Court tossed) under a different legal rational. Senate Democrats could use their investigative powers more aggressively. He can use march-in authority to make prescription drugs cheaper. He could…pull Elon Musk’s security clearance? (Assuming he hasn’t, and assuming that wouldn’t doom the national buildout of electric-vehicle charging stations? Maybe I should report this idea out…) 

I’m sure there’s more, but a lot of the big opportunities (refusing to negotiate the debt limit, making pariahs of Trump’s corrupt allies) are already lost. And others aren’t available because he already did them. Fortunately the world is full of surprises, and Biden might find himself in the position to do bold, damn-the-rules things before the election. I think he should’ve helped Kate Cox safely escape Texas (assuming she would’ve welcomed his involvement) and I hope going forward that he and his advisers think about ways to make themselves seem like people Republicans can’t push around. 

Justin: How did the podcast with Matt Y come together?

Over the summer, when I learned I’d be leaving Crooked Media, but would be able to take my newsletter list and podcast feed with me, I needed to work quickly to build a new foundation. Matt was generous with his paid-newsletter advice, and I asked him if he’d be interested in cohosting a podcast with me, built on the existing feed. He was game.

Mike: It's exceedingly clear from your subheds that you love puns. I ask this as someone who's been the object of a lot of eye rolling by his otherwise loving family, but does this predilection carry over into your personal life and if so do your friends and family appreciate your droll wit AS THEY SHOULD?

Always have a bunch of puns in the oven. It’s always pun and games until my wife outpuns me. I get it from my dad, like father like pun. Are we pun here?