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Joe Biden’s lonely battle to sell his vision of American democracy
The Washington Post ^ | December 28, 2024 6:00 AM EST | Tyler Pager

Posted on 12/28/2024 6:30:55 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

Earlier this year, Rep. James E. Clyburn met President Joe Biden at the White House to deliver a stern message: Biden had to find a way to revitalize his flagging campaign. Clyburn, who had been pivotal to Biden’s 2020 victory, also made a confession about his own long-standing belief that substance is more important than style in politics.

“I have come to the conclusion in recent days that I’m wrong about that,” the South Carolina Democrat, 84, remembers telling Biden. “The new environment that we currently live in — style seems to carry the day more than substance.”

“Your style,” he told the president, “does not lend itself well to the environment we’re currently in.”

Clyburn’s conclusion — which was shared by anxious Democrats in the months before the president ended his reelection bid — undermined Biden’s theory of presidential leadership. After Donald Trump’s ascent, Biden believed that he just needed to show Americans that traditional democracy still worked — by listening to experts, working with Republicans, passing popular policies — and voters would rally around him.

He succeeded in Phase One of his plan, enacting legislation, much of it bipartisan, to reshape the nation’s infrastructure, revive the semiconductor industry and fight climate change. But Phase Two never happened. The truth of Biden’s presidency is that he failed in what was by his own account his most important mission: making Trump’s presidency seem like an aberration.

“He governed through traditional processes and institutions,” said Julian E. Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University. “It didn’t change the picture of where he started, this anger in the electorate toward institutions, this support for a pretty radical conservative vision that Trump embodied. It didn’t do anything to end the very intense polarization that exists in this country.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Humor
KEYWORDS: bidencrimefamily; democrathypocrisy; dirtydems; kleptocracy; letsgobrandon; lyinjoebiden
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

so what were his policies that would’ve been popular with the American people?
was it...
1) drag queen story hour?
2) gays and trans everywhere?
3) DEI that put non-qualified people in jobs over riding qualified people?
4) EVs to replace ICE vehicles and the ending of petroleum used for electricity, heating, transportation etc.?
5) spending 2T over and above tax revenues on pet projects that rewarded his donor base and drove us further into debt?
6) degrading the dollar to the point that other countries were getting on the bandwagon to drop the dollar as world currency?
7) fantastic strategic withdrawal from Afghanistan?
8) degrading our military with woke policies?
9) pushing for policies putting men in women’s prisons, women’s and girls’ locker rooms and women’s sport?
10) opening our borders to allow 15M illegals into this country and shipping them all over the country?
11) support for the defund the police movement?
12) more gun control?
13) selective prosecution of his opponents?
14) covid protocols that locked down the country and caused massive deaths and massive unemployment?
15) turning the justice department into his own crony legal force?
16) pushing the FBI to go after people who complained at school board meetings?
17) prosecuting people who prayed at abortion clinics?

I’m sure there are many more I missed that could add greatly to this list.


21 posted on 12/28/2024 7:29:39 PM PST by Dad was my hero
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

FJB


22 posted on 12/28/2024 7:38:39 PM PST by BigFreakinToad (All she is, is cackles in the wind.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

James Clyburn is “cutting edge” for Democrats nowadays. No joke!


23 posted on 12/28/2024 7:40:28 PM PST by LeonardFMason
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Odd how Kamala’s “style” didn’t lend itself to the public mood either. It’s almost as if the “substance” (or lack thereof) of these two clowns mattered the most.


24 posted on 12/28/2024 7:52:17 PM PST by Chewbarkah
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
he failed in what was by his own account his most important mission: making Trump’s presidency seem like an aberration.

Yes...if you mean low inflation...low gas prices...no wars..net exporter of agricultural products...oil and gas.

25 posted on 12/28/2024 7:58:58 PM PST by spokeshave (Proud Boys, Angry Dads. Grumpy Grandads & Curmudgeons)
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To: Dad was my hero

That’s a good list of Biden’s accomplishments.


26 posted on 12/28/2024 8:08:56 PM PST by Inyo-Mono
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“Biden has also said he should have picked someone other than Merrick Garland as attorney general, complaining about the Justice Department’s slowness under Garland in prosecuting Trump,”

That’s it. Biden and Garland were too gentle on Trump. There should have been 4x as much lawfare 4x as fast and everything would have been OK.


27 posted on 12/28/2024 8:12:15 PM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: gundog

×3


28 posted on 12/28/2024 8:30:59 PM PST by Fai Mao (The US government is run by pedophiles and Perverts for pedophiles and perverts)
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To: goodnesswins

Also, petty, vindictive, duplicitous, thin-skinned, and fatuous


29 posted on 12/28/2024 8:35:12 PM PST by Fai Mao (The US government is run by pedophiles and Perverts for pedophiles and perverts)
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To: Fai Mao

And more...what an egregios POS for this country to endure...and that goes for his handlers too. And we know who most of them are.


30 posted on 12/28/2024 8:55:21 PM PST by goodnesswins (Don’t be REALITY PHOBIC!)
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To: KarlInOhio

IMO-—WE WILL BE FINDING MORE ILLEGAL FINANCIAL STUFF ABOUT BIDEN FOR 30 +++ YEARS MORE.


31 posted on 12/28/2024 10:09:59 PM PST by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Biden regime’s style of corrupt neo fascism is not a “Vison of Democracy”


32 posted on 12/28/2024 10:57:03 PM PST by MNJohnnie (Don't blame me, my congressman is MTG!)
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To: goodnesswins; ridesthemiles; Fai Mao; TigersEye

33 posted on 12/28/2024 11:27:49 PM PST by 4Liberty (One person’s Socialism is another’s neighborliness. -Tim Walz)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Don’t think I’ve ever read a more sinister piece of propaganda.


34 posted on 12/28/2024 11:50:43 PM PST by RonaldusMagnus-DonaldusMagnus
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Clyburn is trying to paint over and distract from the obvious. Joe’s a vegetable. These last four years have been Weekend At Bernie’s.


35 posted on 12/29/2024 12:37:34 AM PST by lurk (u)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

So was Harris’ campaign style or substance what with Eminem,Beyonce, Cardi b et all? Trump was and is substance!
Your mob was weighed in the balance and found to be pathetic!


36 posted on 12/29/2024 1:01:47 AM PST by mitch5501 ("make your calling and election sure:for if ye do these things ye shall never fall")
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To: All

Lonely battle?

Hah.

This is drjill and Hunter’s crackbrained scheme to
enhance their futures tainted by their dismal exits

Joe is forever trash.


37 posted on 12/29/2024 1:55:02 AM PST by Liz ((This then is how we should pray: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. ))
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

much of it bipartisan,

Only minimally so, enough to claim the label.

His vaunted legislation has been an ongoing and unmitigated disaster. Trillions in debt for no measurable gain. I mean, 7 electric vehicle chargers?

FJB is a grifter and a criminal. He has been Zerohissef’s 3rd term without the pretty words that fooled/thrilled so many people like the writers at the WP.


38 posted on 12/29/2024 2:49:49 AM PST by Adder (End fascism...defeat all Democrats.)
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To: gundog
Joe is like the cult leader who has been exposed and has nowhere to hide.

Unfortunately, some of the cult members (themselves, without a place to go) will support him and his BS forever. The whole crowd of misfits that put Joe in office and struggled daily (hourly) to prop him up, needs to disappear right along with him. This includes his demented, media whore wife

39 posted on 12/29/2024 3:18:09 AM PST by SMARTY (In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. Napoleon Bonaparte I)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum; All

democrats lie, that’s what they do, mostly they lie to themselves, their capacity for self delusion is off the charts.


40 posted on 12/29/2024 5:27:12 AM PST by notdownwidems (Washington D.C. has become the enemy of free people everywhere!)
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