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Yep. Biden's announcement video positions him as a reset button for the Trump presidency—elect Biden, and Trump is a footnote. Re-elect Trump, and "he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation."
I think he's pretty obviously wrong. Trump is the culmination (for now) of massive and important transformations in American politics and society that we'll be grappling with for a very long time. But there's clearly a constituency for this message.
"What is broken and how do we fix it?" is the core underlying question of American politics right now. Biden's candidacy pushes that question further to the foreground of the primary fight, I think.
“What do you understand about politics that you didn’t understand on November 1, 2016?” is a question every candidate needs to articulate an answer to, it seems to me. Some are going to be more eager to answer it than others.
Thinking about this more, “How has Trump changed American politics, and your political vision?” is also a crucial question, and a revealing one.
But that second question is a lot easier for the newbs—Pete, Beto, even Harris, sorta—to answer, since they can fudge the pre-2016 part to fit their 2020 narrative.
Biden’s answer is the reset button. Warren’s answer seems to be “it’s time to swing for the fences.” Less clear, I think, what Bernie’s is.
