Thread by @JewhadiTM

Biden: The Mirror on the Democrats’ Wall

They see what they want to, if they see anything at all.

via J.T. Young

spectator.org/biden-the-mirr…

Nothing better represents today’s Democrat diversity dilemma than the party’s distended 2020 presidential field. Laughably large and ever-changing, it resembled nothing less than a political Survivor.

Yet as the show finally ends, Democrats face the very opposite of intended outcomes: Their most diverse of fields will produce their least diverse nominee since 2004, one who represents neither their constituencies nor their aspirations.

Simply, Joe Biden must somehow reflect the diversity he does not represent, but which Democrats have celebrated, stoked, and demanded.

Few groups have been as loyal to Democrats (voting 89% for Democrats in 2016), or as important to Biden, as blacks. Despite several credible black candidates running, Biden became blacks’ candidate of choice.

They not only delivered South Carolina to him but they also saved his candidacy when no one else would.

Biden accomplished his remarkable feat with this vital constituency by wrapping himself in Obama’s mantle.

Obama’s VP for 8 years, Biden has played his support for Obama for all — and more than — it was worth. No candidate made more use of Obama than Biden, despite Obama making scant use of Biden in his White House.

Obama still has not endorsed Biden; rather, Obama’s blessing went to Hillary Clinton in 2016, even though Biden outranked her and served in his administration longer.

Today’s Democrats have altered Horace Greeley’s “Go west, young man” into “Go left, young gender-neutral individual.” Liberals have returned that love, voting 84% for Democrats in 2016. This is where the Democrats’ action is; therefore, this is where Joe must be.

But Joe — the quintessential establishment, career politician from pale-blue Delaware, selected as vice president to balance the liberal Obama’s ticket — had never been a liberal lion … until now.

Biden 2020 has been decidedly left. There has been virtually no left priority Biden has not chased to at least some degree. Although he has not leaned as far left as the most extreme, he will still be the most left nominee of a major party in American history.

At the same time Biden has been his most left, he also has sold himself as a moderate. It’s easy to see why. Moderates made up 39 percent of 2016’s voters, and they voted 52% Democrat.

Biden has received invaluable help here from the establishment media, who insist on labeling him as a moderate, despite his no longer being so.

If moderates look backwards into Biden’s past, they can see their reflection. They rely on Biden’s career politician pedigree to see the image they wish. Moderates trust that today’s left Biden is not the real Biden & that tomorrow’s President Biden will be yesterday’s Biden.

Essentially, they are hoping today’s hypocrite can be trusted to turn again.

If that is confusing, then consider Biden’s play for the youth vote. Voters of ages 18–24 went 56% for Democrats in 2016, so Biden needs them too.

Considering the 77-year-old Biden was in the Senate (1973–2009) far longer than this age cohort has been alive, this is a big challenge.

Biden initially covered his youth vulnerability by supporting free college for all for two years; then, in the last debate, he upped his bid to four years for some families.

He also now supports expanding student debt forgiveness, including debt forgiveness in bankruptcy, despite voting in the Senate to make bankruptcy harder to declare and student loan debt harder to discharge under it.

Democrats also insist on identity-group politics, and their nominee represents none of these groups. Viewed through the identity-group lens, Biden is their very opposite in many cases.

Unable to represent them, Biden has determined to reflect them instead. He has become a mirror

Actually, to accommodate the Democrats’ myriad of groups, he has become a veritable hall of mirrors. Within it, Democrats can wander lost in the illusion, happily looking at themselves — never seeing Biden, because, like a mirror, there is nothing there to see but themselves.

The problem is that the rest of America is likely to see through him — even as Democrats refuse to.