Thread by @heffnera

This is Biden’s golden opportunity to de-program Trump sympathizers. My latest for @Independent...follow this thread or read here: independent.co.uk/voices/biden-c…

The most defining — and rejuvenating — characteristic of the new commander-in-chief is his extraordinary empathy. That’s because the 46th president really does feel your and our collective pain as a country — no gimmicks or shrills attached.

But Biden’s genuine tenderness and call for personal responsibility aren’t enough. We’re speeding toward the greatest humanitarian conflagration in United States history.

From their Big Lie chorus to their abetment of the insurrection on January 6th (as displayed in today’s Senate hearing) to their current opposition to these diverse Cabinet members, the Republican playbook against the Biden administration still bears the hallmarks of Trumpism.

White identity politics and culture war — not substantive policy disagreements — are increasingly the entire opposition to President Biden’s agenda.

How do you confront a party hell-bent on satisfying an anti-democratic cult and whose voters, thanks to the rhetoric and presidency of Donald Trump, are ready to break the system, and worse, dehumanize their fellow Americans?

As conservatives and liberals have all endured the wrath of Covid, getting the pandemic under control is the most strategic and compassionate policy to bend those unyielding two-time Trump voters toward at least a modicum of respect for the Biden way.

Democrats do have to consider the constituency of Joe Manchin and the most potent responses to voters still under the spell of Donald Trump. You have to believe, as President Biden does, in the potential for human rationality over lies — and human compassion over bigotry.

Let’s take two challenges intersecting with the pandemic response, which present a compelling moment for the new administration to make a new results-oriented argument and maybe deprogram Trump sympathizers.

In the wake of the Texas crisis, where vaccination sites were shuttered, Biden should propose the most significant infrastructure plan in US history, and explain how it will tangibly secure the lives and livelihoods of Texans as well as West Virginians.

(It is rather confounding that the president has yet to visit the besieged state largely abandoned by its Republican elected officials.)

The Biden administration also has an opportunity to deliver accountability on China with major declassification on the pandemic origins. This will help inform the public and prepare for the future. Trump claimed that the Chinese had the virus under control and was deadly wrong.

Now Biden can demonstrate his independence, investigating all of the Chinese — and American — failures to protect US citizens during 2020 and 2021. Trump failed to be a successful president-builder or protector. The truly decent Joe Biden can prove to be both.