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发帖数: 10469 | 1 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/stay-alive-joe-biden/
608614/
Two days before the South Carolina primary that would reverse his political
fortunes and redirect the course of the Democratic nomination, Joe Biden’s
campaign for president announced a hastily planned event in McClellanville,
South Carolina. The national campaign press was alerted that Biden would
enter full battle mode at this stop, that the proverbial gloves were about
to come off ahead of the kill-or-be-killed primary on Saturday, and no one
would want to miss this one.
And yet, when the cameras and reporters arrived, all they found were a few
folding chairs in an otherwise empty parking lot, in front of a community
health center. Biden walked out to a podium, mumbled a few words about the
improvements he wanted to make to Obamacare, and then shuffled off, alone.
The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and absolutely nothing had
changed. The most notable thing about the event was how unremarkable it was.
In the annals of political history, the week leading into Biden’s 30-point
margin of victory on primary night in South Carolina will likely be recorded
as the one that ultimately determined the course of the nominating battle.
That Saturday night, Biden showed his unmatched power among black voters,
and began to dispense with his rivals. But you sure wouldn’t have known it
from the guy on the campaign trail.
Voters seem to have coalesced around Biden for his past—who they have known
him to be for the past four decades in American politics—rather than for
anything in his present. It’s as if Biden exists primarily as an idea,
rather than an actual candidate.
Today, as the country (and the world) enters what is likely to be a
prolonged period of darkness, left to the mercy of a deadly virus, Biden is
grappling with the reality of what he can—and must—do in this hour of
crisis, as the man who would like to take over leadership of the United
States. Already, this week, there are news reports that his campaign is “in
a state of suspended political animation”:
Biden can’t fully pivot to the general election. He can’t truly unite the
party’s warring factions. Nor can he begin stockpiling the vast amounts of
money he’ll need for November. His momentum has effectively been stopped
cold.
For the foreseeable future, all live campaign events are canceled, so he can
’t hit the stump to try to capitalize on the excitement he had just stoked.
His ability to criticize Trump on anything other than his performance on
coronavirus response and preparedness is constrained by the emergency-like
conditions.
The handwringing over fundraising and campaign events may be beside the
point. After all, if you were on the campaign trail for the past three
months, what struck you was not Biden’s organization (there was little), or
his resources (there were few), or even the campaign messaging (Joe Biden
has been—and forever will be—Joe Biden). What was striking was the sense
of anguish and urgency articulated by everyone, everywhere, all the time.
And that was before the pandemic.
There were the Bernie Sanders supporters on the campus of Florida
International University who told me, however reluctantly, that they would
vote for Biden because Donald Trump had to be stopped. There were the soccer
moms canvassing for Amy Klobuchar in Johnson, Iowa, who made clear that
their primary concern (more than Amy’s chances) was whether Trump was going
to get reelected. There were the Culinary Workers Union members in Las
Vegas who hadn’t been fired up by any candidate in particular, but who told
me they felt as if they faced an existential threat from the Trump
administration—and that was enough to drive them to the voting booth and
pull the lever. There were the older black voters in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, who woke up at 7 a.m. to check out Michael Bloomberg, mostly
because they were worried that Biden was slipping, and Trump had to be
removed—and if Joe couldn’t do it, they said, then they had to find
someone else who would.
Almost no one I came across said they were going to vote because someone,
anyone, but especially Joe Biden, had made their heart sing. Even Sanders
supporters—the ones in the flesh, not online—were clear-eyed about their
desire to defeat Trump, first and foremost. Ending the Trump presidency—
because of the lies, the cruelty, the indignities, the misogyny, the
incompetence, the fraudulence, the corruption, the clownishness, the
recklessness, the lawlessness, the selfishness, oh, the list went on—that
was something that united men and women across the United States and left
them in a state of anguish. | S*******f
发帖数: 1 | 2 要不是他们叫一嗓子，我还真不知道拜登还活着呢…… |
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