a theory for a Joseph Biden run
1. Polls show Joseph Biden strengthened in position despite — or, maybe in a way because of, the streaming of his tendency to touch down on women over the years. (Notable in that some of those photographed brush away the controversy and are irked that they become part of the issue — “it’s just Joe”.
2. There’s this weird bit of either situational political correctness for partisan reasons on the part of the conservative media or of attempted calls of hypocrisy for partisan lines with Alexandria O. Cortez and her slipping into a black vernacular. No, it’s not “verbal black-face” — it’s the nature of American slang: adoptions from black culture. (Self described nerds, and close your eyes and envision the parody, cling to the Standard King’s English. Or the parody of the “white kid trying too hard.”) But I’m stuck on the question: what are the opponents trying to get at here?
3. New York Times has a story today reiterating the dynamics we’ve seen: white progressives are more “woke” or “liberal” than some of the allies they’re trying to rally around — case in point: the governor of Virginia shouldn’t resign, says more black Virginians than white Democrats. I largely would agree, though the governor’s particular offense stretches one’s tolerance toward tossing aside the misdeeds of the past. (If it were down to an impersonation of Michael Jackson, the one thing he’s gone ahead to admit to, I would have less of a problem.) This translates further to an abrupt difference between the “liberal twittersphere” / social media land and the Democratic polity at large — which we have seen reverberated in the past generation and more — just ask President Howard Dean.
4. Oddly, Biden’s transgressions may just play right up against Trump’s transgressions in this way of “Look. If this were what Trump had done, we wouldn’t have a problem”. All too human, you see, and an understanding of changing norms and what different things mean off camera. (Such that Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” statement ended up trumping Trump’s Hollywood Minute.)
5. For a presidential campaign against Donald Trump, perhaps Joseph Biden should calculatingly slip in small controversies and “gaffes” of a kind — just to innoculate criticism of the political correct nature, and for that matter prove a weird sort of “Sister Souljah Moment” vibe against any of a particular harsh breed of “Social Justice Warriors”. I know an Indian (the sub-continent) who mocks any controversy on Biden’s once statement about how they came in and conquered the convenience store market and good on them — shocking in the age of Apu bashing, but… no one cares for the Apu bashers. (The person in question made the mistake of remembering the candidate who made the “macaca” reference where everyone just rolled their eyes. I had to correct him, and in his odd stated political incorrect identity and Democratic allegiance had to sigh “well, the Democrats are the party of that, so…”)