For four years the Democrats’ strategy was to have Trump disqualified first as an “insurrectionist” and then as a “convicted felon,” while Biden played what has become standard liberal interest group politics. (A little something for this group. A little something for that.) At the same time, the Dems’ allies in the media played their roles by routinely belittling Trump’s plainly idiotic and unpatriotic supporters. It was a multi-pronged “basket of deplorables” strategy that wreaked of elitism, legal gamesmanship, and finger wagging.
In other words, Biden had four years to connect with middle America–maybe go to a Waffle House before the debate!–but his team was more obsessed with disqualifying their rival and punching down at his supporters. Why does that matter? Because Thursday night’s face off was only meaningful because of how tight this depressing rematch had become.
That said, there were no surprises last night in Atlanta. Trump was a lying fool and Biden a bumbling one. It was a train wreck four years in the making. But all the slow motion in the world apparently couldn’t awaken the Democrats to the simple fact that “saving democracy”–in their breathless words–might require more from their party than cancellation and condescension.
