Missing Souljah

Joe Biden and the ‘persuasion election.’

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President Joe Biden speaks to members of the United Steel Workers Union in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 17, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

My ears always perk up when one of my newsletters is mentioned on The Dispatch Podcast. It happened last week when Sarah Isgur was inspired by this one to pose a confounding question.

Why is Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, the candidate who’s had a “Sister Souljah moment” recently?

On the momentous issue of abortion, Trump has risked offending an important element of his base by pivoting toward the center. He’s making a play for swing voters, as preposterous as that sounds after four indictments, two impeachments, and one insurrection.

Shouldn’t the other guy in the race be doing a little of that too?

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  1. Ken Motamed

    I may be giving Trump too much credit, but his pivoting to the center on abortion primarily helps down-ballot candidates. If that was his intent, he must be turning a new leaf.

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      Trevor Reid

      Uh no

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  2. R. James

    Is it really a persuadable election if two-thirds of Americans rather crawl over broken glass than vote for either of these two candidates? Seems like it's a base turnout election albeit with much smaller bases of support.

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    1. Ken Motamed

      Are you actually saying only a third of the registered voters will be voting for president this November?

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  3. Dougrhon

    The so called Sister Souljah Moment is greatly misunderstood. Bill Clinton was an essentially unknown small state governor attempting to shed the party label of far left liberal in order to attract centrist voters who supported Reagan and Bush. He had spent a decade governingmoderately in Arkansas and chairing the Democratic Leadership Council. His "moment" was believable. Joe Biden has been in public life for 50 years. HE has been the president for over three. Everyone knows who he is, what he stands for and how much his word is worth. There is no one in the entire United States who will shift their vote to Biden BECAUSE he suddenly decides to get elected he should denounce some of the radicals he has embraced for a decade. He may have tricked some in 2020 but no one will be fooled now. There is no point in any shift at all. His only hope is that enough middle of the roaders who loathe him remember that they loathe Trump that much more.

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    1. Ken Motamed

      Right. Who would believe him after three and a half years of pandering to and bribing his base?

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    2. Jackrabbit McQuivers

      I disagree; I don't believe most Americans view Biden as radical, or supporting radicals, for the last 10 years. I think that's a talking point among some on the right-of-center, but not a widely held belief by most Americans.

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      1. Dougrhon

        Whether you agree or not is immaterial. The "Sister Souljah" moment is geared towards those who do believe it. It's designed to lead those voters to believe that rhe candidate is actually NOT that way. Perhaps you disagree with Nick that such a moment is required, that.its something made up by center right conservatives. But to the extent that there are people who believe that Biden is the captive of leftist radicals, a pretend attack on them by Biden won't fool anyone.

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        1. Jackrabbit McQuivers

          I agree with Nick. I just disagree with your opinion. You stated yours, I stated mine. My opinion has as much materiality as yours. No need to say "whether or not you agree is immaterial." Whether or not your opinion is correct is also immaterial. We're just a couple people with zero influence throwing around opinions, on equal footing.

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          1. Dougrhon

            You didn't disagree with my point. You side stepped it by saying people don't believe that Biden is controlled by radicals. My point was that a sister souljah moment won't work. If nobody believes it then a sister souljah moment isn't needed. If people do believe it then do you actually think a single moment of criticizing the extreme left will change the mind of anyone who feels the way I do?

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  4. Anna K. Gorisch

    "In a virtuous country, Joe Biden wouldn’t need to campaign at all this fall. The fact that Trump is an authoritarian virus in human form infecting the American constitutional order would be enough for undecideds to mount an immune response against him. But we aren’t that country. To win, the president will need to persuade them that his policies are better for them than the alternative’s are."

    Imagine that - policy matters. I'm not going to vote for Kamala Harris (because let's be honest) just because she's not Trump. Same for Biden. This is true no matter how many times you talk about indictments and insurrections. In fact, I think that people have been getting this message so loudly for so long that it lacks impact, especially when it starts with Bragg.

    I can only speak for the independent leaving this comment, but my desire to vote on policy doesn't mean I have no virtue. Many people are willing to vote third-party rather than vote for either of the two geniuses at the top of the ticket - this doesn't mean they lack virtue.

    Finally, please consider that the constant claims that this is not a virtuous country because Biden actually has to, you know, earn votes will drive away the people you need. I see we have dropped any pretense of a "conservative case" for Biden and now rely on smearing anyone who won't vote for him as lacking virtue.

    The right claims the left hates America. I don't know about the left, but Nick sure does. Again, I think of all my immigration clients who are not remotely afraid of Trump. They know what real autocrats are, what real coups are (they usually involve the military), what it is to lack opportunity. There are many Haitians crossing the southern border now. Perhaps they should return - we might elect Trump, after all.

    This is the last day of my subscription. To those of you who have engaged with me in good faith, even when we disagree, I thank you sincerely. I appreciate your perspectives and input and you have added value to my life and forced me to think through my positions.

    To those who said I'm a raving lunatic drunk writing vitriolic incoherent screeds, who say I'm a secret Trump supporter, who tell me to get out if I don't like what Nick says, who enjoy all this doom-looping? I will one last time make a call for more empathy and kindness. If the hope is to convert independents into Biden voters, you're doing it wrong.

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      2sequoia

      Nick hates America? Give me a break.

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      1. Anna K. Gorisch

        He literally just wrote - multiple times - that America is not a virtuous country. Not that MAGA isn't virtuous or Trump isn't virtuous; the entirety of America.

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        1. Jackrabbit McQuivers

          I think you're misreading what Nick said, Christine

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          2sequoia

          That does not mean he hates America. It means he’s unhappy with the direction the country is headed in.

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      Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

      I've enjoyed your comments, and thought you've added to the richness of the conversations here. I wish you well in your future adventures. I mean that with no snark.

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      1. Anna K. Gorisch

        I've always enjoyed yours as well, and thank you!

        And I wish you the same, likewise with zero snark.

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    3. R. James

      As the Dispatch drives hard into the center left lane, I'm sure you will not be the last conservative or center right independent to ditch your subscription.

      There is something to be said about claims of virtue when the candidate does not support virtuous policies. I can think of many unvirtuous policies that Biden pursues which a "virtuous country" should reject.

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      1. Anna K. Gorisch

        I'm a libertarian and I loathe Donald Trump, but this is just too much for me. I genuinely think this publication will only appeal to hard core NeverTrumpers and progressives. There isn't much new to say, but if you want to get some likes and be reassured that you're correct in thinking Trump the most dangerous person in the history of the country who must be stopped at all costs (unless of course he wins at which point they'll just step aside I guess?), then Nick is your guy.

        I'm not going to give up on my country, and I'm not going to vote for Biden. Pretty soon they'll have to just resort to bullying since they don't have any idea how to persuade.

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    Jarod_armstrong

    Why should the pandemic economy be held against Trump? Nutty comments aside, the lockdowns and grassroot fear (correct in both cases) hurting the economy wasn't him. The most direct impact he had was supporting a variety of stimulus to keep the economy from crashing and Operation Warp Speed which allowed the economy to open back up in 2021 (to the chagrin of lefties). Even with anti-vaxxers, I would argue the medical establishment lying about the virus' origins, face masks early on, and deciding open air gatherings were okay for the correct lefty-approved reasons during the summer of "mostly peaceful" protests did more to drive it.

    So no, people shouldn't hold that against Trump, but neither should they hold the massive drops in the part of the economy people most care about, real disposable income per capita, against Biden. RDI is down 8% since Biden took office. What they should hold, and seem to given his poor economic ratings, is that, depending on when you consider the pandemic to have ended, RDI is either down 1% or up a measly 1%. RDI was up 9% in Trump's first 3 years, that's why people remember the economy fondly then. Biden's debt binge and consumer spending are holding up GDP and employment figures, but the former is becoming enough of a problem for the IMF to point out and the latter is supported by people running down their real savings 20% in the last 18 months and halving their rate of saving compared to 2019. As I point out to pro-Biden folk confused as to why strong GDP figures aren't translating to support, GDP doesn't vote. People who have gone from 3 years of 9% income gains and growing savings to 3 years of no income gain and declining savings do.

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    1. Msimscabin

      One thing you can hold against Trump is the entirety of his response to the pandemic. It was the only problem he had to deal with in his whole term, and although the pandemic would have been a challenge for anybody, he gave a press conference every day where he was exposed as a complete idiot. A lot of people complain about the economy. Our country is doing better than any other country on Earth post-pandemic. Seems like just about the only people who don't complain about the economy are the millions that died from covid worldwide.

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      1. Anna K. Gorisch

        So everyone living is complaining about the economy... and all of them are wrong?

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        1. Msimscabin

          Maybe they have a reason. I have just always thought it was strange that people couldn't just celebrate that they made it though the pandemic alive, and not just immediately start whining about the price of gas and milk. People in the USA are just hard to please, I guess.

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          1. Anna K. Gorisch

            In all fairness, you can't pay your rent with gratitude. Many lost jobs and businesses, and finances were tight. I'm sorry you see them as selfish ingrates.

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        Jarod_armstrong

        Trump had more to deal with than just the pandemic, but he oversaw, or more accurately was president during, Operation Warp Speed which was the main effort to defeat the virus. He is an idiot of course. How do you define the US economy doing "better than any other country post-pandemic"? A whole lotta of other countries have higher GDP growth rates. Our GDP growth is at the top of the developed world, but that should be standard given demographic and market differences. It's a problem that our growth is due to massive peace-time non-recession deficits. You are right a lot of people complain about the economy, and for good reason. As a wise man once said, "GDP doesn't vote. People who have gone from 3 years of 9% income gains and growing savings to 3 years of no income gain and declining savings do".

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        1. Msimscabin

          I just maybe don't know anybody who's is doing that bad. I guess homeless people gotta ask for $20 now, instead of $5. I just work in a factory. My wages are more than 25% higher than the before covid. My 401k just went up 6%, without me even putting anything in it. You can still get 2 frozen pizzas for $10. All I know is we have had less inflation than the other developed countries. We are producing more oil and gas than any other country in the history of the world. Zero-covid policies in China have set their economy back decades. The USA hadn't had meaningful inflation for many years, now we have. Interest rates were kept near zero for a decade, even though the recession had ended long before. I don't know why why people cry when there is a 5% interest rate, I remember when they were 20% in the early 80s, and life still went on, somehow. Yes, this country has massive debt and deficits. When I was a kid, they told people that their kids and grandkids would be paying those. I was the kid and the grandkid, and I'm still not paying, and the children of the future probably won't either, and if it was an actual problem, nobody is coming forward with a plan to deal with it, so it's not even really worth thinking about.

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            Jarod_armstrong

            It's an average, RDI PC doesn't ask interest rates. I recall when interest rates were double digits, since as a kid I asked about them. The reason people cry about 7% interest rates is because some people have to move. I know rates were 20%, we weren't homeowners!

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  6. Charlottejoymartin

    I am so sad at the thought that these are our choices. I got a momentary half smile at the imaginary scenario of Candace Owen and Tucker Carlson running to Trump’s right. But back in reality, I am in the Trump is too frightening camp. I wish Biden had governed as the Biden who defeated Sanders, instead of getting drunk on the thought of being FDR and LBJ and the second coming. Less on aborting a baby as somehow a thing that is health care when it always results in a death, less on puberty blockers for kids behind parents’ backs. And for heaven sake’s, less inflation fueling give always! And a better VP pick, given his age! He should have been the LBJ who didn’t run again!! But I’m getting away from reality again. It just leaves me so sad. Being in a pretty blue state, I might be sitting out my first quadrennial election. Sigh.

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    1. BadgerBill

      C., I feel your pain. As I am in a swing state, I’ll be voting for Biden, but it’s the vote I will feel the worst about (and I first voted (for Ford) back in 1976. If I was not in a swing state, I would be sitting it out.

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  7. Johndanielraines

    Overall, pleased with this article. Slightly disappointed no hard polling on constipation popularity.

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    1. Norcal

      "Hard"? Was that pun intended?

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      1. Anna K. Gorisch

        OK that was funny.

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  8. Mirabelle

    If Biden wins, I plan on keeping an eye on election turnout after that. I expect it to drop significantly. If Trump wins -- well, anything goes, and who knows what we'll be up against.

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    Will Bates

    Has Joe Biden tried the tactic of just…not being Joe Biden? Like, not 1200 years old, not stumbling through unprepared remarks, making unifying remarks in times of strife

    Maybe that’s worth a try. Un-Biden the DNC ticket, and Biden wins!

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    1. Ken Motamed

      Right. Biden will make himself twenty years younger and become a different person. Good advice, Will.

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    Portland Isaiah

    “In a virtuous country, Joe Biden wouldn’t need to campaign at all this fall. The fact that Trump is an authoritarian virus in human form infecting the American constitutional order would be enough for undecideds to mount an immune response against him. But we aren’t that country. To win, the president will need to persuade them that his policies are better for them than the alternative’s are.”

    This statement has everything exactly backwards. In a virtuous society, a party would campaign on issues instead of telling everyone that you can’t let the other guy win “for the good of the country.” If Mr. Biden was truly interested in increasing his prospects at reelection, he would have pivoted to the center on issues like immigration or the economy from the beginning of his term. He’s counting on being re-elected by being the best bad choice but that doesn’t mean that everyone wants to play the game by his rules.

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    1. Ken Motamed

      There would be no need for a pivot. He ran as a moderate Democrat, remember?

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    2. MSS

      In a virtuous society, neither party would nominate an ethically challenged geriatric for president (I'm being generous to Trump here). Seriously, a moderately competent 50 something candidate wipes the floor with either of these jokers, but neither party is willing or able to support such a candidate in the primaries. So here we are.
      I held my nose and voted for Biden in 20, but I'm pretty sure I'm just not going to vote for president in 24.

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