One of the more interesting pieces of punditry I heard this week was an effort to explain why Donald Trump’s clear legal peril isn’t hurting him too much with Republican voters. The basic argument was that this is mainly an electability argument, and Republicans have been subjected to so much anti-Biden propaganda that portrays the president as a doddering and senile fool that they think ANYONE can beat him.
In other words, Republicans don’t draw any negative conclusions about Trump from all the lawsuits and indictments. They shrug all that off as partisan law enforcement and the DEEP STATE trying to destroy Trump’s political movement. But, even though they might be convinced to abandon Trump if they perceived him as fatally damaged goods in a general election, they believe Trump will easily beat Biden in 2024, just any sentient Republican would.
I actually buy this. It makes sense to me. And it should be tested out.
What it means, if true, is that Trump is actually quite vulnerable to collapse if his perceived electability is damaged. For example, being convicted of felonies would probably accomplish this. But only if Biden’s perceived electability improves. So, if I were advising Ron DeSanits or Nikki Haley or Tim Scott, I’d tell them to talk incessantly about how formidable Biden is as a candidate and how difficult it will be to unseat an incumbent president. I most definitely would not continue to feed into the right-wing memes about the president drooling over his porridge. The more they build Biden up, the less suitable Trump will seem as an opponent.
They could even start telling the Republican voters about some of the things Biden has done that are popular. They can point out the low unemployment rate, all the jobs that have been created, the student loan relief, etc. And then they might say that Republicans’ banning abortion made Biden’s job of getting reelected much easier. The basic point being here that beating Biden is going to be very difficult instead of the easiest thing in the world.
Admittedly, it might seem like a foolish strategy for a Republican candidate to spend a lot of time saying positive things about Joe Biden, but I think it might be the ONLY strategy with a chance to eat into Trump’s lead.
The problem with this strategy is that while it might hurt Trump and increase the chances of someone else being the nominee, it doesn’t necessarily help the candidate who is pointing out Biden’s strengths.
They could all be saying “I see your point Mr. Longman, but I believe I’ll let someone else do the dirty work.” The large field once again works in Trump’s favor…