Quote:
Originally Posted by parttimepro
Biden's appeal is to people who are not us. He does not appeal to the younger, extremely online crowd. He does not appeal to people who follow politics so closely that they bet on it. But there is a huge mass of folks age 50+ for whom he is one of them, he's calming, he's not crazy. He doesn't want to overturn the apple cart. His appeal is, maybe we can go back to a time when we didn't hate each other so much.
The first part makes sense to me. I probably have a massive blind spot for boomer liberals, as I just about never interact with such people. So it's very possible that among this mostly invisible (to me) demographic, Biden has appeal.
With that said, is it really plausible that moderates will perceive Biden and his service under Obama as "a time when we didn't hate each other so much?" I'm not sure if this is accurate or not, but I have the perception that it was during Obama's presidency that a lot of the really divisive issues blew up. Trannies using the other sex's bathroom, black lives matter violently protesting, tension between poor neighbourhoods and the police escalating, and other identity politics topics widening the gap between left and right. Certainly Trump's presidency has done nothing to stem the tide of this division, but it seems that his popularity is in large part due to him seizing upon this anger and division which was already present, and playing it up to generate a passionate base of voters who felt their values were being trampled on during Obama's presidency. That is, Trump simply fanned the flames; he didn't start the fire.
I don't think we saw anything like that during Bush or Clinton's terms. The Iraq War was of course polarising and controversial, but it wasn't as personal as the identity politics issues that came to fester during Obama's reign. The identity politics stuff is what created that anger and hatred, it seems. I could see right-leaning moderates blaming Biden for part of that and thus not associating him with "a time when we didn't hate each other so much."
If you want to argue that Dem voters are looking for a more moderate candidate who isn't going to turn off voters with polarising rhetoric, Yang and Gabbard seem like they'd be more popular. Almost everyone can get on board with "Wars are expensive and stupid, corporations are screwing you and politicians are corrupt; let's use all that money for something better." It's not a new message, but when Yang and Gabbard say it, it seems more likely they actually believe it, compared to your average scumbag thief politician.
But, obviously that's not what we're seeing. Perhaps Biden is more appealing to boomers as they see younger candidates as too inexperienced, and can relate to Biden's mind slowing down, and are more forgiving of that.
Is there a good source to view how candidates are polling across different demographics? Would be interesting to see among whom Biden is most popular.