Contrasting Leadership Rhetoric and Pandemic Responses

It’s the final Politix podcast of Joe Biden’s presidency! Soon Donald Trump will be inaugurated president for a second, non-consecutive term. Inflation and crime and border crossings will fall, wages will rise, and America will be great again. Except…all those things already happened.

In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

* Why did the Biden presidency end in political failure, given the rosy macro picture?

* What connectivity is there between the Biden administration’s conception of itself—and its ensuing approach to policy—and its unpopularity?

* Would a younger president (even a younger version of Biden) operating under otherwise identical material circumstances have been able to spin the outputs of this administration into political gold?

Then, behind the paywall, what if anything have Democrats taken from Biden’s struggles, and are they applying those lessons to their early opposition? Why are they poised to help Republicans pass the Laken Riley Act? Do they really think holding Trump to bad-faith campaign promises will hurt him when, e.g., the cost of eggs doesn’t go down? Or is it likelier that, with Trump claiming credit for Biden’s economy, voters will stop citing the cost of living as their top political concern?

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Further reading:

* Brian can’t pronounce Baudrillard, but he did write about how Democrats should rethink the idea that delivering good macroeconomic conditions is the key to winning elections, and rethink their political strategies from scratch.

* Matt thinks Democrats can just follow Joe Manchin’s lead.

* Dylan Matthews argues that Biden did himself in by refusing to make hard-nosed decisions.