Three things I need to say to Joe Biden
Joe, champ, good job at the convention.
Now let’s get to it. I presume you want to win the next US presidential election. The platitudes, the calling for a higher standard, the let’s-roll-up-our-sleeves-and-beat-that-darn-Trump is all good and well. But they’re table stakes. They just get you in the game.
If you want to win, you’re going to have to do things differently. I know holding the higher ground makes you feel good. Unfortunately, it makes the working class feel like shit. And makes the middle and upper-middle class feel scared shitless because they have further to fall.
It’s not about polls. Or campaign yah-yahs. Or tactics. It’s not about the bunting and merch. That’s not going to determine who will be the next president.
Whoever tells the best story will win. Don’t tell the story of policy and politics. And don’t tell the usual us vs. them story. Don’t compare anything to Trump. Or Trump to anything. Instead, paint him out of the picture, out of history. Never mention his name or his deeds. Box him into his own echo chamber. Deadlock the door and throw away the key. Supersede the motherfucker.
People don’t care what you can do. They only care what you can do for them.
- Despite what every campaign strategist says, you are not the hero of the story. American voters of all stripes and persuasions are the hero. (Replace the word ‘America’ with ‘Americans’ at every turn.)
- You are the mentor who understands their plight and will save them from the antagonist, the monster. (Keep selling the monster so it becomes more and more and more dangerous.)
- The antagonist, the monster isn’t Trump and those scallywags in the Republican party. The antagonist is the forces tearing Americans apart.
Give them a simple three-step plan to kill the monster, save their lives and heal the land. You don’t want to win 51% of the vote.
You want a landslide that will carry you across multiple terms.
Knock ‘em dead, Joe.