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WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden and the Democrats were on the verge of passing sprawling legislation with an unbelievable price tag of $ 1.9 trillion.
But many Republican politicians and conservative commentators had other priorities in recent days. A passionate defense of Dr. Seuss. Serious questions about the future of Mr. Potato Head. Thorough examination of Meghan Markle.
The Conservatives’ relentless focus on culture wars rather than the new president highlights both their strategy to regain power in Washington and their challenge ahead. Unlike previous Democratic leaders, Biden himself is simply not turning out to be an easy target or an animating figure for the GOP base, leading Republicans to look to the kind of cultural issues the party has used to address. present Democrats as elitist and out of touch with the average. Americans.
“There is just no antipathy towards Biden like there was Obama. It just doesn’t arouse outrage from conservatives, ”said Alex Conant, a longtime GOP agent, who worked for the Republican National Committee in 2009 as they worked to undermine the president. era, Barack Obama.
“They never talk about Biden. It’s amazing, ”Conant said of conservative news media. “I think Fox covered Dr. Seuss more than Biden’s stimulus bill in the week leading up to the vote.”
The challenge is a continuation of the 2020 campaign, when then-President Trump struggled to launch a consistent attack on Biden. Biden’s branding as “sleepy” never stuck in the same way as Trump’s derision of Hillary Clinton as “twisted” in 2016. Other GOP efforts to define Biden as a radical or to attack his acuteness mentality did not resonate either.
Merchandise sits outside Trump rallies with buttons and shirts mocking Clinton and Obama, but little denigration of Biden. Clinton, who remains vilified on the right, was far more present on stage at last month’s annual conservative political action conference in Florida than the current occupant of the Oval Office.
The GOP focuses more on America’s Culture Wars than on Biden, including a relatively new villain who is referred to as “cancel culture.”
Minority House Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted a video of himself reading by Dr Seuss in the days after the author’s publishing house announced the deletion of several books containing racist images. And former Trump aide Stephen Miller joined others on the right in launching a Buckingham Palace Twitter defense after Markle, in a successful interview with Oprah Winfrey, allegedly racist treatment by an anonymous member of the monarchy.
“It will take a few weeks for Republicans to realize how badly they’ve been treated with the COVID bill as they wasted all of their precious time and energy complaining about Dr Seuss,” tweeted Amanda Carpenter, former adviser to Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. .
Biden’s strategy on cultural warfare issues has been largely not to engage. White House press secretary Jen Psaki danced around questions about Dr Seuss.
Biden himself has remained largely blundered, save for his decisions calling on Republican governors to lift masked “Neanderthal” mandates, which generated a brief storm on the Right.
Instead, the West Wing focused on the relief bill, believing Americans will reward results, not controversy.
“Cancellation culture is a huge meme on the right and it can work with the base, but the base is not the country as a whole,” said David Axelrod, former senior Obama adviser. “It’s a side show right now, the main event is the virus and how quickly are we going to be able to get back to normal.”
Biden, Axelrod said, remained “a tough target” for Republicans.
“He doesn’t engage, he doesn’t personalize his differences, and while he pursues a progressive platform, he doesn’t use conventional ideological language on it,” Axelrod said. “He’s not a provocative personality.”
Biden, who has focused part of his campaign on trying to win back working-class white voters who left the Democratic Party for Trump, also does not face racist attacks on Obama or sexist attacks targeted at Clinton.
Much of the vitriol of Trump’s campaign was not directed at Biden, who sold himself as a unifier in the middle of the road, but soon as Vice President Kamala Harris, a woman of color. Harris, the Trump team argued, would really be in charge, Biden being a mere “empty vessel” used to implement the radical agendas of others.
Additionally, Republican efforts to fight Biden have been hampered by civil war within its own ranks as the party grapples with its leadership in the lingering shadow of Trump.
Some Republicans argue that it will just take time for the GOP to organize against Biden, given the honeymoon period most new presidents enjoy. Biden also wagered on a lower profile than Obama, making him a less effective foil at uniting Republicans.
“I think that’s exactly what’s happening with a new president,” said Josh Holmes, a former aide to Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, who spearheaded a movement to thwart Obama afterwards. the inauguration of the 44th president.
“When you lose a big election, there’s kind of a scattering effect, (and) it wasn’t until June and at the start of the Obamacare discussion where we were really able to fight back consistently,” he said. said Holmes. “I think in the spring you are dealing with a much more cohesive Republican Party than you are the first two weeks.”
Republicans believe there will be opportunities to push back better when the White House tackles more thorny issues such as immigration, voting rights legislation and a potentially massive infrastructure and jobs bill. Many also believe that the ongoing herky-choppy process to reopen schools for in-person learning could end up damaging Biden.
All the while, the White House Biden is highlighting his attempts at bipartisanship, putting Republicans on the defensive for failing to sign the hugely popular COVID relief bill.
“A lot of Republicans who voted against this are outliers and are against the meaning of what people in their own districts have been supporting,” Psaki said. “So they may have questions about it once the relief goes in, once the schools are able to upgrade the facilities and benefit from these vouchers.”
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