Few things are more generally harmful in politics than living in an echo chamber.
It’s harmful to the constituents being ignored, it’s harmful to the development of diverse ideas, and it’s harmful to the ongoing toxic political landscape.
It’s also harmful to 81-year-old incumbent presidents facing an uphill battle for re-election — but the team most closely surrounding President Joe Biden doesn’t appear to be aware of that, according to a new report.
Simply titled “Top Dems: Biden has losing strategy,” the blistering report from Axios chronicled concerned Democrats who were — intentionally or not — painting Biden as old and horrifically out of touch, particularly with matters regarding his chief political rival and presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Donald Trump, with his closest allies doing nothing but enabling that foolish behavior.
The key issue, per Axios: “Senior Democrats, including some of President Biden’s aides, are increasingly dubious about his theory for victory in November, which relies on voter concerns about Jan. 6, political violence, democracy and Donald Trump’s character.”
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The issue at hand for Team Biden is a simple one: Those voter concerns appear to be greatly overblown if recent polling numbers mean anything.
Despite that screaming apathy, Biden and his closest allies do, in fact, seem to be honing in on that strategy — particularly that last bit about “Donald Trump’s character.”
Just look at this attack ad shared Monday by Biden’s personal account on social media platform X:
Donald Trump is only out for himself. I’m fighting for the American people.
Check out our new ad.pic.twitter.com/pXahFXh5uk
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 17, 2024
“Donald Trump is only out for himself,” Biden posted with the ad. “I’m fighting for the American people.”
Will Trump win in November?
Sure, Joe. Your “fighting” is the problem, but that’s a rant for later.
The matter at hand is the incumbent’s foolish grasp on this failing strategy.
“Several polls have indicated voters are deeply concerned about democracy but they are most worried about inflation and the economy,” Axios noted.
And that should be painfully obvious to any American who has looked at their grocery receipt lately.
(For the dingbats who are legitimately concerned about “democracy,” please Google the term “checks and balances.”)
Axios also noted other concerns, like Trump’s growing popularity with minorities, before pivoting to some truly grim quotes.
“It is unclear to many of us watching from the outside whether the president and his core team realize how dire the situation is right now, and whether they even have a plan to fix it,” one Democratic strategist told the outlet. “That is scary.”
Another person, one described as being in “Biden’s orbit” described something akin to a state of totalitarian fear within the incumbent’s camp: “Even for those close to the center, there is a hesitance to raise skepticism or doubt about the current path, for fear of being viewed as disloyal.”
The Axios report also focused on key Biden aide, Mike Donilon.
The longtime aide has reportedly been at the heart of driving much of this failing strategy, and yet the report also paints Donilon as being in total denial.
“Joe Biden is a great president, and great presidents get re-elected,” was described in the report as a “common Donilon refrain.”
One would think that even the most delusional Biden supporters would stop short of calling Biden “great” (he just demonstrably has not been), and yet Donilon clearly lives in his own reality.
Look, former President Donald Trump is by no means guaranteed to win anything come November (please, vote), but he is cruising along with some way-too-early momentum in June.
But if this trajectory continues — as this Axios report seems to think is likely to be the case — it’s bad news for a Democratic Party that can’t exactly point to a healthy economy or everyday affordability to prop up Biden’s re-electability.
(And it almost feels mean-spirited at this point to even point out the cognitive decline of Biden, though that makes it no less of a valid concern.)
As Axios notes, “Biden’s core inner circle hasn’t lost faith” in these losing strategies, which obviously doesn’t bode particularly well for the flailing Democratic Party that can’t even get on the same page regarding Israel and Gaza.
Ah, this writer would be remiss to not point out that there actually is a bit of good news amid all this doom and gloom.
It’s just for the Republicans and Donald Trump.
