‘Bidenomics’ is all about repelling Trump’s chaos theory
often explains his simple theory of winning elections with his dad’s fabled kitchen table wisdom: “Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.”
But his big speech in Chicago on Wednesday – dedicated to enshrining “Bidenomics” as a credible idea in the public mind – implicitly recognized that comparisons to the “alternative” in November 2024 (quite possibly Donald Trump) may not be enough to win reelection.
In 2020, Biden won the White House by promising a return to normality after a pandemic that delivered punishing economic blows. He had the advantage of running against an incumbent already bearing the shame of one of his two impeachments, who kept the nation in a constant state of psychological angst with his Twitter feed, and whose musings over injecting disinfectant as a cure for Covid-19 reflected his botching of the worst public health emergency in a century.
But that return to normality Biden vowed to deliver has been elusive amid an economy that remains challenging for many Americans.
If Biden faces Trump next year in an electoral rematch, some of the internal logic of the last race still could apply. Trump has alienated moderate, suburban, swing voters in the past, and there are few signs the twice-indicted former president has tried to moderate his brashness to appeal to them going forward. So not being the “alternative” might work for Biden one last time.
But just as Trump was judged on his tenure in 2020, Biden must sell his own record four years later – a factor that helps explain why he is trying to improve perceptions of his handling of the economy.
And given the still finely balanced electoral map and Biden’s low approval ratings, it’s not hard to see how a few damaging events – perhaps including an economic downtown – could be disastrous for him. Biden won on achingly narrow victories in key swing states like Georgia, Wisconsin and Arizona, and it would not take that many votes to switch in that trio of states for Biden to lose.
While a measure of normal life has returned, months of sky-high inflation (which is now tumbling) exacerbated a sense among many Americans of perpetual economic crisis. Many citizens are experiencing a pandemic hangover – from children facing the after-effects of lockdowns to adults whose jobs in city center shops and restaurants have disappeared as the work-from-home culture lingers. And beyond economics, a rose-tinted “normality” may never come back in a nation rocked by political and cultural clashes – especially when an ex-president who incited an insurrection is the front-runner for the GOP nomination, falsely arguing he was cheated out of power last time.
Biden admitted as much, in a speech last September, accusing MAGA Republicans of seeking to destroy the soul of the nation.
“Too much of what is happening today in our country is not normal,” Biden said.
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