First off, I can’t say how much I am humbled by the degree of support I received for my first diary here! I really appreciate how you have welcomed this Ex-GOPer to your fold!
So as a follow up I got to thinking about perhaps things that could be done to convince reluctant voters to come around to our side. I confess my title is a bit misleading – I do not need any convincing to vote Biden (I already have), but more accurately, thinking about myself four years ago, was there anything that could have convinced me to vote for our side?
Taking myself back to my thought process four years ago, I ruled out voting for Trump. His refusal to release his tax returns coupled with the disgusting remarks on tape about what he does to women; those were non-negotiable deal breakers. That on top of all the other reasons not to vote for him.
But I didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton. I bought into the “but her e-mails” bs and thought there was something shady about the Clintons in general. (Hindsight of course being 20:20; I was clearly wrong, but that’s not the point here). At the time, I wanted someone *to* vote for, not just someone to vote against. And that led me to Johnson and Weld, two former governors with 16 years of experience running Democratic dominated states as Republicans. I liked them. I voted for them. And they had exactly 0% chance to win.
So, it got me thinking; take Johnson and Weld out of the equation, and would I have voted for HRC? I think the answer would have been yes. Her “e-mails issue” was not the dealbreaker like Trump’s.
Fast forward to today, and lets think about that voter who is in the same spot today as I was four years ago. This isn’t someone who loves both these candidates and just can’t decide which flavor is better. This voter is undoubtably dismayed with both Trump and Biden. How to we reach this person?
The most important thing to consider is at this stage, they are looking for a reason to vote *for* a candidate. They already have plenty of reasons to vote against them. So, as enticing as it seems to just rip into Trump about all the ways he has failed us as a country (the list is longer than War and Peace), don’t fall into that trap.
They need to be convinced to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And here are the three ways that I think you influence the 2016 version of me.
First: The Biden-McCain Connection. Pound on this, hard. For non-Trumper Republicans, I would say the one thing about Trump that ticks them off the most is how Trump treated McCain. Show them this video: Joe Biden: I'm a Democrat and I love John McCain. This resonates. It did with me.
Second: Joe Biden is a good and decent man. Take all this Hunter Biden bs and throw it right back (politely of course). What did we actually learn from all this? We learned that Hunter Biden is a troubled man who fell on some hard times and Joe Biden is a father who loves his son. This was supposed to be a negative that can 100% be turned into a positive. I think we win this argument with the right messaging.
Third: diffuse this “socialism” label. Admittedly, this is the biggest challenge. One thing I think we have to grant to Republicans is that they are much better at framing topics than Democrats. I have read a lot of ways to try to combat this, mostly by explaining how socialism already exists in everyday life and is a good thing, from our public schools to social security, but I just don’t think it is effective to this voter. I think the best message is three fold, namely:
(a) Point to Biden’s years in the Senate and as VP to show how he has governed, which has been as a pragmatist. Make the point that past performance is the best indicator for future behavior.
(b) Biden will respect our system of checks and balances. Let’s say he chooses to govern more left than you would like, there is now this 6-3 conservative court as a check (Use that stolen SCOTUS seat to our advantage)
(c) If you don’t like the way Biden runs things, we have another election in 2022. And again in 2024. This is how our system works.
And in the end, conclude with this: Who would you rather see your children/grandchildren emulating? Which of these men better reflect your values?
I think that’s the message that resonates with 2016 me. This is the message I’m using. Again, to be clear, this isn’t meant to be a diary to condone a more centrist policy. It is a diary of what I see is the message to reach undecided voters.
Thanks for reading!