President Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 as a calming centrist and was a stark contrast to the near-maniacal personality of former President Donald Trump. Biden’s team did a masterful job limiting his public appearances during the campaign, presenting him as someone who could unify the nation. But anyone paying closer attention knew it was an illusion.
At first glance, the 78-year-old president may come across as an elderly uncle, prone to gaffes but who would never purposely harm the country. The Democratic Party knew his affable demeanor would play well in front of an exhausted but still energized electorate. Biden’s strength against his Democratic peers was that he appeared less threatening when standing next to Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Biden’s advantage when facing off against Trump was that he wasn’t him.
Unable to focus on the long game, Republicans opted for a short-term fighter adept at owning the libs and not much else. Yes, there were conservative victories under Trump, but nothing another GOP president wouldn’t do. After eight years of President Barack Obama, Republicans wanted to land a blow that would disrupt the status quo. And they did. Moving the ball the way they did meant a significant win for Republicans as a nonpolitician with no filter beat a privileged Hillary Clinton who was supposed to be inevitable. “To the victor go the spoils,” the saying says. Except those spoils lasted all of two years before the Democrats reclaimed the House in a 2018 midterm rout.
That said, anti-Trump conservatives and other Republicans happy to be rid of Trump don’t have to embrace Biden or his agenda. As his term continues, it grows increasingly apparent that a Biden administration leans more left than the country expected. This truth should serve as a wake-up call for a GOP struggling with lingering allegiance to Trump.
Biden is not the vessel Democrats preferred heading into the 2020 election cycle. His role as Obama’s vice president garnered him further respect within the party, but he was not presidential. At best, Biden was in the right place at the right time and possessed the right attributes. He took on the centrist role, careful only to wink at the liberal desires of the party. Going with the identity choice in Kamala Harris as his running mate placated the liberal voices in the party.
Republican leadership must understand that Trump’s polarizing persona helped create the desire for something more “normal.” People aren’t experiencing Twitter meltdowns or media tirades. But in their place is a left-wing liberal agenda that has already caused harm.
At present, the GOP continues to be defined by Trump, but it has an excellent opportunity to take hold of the reins. Regaining the majority in the Senate, for example, would mean tapping the brakes on Biden’s judicial picks. With the Democrats controlling the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says his party will “restore the balance to the federal judiciary.” Additionally, the Biden administration’s lofty goals include trillions in spending, radical immigration reform, gun control, Title IX changes that would again strip due process from college students, and dangerous foreign policy that only strengthens China and Russia’s hand on the world stage.
Ideally, voters will ignore personality and related antics and focus on policy. But politicians are a complete package, and their character will constantly be on display. With this knowledge, Republicans must find and promote those who keep the extremist tendencies at bay for the sake of the bigger mission. Perhaps these individuals won’t be described with the kind of glowing language that surrounded Trump, but at least they’ll have a better shot at extending the party’s appeal.
The GOP remains charmed by its success under Trump, shrugging off these and other lost opportunities to introduce and advance Republican versions of the same. The 2021 pains of the minority party are due to political opponents and also self-inflicted wounds. The current situation is both what’s happened to the GOP and what the GOP did. If the party doesn’t learn from its Trump-era mistakes, another liberal shift will occur in the future.
The country is a mere five months into the Biden/Harris administration, and undoubtedly, moderatism is not the goal. Biden’s fiscal, domestic, foreign, and national security policies are entirely a nod to the left-leaning liberal wing of the Democratic Party. But there must be a balance as conservatives and traditional Republicans criticize how this all unfolds. That balance looks like equal doses of self-reflection, both individually and as a party. The political ground was made ready for Biden/Harris in part by the GOP’s obsession and distraction with Trump. Any other conclusion that doesn’t involve GOP assistance to bring the nation to this point is to ignore the truth.
