A friend of mine quipped the other day that voters won’t hear about Joe Biden’s policy platform until the Republican National Convention next week. And it’s true: In its entire four-night convention, the Democratic Party said almost nothing about its own platform or the policies Biden plans to implement if elected.
Instead, Democrats focused on Biden’s best selling point: his humanity. Speaker after speaker offered tributes to Biden’s warmth and genuineness, and members of his family shared personal memories that made Biden seem relatable despite his many years in public office. This has always been Biden’s appeal, and Democrats are taking full advantage of it.
But voters care about policy too. Perhaps not as much as they used to, and perhaps not as much as they should. But the Democratic Party’s increasingly liberal positions are a bit hard to ignore.
Biden’s campaign, for example, incorporated some aspects of the Green New Deal into its environmental platform. Polling proves, however, that the Green New Deal, specifically its price tag, is extremely unpopular among voters. Of those who said they had heard a “good amount” about the Green New Deal, nearly 6 in 10 opposed it, according to a 2019 poll. That sentiment is unlikely to change just because Biden is now leading the charge.
Voters are more torn about a single-payer healthcare system, but “Medicare for all” still remains largely unpopular. The Democratic Party, however, has not tried to distance itself from this policy, giving its advocates a nod in the party’s official platform, and making one of the bill’s original co-sponsors Biden’s running mate. It is obvious that this is the direction the party plans to pursue — perhaps not by deliberate choice, but because of its unwillingness to upset the radical factions pushing the establishment further to the left.
This constant attempt to appease was obvious throughout the Democratic National Convention. During one of its breakout meetings, a guest speaker openly admitted that she wants to abolish the police, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and prisons. She received no pushback from the other two speakers on the panel. And let’s not forget several of the headlining speakers: Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren, and several others who have endorsed policies far to the left of the general electorate.
These are the things voters will notice even if the Democratic Party spends the next few months doing everything it can to avoid talking about substantive issues. This election is not just about Biden, and it’s not just about President Trump. It is about the direction this country is heading, and the difference between the two parties could not be clearer.
