The older Joe Biden gets, the meaner he becomes, and the less he seems to care.
Biden is still trying to fit into the “Uncle Joe” mold he built long ago, but his third presidential campaign has been riddled with outbursts and insults that seem out of character for the 77-year-old.
This week was no exception. In yet another heated exchange with a private citizen, Biden told a Michigan construction worker who questioned the former vice president’s gun control proposals that he was “full of shit” before threatening to “slap” the worker “in the face” and calling the worker “a horse’s ass.”
This is not an isolated outburst. Last month, Biden called one female voter a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier” (this was reportedly supposed to be a joke, but the voter didn’t take it that way).
Biden has yet to offer an apology. In fact, he has not even offered an excuse.
And many Democratic voters don’t seem to want one. One liberal writer defended Biden on Twitter and said, “Anyone arguing that Democrats are going to take guns away should be told they’re full of shit.” ABC News’s Matthew Dowd declared that Biden’s eruption would only “help” his campaign, and several other users agreed that Biden’s “tough”-guy approach and “fighting attitude” make the former vice president an even more attractive candidate.
I’d like to say this is abnormal. Surely, Biden’s dismissiveness should cost him electorally, or at the very least tar his public image. But Biden continues to gain in Michigan and other important swing states, and it now looks like he will be the Democratic nominee. And that’s because in the Trump era, fighting words are the only words that stick.
President Trump, known for his cantankerous trolling, is a symptom of a much bigger problem. Our political rhetoric degraded long before Trump even considered running for the White House. He didn’t create the rot, though he probably did accelerate it.
But Trump’s presidency has also changed our expectations. Democratic voters are now looking for a candidate who can put up the best fight, someone who can beat Trump at his own game. And that requires aggressive behavior, even toward voters.
I doubt Biden was thinking along these lines when he confronted the Michigan construction worker. He was probably just being a dog-faced pony soldier. But Democratic voters are thinking about Trump and how to beat him, so perhaps Biden is on to something, after all.
