The Invisible Sides of the 2020 Election
The managerless campaign, apportioning blame, and the reappearance of the domestic Bermuda Triangle.
Friday the 13th? Not to worry. In 2020, every day is Friday the 13th. How much worse could it get.
I’m sure the first sentence will prove an embarrassment by the end of this edition, which will be on the shorter side. I’m trying to get a feel of what might work here and will be experimenting.
Please, feel free to weigh in and say what you like and what you don’t. Unless the latter includes coffee, in which case we have no grounds for discussion.
Coffee Comes First
Before anything weightier, the missing coffee cup from last issue returned on an end table’s seldom-used second shelf. It could be that I had absentmindedly placed it there, but I insist the active agent was still the Bermuda Triangle. I’m certain I saw Rod Serling lurking in the woods near the chicken coop, which would explain much.
But then, not all is bad. Seasonal eggnog is again visible on grocery shelves and it doesn’t contain pumpkin spices.
Biden’s Invisible Campaign Manager
If only Joe Biden’s campaign manager were as visible as the egg nog, at least to the New York Times. Its article, How Joe Biden Won the Presidency, by Alexander Burns, Jonathan Martin, and Katie Glueck, had a tiny flaw pointed out on Facebook by a friend (and, apologies, but I can’t remember who noted it). While mentioning many people, it failed to acknowledge the existence of campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon.
Oops.
Oh, it’s probably easy to misplace the woman who, after the candidate, was primarily responsible for the success of the endeavor. Someone who frequently spoke to reporters. Whose strategy apparently pulled out the win in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, cinching the election, according to Vanity Fair. Who is mentioned in 11 articles in the New York Times, 18 in the Los Angeles Times, 113 in the Washington Post, and 166 in Politico.
But in none at the Wall Street Journal, so maybe the Times can find some solace.
Dillon apparently prefers to fly under the radar. But, really, couldn’t a profile on a winning candidacy look past that preference for her name to pop up at least once?
‘What, Me Worry’ Campaigning
Speaking of ignoring the obvious, Democrats seem to have done just that. They pulled out the win, but it was a very tough path and they did nowhere nearly as well as many had expected. And yet, this happened with many states passing more progressive or liberal policies, as Sen. Bernie Sanders pointed out on Sunday.
Are losses all the fault, then, of candidates? Of the progressives? Moderates? BLM? The Squad? Political scientist Rachel Bitecofer took to a tweet thread to address the issue.
It’s worth reading in its entirety. The major point is that the main Democratic Party apparatus dictates a lot of how local campaigns must be run to get any help. Central control of strategy is strong and apparently inflexible.
Without change, Bitecofer says, Democrats will lose seats in the House. Given the margins, that could also mean losing control.
And you thought things would calm down after 2020.
Coming up next issue (I hope) and not this, the twisted strategy that I think could give Democrats almost anything big they wanted, but which would not only burn bridges, but entire transportation infrastructures.