WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden and the Democrats were on the verge of passing extensive legislation at an astonishing $ 1.9 trillion.
But many Republican politicians and conservative commentators have had other priorities in the past few days. A passionate defense by Dr. Seuss. Serious questions about Mr. Potato Head’s future. Intense analysis by Meghan Markle.
Conservatives’ relentless focus on cultural wars, rather than the new president, highlights their strategy to regain power in Washington and the challenge of doing so. Unlike previous Democratic leaders, Biden himself is simply not proving to be an easy target or an encouraging figure for the Republican Party base, prompting Republicans to turn to the kind of cultural issues the party used to classify Democrats as elitist and out of touch with the average Americans.
“There is simply no dislike for Biden as there was Obama. It just doesn’t cause conservative outrage, ”said Alex Conant, a former Republican Party operative, who worked for the Republican National Committee in 2009 while working to undermine then President Barack Obama.
“They never talk about Biden. It’s incredible, ”said Conant of the conservative media. “I think Fox covered Dr. Seuss more than Biden’s stimulus project the week before the vote.”
The challenge is a continuation of the 2020 campaign, when then President Trump struggled to launch a consistent attack on Biden. Biden’s brand as “sleepy” has never been the same as Trump’s mockery of Hillary Clinton as “dishonest” in 2016. Other Republican Party efforts to define Biden as a radical or to attack his mental acuity have also not resonated.
The merchandise sits outside Trump’s rallies, featuring buttons and shirts mocking Clinton and Obama, but few criticizing Biden. Clinton, who remains insulted on the right, was featured much more prominently on stage at last month’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida than the current occupant of the Oval Office.
The GOP is focusing more on America’s cultural wars than on Biden, including a relatively new villain called “canceling culture”.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted a video of him reading from Dr. Seuss days after the author’s publisher announced that he was discontinuing several books that contained racist images. And former Trump aide Stephen Miller joined others on the right to launch a Twitter defense of Buckingham Palace after Markle, in a highly successful interview with Oprah Winfrey, alleged racist treatment by an anonymous member of monarchy.
“It will take Republicans a few weeks to realize how badly they rolled into the COVID bill while wasting all of their precious time and energy complaining about Dr. Seuss,” tweeted Amanda Carpenter, former advisor to Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz .
Biden’s strategy on issues of cultural warfare has largely been to not get involved. White House press secretary Jen Psaki avoided questions about Dr. Seuss.
Biden himself remained largely free of gaffe, with the exception of his decisions to convene Republican governors to withdraw the mandates from the “Neanderthal” masks, which generated a brief storm on the right.
Instead, West Wing focused on the relief bill, believing that Americans will reward the results, not the controversy.
“The cancellation culture is a big meme on the right and it can work with the base, but the base is not the country in general,” said David Axelrod, a former Obama senior adviser. “This is a separate show now, the main event is the virus and how quickly we will be able to get back to normal.”
Biden, said Axelrod, remains “a difficult target” for Republicans.
“He does not get involved, he does not personalize his disputes and, although he is looking for a progressive platform, he does not use the conventional ideological language about it,” said Axelrod. “He is not a provocative personality.”
Biden, who has focused part of his campaign on trying to win back white working-class voters who left the Democratic Party for Trump, also inherently does not face the racist attacks directed at Obama or the sexist ones directed at Clinton.
Much of the vitriol of the Trump campaign was aimed not at Biden, who sold himself as an intermediary unifier, but who would soon be Vice President Kamala Harris, a black woman. Harris, the Trump team argued, would truly be in charge, with Biden a mere “empty vessel” being used to fulfill the radical agendas of others.
In addition, Republican efforts to fight Biden have been slowed by civil war in its own ranks, as the party struggles with its leadership in Trump’s persistent shadow.
Some Republicans argue that it will simply take time for the Republican Party to organize against Biden, given the honeymoon period that most new presidents enjoy. Biden also had an inferior position to that of Obama, which makes him a less effective counterpoint in the union of Republicans.
“I think that’s exactly what happens to a new president,” said Josh Holmes, a former aide to Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who led an action to stop Obama after the 44th president was installed.
“When you lose a big election, there is a kind of dispersion effect, (and) it wasn’t until June or more and the beginning of the Obamacare discussion where we were really able to fight together,” said Holmes. “I think in the spring, you are dealing with a Republican Party that is much more cohesive than it was in the first few weeks.”
Republicans believe there will be opportunities to react better when the White House addresses more thorny issues like immigration, voting rights legislation and a potentially massive infrastructure and jobs project. Many also believe that the ongoing process of reopening schools for face-to-face learning may end up hurting Biden.
Meanwhile, the Biden White House is emphasizing its attempts at bipartisanship, putting Republicans on the defensive for not signing the widely popular COVID relief bill.
“Many of the Republicans who voted against this are inconsistent and are against what people in their own districts have supported,” said Psaki. “So, they may be getting questions about it as soon as help is released, once schools are able to update the facilities and benefit from these checks.”