Sausage Update
Sausage Update: Late Wednesday night, the Senate passed the $2.2 trillion aid package. The final hitch in the process was a small group of Republican Senators, led by Lindsey Graham, who complained that some workers on extended unemployment might make actually make more money than they would at work. They would be “dis-incentivized to work,” they said. But ultimately the bill passed by unanimous consent.
Speaker Pelosi signed onto the bill. It will pass the House on Friday by voice vote. No one will call the roll, nor will anyone even call for a quorum. Most House members are back in their districts, and they’re not coming back. Unanimous consent will put the bill on the President’s desk. The sausage is made, with all sides getting things they wanted, and accepting things they don’t.
Back to Politics
Don’t tell anyone, but the United States is in the middle of a Presidential election. It’s been going on for over a year, and while it seemed to “go away” during the Presidential impeachment, and now again in the corona-virus crisis, it’s still out there. Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are still contesting for the Democratic nomination, though Biden seems to have an insurmountable delegate lead. The nominating convention is in July, and unlike the Olympic Summer Games, it can’t be put off until 2021. If we’re still “socially distancing” by then, Democrats (and Republicans later) will need to find a wholly different way to choose their candidate.
Biden and Sanders are faced with a quandary, one that I’m growing familiar with as well. As a (substitute) teacher for the remainder of the school year, I am trying to find strategies and techniques to teach a class I can’t meet, have a face-to-face discussion, or even touch. I know that sounds weird, but part of keeping 7th grade boys on task is as simple as teaching from right beside their chair, and casually tapping them on the shoulder to bring them back to focus. I can’t reach through their computer screen and do that.
Old Dogs, New Tricks
So I’m learning new techniques and different ways to catch and keep my middle school students’ attention. It’s about “old dogs” learning new tricks.
And there’s no question that Biden and Sanders are “old dogs”. They are tactile campaigners (and no, I’m not accusing either of anything improper). Biden and Sanders gain energy from their supporters; they are excited about shaking hands and holding babies. Their “power” is personal as well as political. And that’s been shorn from this campaign. Now all they can do is find new ways to reach out, to make a dent in the electorate. And it’s even harder to do when the entire nation is focused on something else.
President Trump has a similar problem. He has two main communication techniques: the rally and the tweet. And now the rally is gone: there will be no more “lock her up” chants for the foreseeable future. His tweets are still effective, he’s gone back to attacking his favorite enemy, CNN. “…They are CORRUPT & FAKE NEWS” he says, talking about reporting of him isolated in the White House wondering, “when life will return to normal”. Of course he is.
But tweets have never energized his base and his campaign; it’s been the face-to-face contact, the rallies. So he’s tried a new technique. Trump’s dusted off the old James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, the place where Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders met their ultimate demise. It’s where he drags out his “crisis team,” Vice President Pence, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx and a cast of other assorted members. Those folks stand (way, way too close together by the way) as the President’s backdrop for his new technique – the press briefing rant.
National Attention
In 2015 when Donald Trump was considered a joke as a Presidential candidate, he was desperate for airtime on national “news” programs. He managed to get more free time by calling into television shows like Fox and Friends and Morning Joe (on MSNBC) then all the other candidates combined. His hours of on-air phone conversations seemed to legitimize his candidacy, and led him to become a “real” candidate for President.
In 2020 President Trump has found a new way to captivate the nation. The corona-virus crisis has given him center stage on daily national press conferences. There he gets to tell how “smart” he was to stop travel from China, and how much he’s helping the state governors. He then gets to attack his favorite enemy, sitting there in front of him, the press. And he gets to do it all on uncontested national television, in an arena where anyone who contradicts his message can be “slain” by his cutting remark: “that’s a nasty question” or “you’re a lousy reporter”.
National news organizations are well aware of the trap they fell into in 2015. And they know what’s going on now. NBC, ABC and CBS cut away from the President when he strayed past 6:30pm, into their national newscasts. So now the President talks until 6:30, then lumbers off the stage leaving Pence and the rest to continue on the 24-hour news channels.
What Campaign
There’s little Biden (or Sanders) can do to compete with Trump at this point. They can focus on online media, and the constant flow of emails to registered Democrats. And they can try to contrast their “normal” approach to national crisis to this President’s. But all of that doesn’t give them the opportunity of the national audience Trump is able to grab.
In a nation “sheltering in place” it’s hard to imagine what a general Presidential election will look like. But with our current crisis, it’s also hard to see how we will “return to normal”. We are not only changing our lifestyles in education, but in politics as well. All the “old dogs” will have to find new ways to campaign. And all us voters may have to find as new way to vote.
