Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Biden's Resilience: Health Care?



Joe Biden has been surprisingly resilient in the polls over the months. That might explain the senior citizen grip on the poll outcome. Young people don't vote. The seniors are the greatest beneficiary of the US federal government. They want to retain the gift that keeps giving.

I think there is unaddressed anxiety about Medicare For All. When Bernie and Warren say Medicare For All, they don't connect the dots. You describe a finished product. You don't explain how it will work and if it will work. You don't explain how you will go from the current arrangement to Medicare For All. What will happen during the transition?

People associate Biden with Obamacare, which by now is status quo. They like the status quo. That is how they get health insurance. Instead of thinking Medicare For All will take health insurance to everyone, most people think, Medicare For All means I will lose mine.

The political work has not been done. The explaining has not been done. So far Medicare For All has been a slogan, not a fleshed-out program.

I believe that explains Biden's resilient numbers in the polls. Biden does not shake the boat too much. You get one old white guy to replace another old white guy. If old white guy is your thing. For a lot of seniors, that seems to be make or break. There are seniors who say they "suffered" while Obama was president. The suffering came from merely having to watch him on TV. Not having an old white guy in the Oval Office caused discomfort. Or at least that seems to be the suggestion.

That "suffering" is a strange kind of suffering, if you ask me. Some call it white nationalism. By now white nationalist terrorism is officially in the Oxford Dictionary.

Whether America is ready to jump from Trump/Biden to an Andrew Yang is hard to tell right now. It is amazing how young people don't vote.



How Much Of A Threat Is Elizabeth Warren To Joe Biden’s Front-Runner Status? the pollster found him, at 19 percent support, in a three-way tie for first with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, both at 20 percent. ..... with Biden on the decline and Warren and Sanders on the upswing.



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