What's behind Biden's more partisan rhetoric? - The Washington Post

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Biden made similar accusations at a speech last week on voting rights — “Do you want to be the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?” — and one before that on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — “They seem no longer to want to be the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Reagan, the Bushes,” he said of Republicans.

It’s pretty much the opposite of the approach he took in his 2020 presidential campaign, when he promised to strive for unity.

What’s behind his significantly partisan stance? Let’s explore.

It’s an election year

Biden would very much like someone or something else to blame. He talked Wednesday about how he’s up against really difficult circumstances: a pandemic, a global supply chain meltdown. “We have faced some of the biggest challenges that we have ever faced in this country in the past few years; challenges to our public health, challenges to our economy,” he said.

In response to a question about whether he overpromised in his campaign, Biden blamed Republicans. “I did not anticipate that there’d be such a stalwart effort to make sure that the most important thing was that President Biden didn’t get anything done,” he said.

(Though we’ll get into how other Democrats in his party could have and did anticipate that.)

Going after Republicans is more in line with his base

During the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden outlined four crises facing the country. One year later, four experts break down how President Biden has handled each issue. (JM Rieger/The Washington Post)

We live in a nation so politically divided that increasingly, the best way to win an election is to appeal to the poles of your political party and motivate them to vote in greater numbers than the other side. That’s compounded by the fact there are increasingly smaller numbers of swing voters to win over.

Former president Donald Trump consistently did this — and arguably performed beyond expectations in both his elections while lifting his party to some impressive wins down ballot.

Biden’s 2020 “unity” approach is something that politicians tend to say when they’re campaigning more than when they’re governing. But even during the 2020 campaign, his rhetoric was out of step with the base of his party, some of whom openly said they thought Biden was being naive when he thought Republicans could go back to politicking as normal post-Trump.

On Wednesday, Biden cut off his olive branch to the GOP, accusing Republicans of giving in to their fear of Trump: “Did you ever think that one man out of office could intimidate an entire party where they’re unwilling to take any vote contrary to what he thinks should be taken for fear of being defeated in a primary?”

(Republicans have wholeheartedly opposed Biden’s election-change proposals, spending plan and coronavirus relief legislation. But Biden got 32 Republicans to vote for his infrastructure legislation, and many of them faced attacks by Trump and Trump loyalists for it.)

It gives Democrats something to rally around

A year into Biden’s presidency, liberal leaders such as Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are saying Democrats feel demoralized. On the same day Biden spoke, Senate Democrats failed to break through the filibuster issue to pass voting rights bills that have been a huge priority for much of their base, especially civil rights groups.

A month earlier, Biden’s Build Back Better agenda containing long-held Democratic goals such as expanding health care, child care and family leave got indefinitely stalled.

A recent CBS News poll shows that liberal Democrats still approve of Biden in large numbers but not as strongly as they previously did.

Biden’s recent legislative failures have come about through members of his own party rebuffing him. So Biden appears to have calculated he needs to change the conversation, and quickly, away from Democrats’ infighting.

For example, somewhat lost in the focus this week on how Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) wouldn’t agree to filibuster changes was the fact that Republicans voted against strengthening the 1965 Voting Rights Act on Wednesday, even though they largely supported it in 2006.

Biden accused Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — who has drawn a red line on voting rights — of opposing these changes just to stick it to Biden.

“[McConnell] has been very clear he’s going to do anything to prevent Biden from being a success,” Biden said. “He has one straightforward objective: make sure that there’s nothing I do that makes me look good.”

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