"Harry Truman-style, Biden should press Republicans about what benefits they propose to deny to Americans who need them."
Writes E.J. Dionne in "Biden needs a reboot. Fighting for democracy is the key" (WaPo).
It does my heart good to see the grain fields of the Nation again. They are a wonderful sight. The record-breaking harvests you have been getting in recent years have been a blessing. Millions of people have been saved from starvation by the food you have produced. The whole world has reason to be everlastingly grateful to the farmers of the United States. In a very real sense, the abundant harvests of this country are helping to save the world from communism. Communism thrives on human misery. And the crops you are producing are driving back the tide of misery in many lands. Your farms are a vital element in America's foreign policy. Keep that in mind, that is of vital importance to us and to the world.
He's praising the people for the good they have done. It makes me think of JFK's "ask what you can do for your country" encouragement, but what Dionne is talking about is what your country can do for you — "what benefits [Republicans] propose to deny":
Do they want less child care? Less health coverage? More expensive drugs? No tax breaks under the child tax credit? And do recalcitrant Republican governors want an unending pandemic?...
But I read the whole Truman speech, beyond the part in that little video clip, and you can see how Truman gets around to denigrating Republicans. It's quite long, so these are highlights. And by the way, he had an audience of 80,000.
So long as the farmer, the worker, and the businessman pull together in the national interest, this country has everything to hope for. But it is terribly dangerous to let any one group get too much power in the Government. We cannot afford to let one group share the Nation's policies in its own interest, at the expense of the others. That is what happened in the 1920's, under the big business rule of the Republicans. Those were the days when big corporations had things their own way.
The policies that Wall Street big business wanted were the policies that the Republicans adopted.... You remember the results of that Wall Street Republican policy.... That was a painful lesson....
The Wall Street reactionaries are not satisfied with being rich. They want to increase their power and their privileges, regardless of what happens to the other fellow. They are gluttons of privilege. These gluttons of privilege are now putting up fabulous sums of money to elect a Republican administration. Why do you think they are doing that? For the love of the Republican candidate? Or do you think it is because they expect a Republican administration to carry out their will, as it did in the days of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover? I think we know the answer. I think we know that Wall Street expects its money this year to elect a Republican administration that will listen to the gluttons of privilege first, and to the people not at all.
Republican reactionaries want an administration that will assure privilege for big business, regardless of what may happen to the rest of the Nation.... You're not going to be fooled again by the slick propaganda of Wall Street.... What they have taken away from you thus far would be only an appetizer for the economic tapeworm of big business....
In this 20th century, every great step forward has come during Democratic administrations of the National Government. Every movement backward has come under Republican auspices....
I like the thematic unity about food. From the image of millions of human beings eating Iowa-grown food, Truman shifts to figurative eating by the "gluttons of privilege," "the economic tapeworm of big business."
That's just one Truman speech, but it attacks Republicans for extending privilege to big business, and Dionne's idea is to attack Republicans for being less enthusiastic about various benefits that Democrats want to flow to individuals. It might be hard to go "Truman-style" about how much money should go to child care and health care.
Dionne only devotes one paragraph to his Biden-as-Truman idea. He immediately swaps in a Biden-as-Reagan notion:
[Biden] also needs to be more vividly Reagan-esque in describing the stronger, fairer and more prosperous country he’s trying to build. Biden is not bowing to some “liberal wish list.”...
Ridiculous. First Dionne imagines Biden getting fiery about all the things Democrats want to give people and then he has him going big about how he's not doing that. Thanks for the useless advice, E.J.
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