How Biden Defeats Trump (5 Potential Strategies)

There’s no sugarcoating it: Joe Biden is not the strongest candidate the Democrats could have anointed with the nomination for president. He rambles, he loses his train of thought, and for a lot of progressives, he represents the kind of status-quo politics that they’ve been fighting against for a long time. But, as the country battles economic collapse on top of a global pandemic, all while staring down the barrel of fascism, Biden could be America’s last hope for rescuing some semblance of democracy and stability. This is all assuming, of course, that an election even happens in November. Yikes.  

So let’s take a look at all the ways that Biden could defeat Trump, and the pros and cons of each political strategy. 

Strategy #1: Lean to both the left AND the right 

Progressives are under no illusion that Biden will deliver the kind of system-wide revolution that Bernie Sanders promised. So they will welcome any good-faith attempts at implementing some version of Sander’s most popular ideas, like student loan forgiveness, a Green New Deal, and some type of healthcare reform. It absolutely won’t please everyone, but it just needs to be enough to get their reluctant support. 

On the other hand, Biden has to offer some meaningful concessions to the right and center, which is ideologically where most Americans sit. These concessions have to be just enough to peel away a small chunk of Trump’s shrinking base. These would be the mythical “centrists,” who reluctantly voted for Trump the first time, and will either stay home to avoid voting for him again, or could possibly be persuaded to vote for “the other guy” this time around. If nobody is completely happy about this strategy, that’s how you know it’s working. The downside is that if both sides see Biden’s efforts as insincere posturing, they could abandon Biden altogether and keep their ballots at home on election day. This would result in terribly low turnout which would theoretically give the edge to Trump.

Strategy #2: Let others take the lead 

Biden would be smart to remove the focus from himself, and highlight the team he’s bringing with him. The campaign needs to throw away the traditional concerns about a VP outshining the main candidate. A strong, charismatic, and media-friendly VP pick will only help Biden. The more exciting the better. Is Oprah available?This strategy is especially timely because Covid-19 is shining a blinding spotlight on the need for competence and expertise at the highest level. The world can see that Trump does not, in fact, “know the best people.” Biden tapped Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to co-chair a climate change task force team, along with John Kerry, and that’s a good start. The more Biden makes this election a team effort, the better off his campaign could be. 

The potential flip-side to this strategy is that going up against Trump’s personality cult, the lack of a central figure on the Democratic side ends up making Biden’s potential presidency lackluster and absent. They absolutely should not keep feeding the narrative that “Biden’s hiding” in his basement. 

Strategy #3: Let Trump Self-Destruct

Sooner or later Trump always self-destructs. The issue is whether he’s going to take the entire country down with him or not. The problem is that this strategy did not work very well for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Or rather, we should say that it worked well enough to win her the popular vote, but not the presidency. 

This time around there’s a global pandemic and an economic depression in the mix, and self-destruction would tangibly mean hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. We already know that Trump’s supporters won’t flip on him just because he admits to sexually assaulting women on tape. So I don’t know how beneficial this strategy could be. Laying low could also reinforce the “Biden’s Hiding” narrative, and come across as misguided at best. 

Strategy #4: Ignore Trump

Assuming Biden is capable of extreme message discipline, this could be a winning strategy. Basically, just ignore every crazy conspiracy and accusation Trump throws at him, and speak directly to the American people about their pain, and how you and your team can make it all better. Don’t even entertain Trump’s lies and personal attacks. Always pivot to the American people. Talk to Trump supporters directly. Talk to progressives. Talk to disillusioned non-voters. Trump only knows how to attack and has no ability to empathize. If Biden simply pretends Trump is not there and speaks directly to the mental, emotional, and economic pain the country is suffering, that may just be enough to win over the enough hearts and minds. 

Obama did an excellent job of this during Biden’s endorsement video. He made it completely about Biden’s merits and seldom mentioned Trump. The only downside to this strategy is that every lie and conspiracy the right-wing ecosystem makes up would go completely unchallenged, and this could mean that the Biden camp loses control of the public narrative. 

Strategy #5: Attack From the Right

Thankfully, since Trump has made no effort to appeal beyond his hugely loyal cult, that means his base can only shrink. Yes, they might be too far gone and loyal to Trump, but like most Americans, they also feel orphaned by the political and social system. 

If the Biden campaign were to take a group of disgruntled and disillusioned former Trump voters, and put them front and center in terms of consistent messaging, that may be enough to rattle the confidence of even the most die-hard MAGA fanatic. 

This is essentially the strategy Bush Jr used in 2004, when they attacked John Kerry from the left with the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth ads. While most people think of attacking an opponent’s weakness, they often miss the potential devastation they could unleash by eroding an opponent’s strength. Trump’s base is his biggest (and arguably his only) strength. 

The potential downside is that they simply never budge, and the Biden campaign ends up burning through millions and millions in ads that make no difference, Jeb Bush style. 

Unusual times call for unusual strategies

We’re in uncharted territory and that means normal rules don’t apply. Maybe abandoning the traditional playbook is the best way to go? Of course that would require new political minds re-thinking how a presidential campaign is run, and the election is a few months away. Obama did it in 2008, and Russia did it in 2016.

Let’s see what Biden and his team can come up with by November.