The Trumpist Case for Biden
I organized the Deploraball. Now I support Biden. Here’s why.
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The 2024 presidential race is officially on, and as one of the early organizers of the MAGA movement, I have taken it upon myself to chart the next course for those interested in making America great, putting America first, and re-centering our politics around the middle class.
That’s why I am endorsing President Joe Biden for reelection.
You read that correctly.
It is clear to me now, after witnessing the past few years, that President Biden is more authentically pro-America than any of the leading Republican candidates including Trump or DeSantis.
If you look at policy substance instead of rhetoric, and material benefits instead of tribal signifiers, Biden is advancing Trump’s 2016 rhetorical promises more than Trump himself.
You could say Biden is more MAGA too. If you look at policy substance instead of rhetoric, and material benefits instead of tribal signifiers, Biden is advancing Trump’s 2016 rhetorical promises more than Trump himself.
Hot Air vs. Policy Action
Think about it. When it comes to raw assertions of the national interest, Trump may talk the talk, but it is Biden who has walked the walk.
Trump talked about pulling out of Afghanistan. Biden did it, however messy the execution.
Trump talked about investing in infrastructure. Biden did it with a historic $1.2 trillion bill.
When it comes to raw assertions of the national interest, Trump may talk the talk, but it is Biden who has walked the walk.
Trump talked about reshoring manufacturing jobs. Biden did with executive actions protecting America’s supply chains, “Buy American” policies, and reshoring key industries.
Trump talked about opioid addiction and despair. Biden is the one cracking down on cartels, fighting loneliness, and expanding access to addiction treatment.
Trump oversaw the first iteration of the CHIPS Act. But Biden took it to the next level, spurring billions of additional investments in American semiconductor manufacturing and scientific research.
That’s just the highlight reel.
In any number of areas, Biden is advancing MAGA-flavored objectives better than Trump ever did.
American Sovereignty
When I make this argument to rightwing friends, their first counterargument — after rolling their eyes — is that Biden is weak on immigration. I understand where they are coming from. American sovereignty is a joke when we are still unable to enforce our own borders. But Biden, who recently sent 1,500 troops to the southern border, is only marginally weaker on the issue than Trump.
And if we care about American sovereignty, we must consider the impact of foreign influence and corruption on our politics. Biden is doing more to promote the sovereignty of the American political system. Consider his actions to limit foreign influence: improved cybersecurity, increased requirements for foreign agents, increased election security spending, and sanctions and expulsions directed at Russians in response to malicious activities like the SolarWinds attack.
Was America First even American-owned?
I realize there is a fact pattern pointing to Biden family corruption. I also understand the ways in which the foreign influence issue was weaponized by the DNC and Clinton campaign (the Steele Dossier remains an outrage). But we must be honest that the level of compromise and corruption from Biden’s world doesn’t come close to what we have seen from Trump and his associates. Just ask Jared Kushner about the $2.5 billion investment he received from Gulf countries within months of leaving office. Or consider the 11 close Trump allies who have been convicted or have pleaded guilty to various charges. (Not including the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys recently charged with seditious conspiracy.) Trump himself faces serious legal trouble.
The more one studies Trump, the more one wonders: Was America First truly America First, or was it Trump First under the banner of America First? Was America First even American-owned?
Reforming the Deep State
If you spend any time on the populist right, you will hear talk of a corrupt, shadowy deep state that has lost touch with the citizens they are supposed to serve. Trump supporters will say the deep state and media had it in for Trump from the get-go, and they are not wrong. But Trump did himself no favors with his hostile rhetoric, boorish violation of norms, and disregard for expertise and laws.
Trump did himself no favors with his hostile rhetoric, boorish violation of norms, and disregard for expertise and laws.
I am not going to excuse abuses of our intelligence and law enforcement apparatus. But while Trump loved to rail against these institutions and play the victim card, he did little to reform them when he had the opportunity. Biden’s DOJ, on the other hand, has more aggressively pursued individual instances of deep state corruption. In January it charged Charles McGonigal, a former top FBI counterintelligence official, with concealing his financial ties to the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. We still lack the full depth of how damaging this was to our system, but it no doubt will go down as one of the biggest FBI corruption scandals in a generation. One wonders if McGonigal would have been caught under a Trump Department of Justice. I sincerely doubt it.
“Based” Biden
Then there’s the culture war.
Trump and DeSantis supporters believe woke ideology has gone too far and believe me, I understand where they are coming from. But performative, over-the-top culture warring is not the answer. As a gay man and a parent, I have skin in the game on both sides of any number of culture war issues. I want common sense to prevail. But you lose me when you start calling kindergarten teachers “groomers” for accommodating families like mine. Anti-woke excess can be as stupid and distracting as woke excess.
Trump and DeSantis supporters like to portray Biden as an enabler of woke insanity, but Biden is a moderating influence if anything.
Trump and DeSantis supporters like to portray Biden as an enabler of woke insanity, but Biden is a moderating influence if anything. I mean, look at him. Biden is a straight, Irish-American septuagenarian who wears aviators and drives a vintage convertible. He is the guy who, when touring Florida after Hurricane Ian, was photographed with a redneck-looking man wearing a “true Florida cracker” t-shirt as DeSantis skulked away.
Biden is not exactly a model of political correctness. He is a “no malarkey” centrist, not a woke progressive. You might even say that deep down Biden is a little “based” (a bit of online slang familiar to anyone in the MAGA movement that basically means the opposite of woke). His campaign nods to this with the “Dark Brandon” laser-eyes t-shirts.
And yet for decades Biden has demonstrated an understanding of empathy and its power to remove hostility from culture wars. You might say that Biden is inclusive but not politically correct. And inclusivity is good.
Defending Western Civilization
Rightwing populists like to talk about saving the West. Well, Biden is actively defending it.
Rightwing populists like to talk about saving the West. Well, Biden is actively defending it.
Amid the biggest land invasion in Europe since WWII, Biden has stood strong in defense of the democratic West through our support for Ukraine. Biden has repaired relations with allies in NATO and the G7 that were strained under Trump. Biden oversaw the creation of AUKUS, the trilateral security pact with UK and Australia to increase security in the Indo-Pacific. Under Biden, the West has returned as a geopolitical force. America first doesn’t mean America alone.
As a realist, Biden’s foreign policy team inspires significantly more confidence than the alternatives. Do we really want an unpredictable egomaniac whose own ambassadors testified against him in charge of foreign policy again?
The Real Oath Keeper
You would think a former President who regularly chants “America first” would’ve put his Constitutional oath and centuries of American political tradition ahead of a bruised ego, but that’s not what happened.
The truth is that supporting Biden — and not supporting Trump or DeSantis — goes beyond normal policy issues. There have been many disappointing moments over the last six years, but a fundamental Rubicon was crossed in the aftermath of the 2020 election. As facts came out about the sequence of events related to January 6th, it became clear Trump was involved in an effort to distort the electoral process to stay in power. It was a gross violation of the Constitution — full stop.
There have been many disappointing moments over the last six years, but a fundamental Rubicon was crossed in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
The final straw for me was witnessing how few self-described Constitutional conservatives seemed to care, including people like Ron DeSantis. This realization made me reevaluate the nature of the original MAGA movement, including my own involvement. How did the centrist reform movement I thought I was supporting in 2016 go from “Making America Great Again” to questioning the legitimacy of the American regime? Was Trump always so boorish and narcissistic, and how was I so blind to it?
We now know that Trump, Fox News, and others actively lied about election results. Their deliberate disinformation led followers off a cliff and, in many cases, to jail. Not only did Trump’s electoral machinations violate the Constitution, they ruined the lives of many of his own supporters and undermined trust in our electoral system. We will feel these effects for years to come.
MAGA Republicans for Biden
In his reelection announcement video, Biden talks about fighting for the soul of America, treating each other with dignity, and defending democratic institutions. I believe in these things too.
As Biden attacks “MAGA Republicans” as extremists, he might consider that some of us are becoming his biggest supporters. This is not despite buying into the original spirit of MAGA but because of it.
It is still early in the 2024 election, and Biden faces major headwinds in the polls. His on-stage fall at the Air Force Academy graduation highlight his age and health issues. Anything can happen. As Biden attacks “MAGA Republicans” as extremists, he might consider that some of us are becoming his supporters. This is not despite buying into the original spirit of MAGA but because of it. We genuinely care about making America great and see through the malarkey.
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