Why “We’re on You’re Side” Isn’t Enough

Democrats have to channel public anger at a worthy target: Republican antivaxxers

Micah Sifry

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Vice President Kamala Harris getting her second vaccine shot

Having spent four years under a president who dominated the media on a daily basis, it’s understandable that many of us are relieved that those days have ended. Donald Trump didn’t “drain the swamp,” he swamped it. Every day he could, he captured attention with wild statements and off-the-wall tweets. While he often generated outrage, quite a bit of it earned by his racist and ethically-challenged behavior, he also overwhelmed public attention, short-circuiting our ability to convert momentary anger to lasting accountability.

While it’s liberating to no longer have the Narcissist-in-Chief commandeering our attention, the Biden Administration has over-corrected. This isn’t just a failure to use the digital bully pulpit the way Trump did — though it’s worth noting that when the former president lost his Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump had almost 89 million followers; Eleven months into Joe Biden’s presidency, his @JoeBiden account has just 31.8 million.

James Carville, the celebrated and sometimes controversial Democratic political consultant, isn’t wrong when he says that too many people in the Biden White House want to do policy and none of them want to “sell.” But that isn’t entirely…

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