Four decades ago, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (D) coined the aphorism, “You campaign in poetry, and you govern in prose.” Like most pearls of political wisdom, Cuomo’s line stuck because it contained a kernel of truth.
In 1984, then-President Reagan was the premier political poet of his time whose speeches made Americans feel good about themselves after a series of governmental failures and disappointing presidencies. Former President Obama likewise took his inspiration from Cuomo’s advice and was able, in the words of William Shakespeare, to summon the spirits from the “vasty deep.”
While President Biden likes to quote Irish poets (“They’re the best poets in the world,” he quipped), he makes no pretense of being a poet himself. His speeches are couched in Harry Truman-like everyday folksy language that often contains homey stories about his family and childhood. But Biden is betting big on his ability to sell voters on the prose of legislation he has already passed and what he hopes to write into the books of law in the future.
Chief among Biden’s selling points are the investments he is making thanks to the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Having approved the largest federal investment in infrastructure since former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Act and former President Eisenhower’s 1956 highway bill, Biden is campaigning on its results. Today, 35,000 new projects have been awarded to communities scattered across the nation to improve roads, repair broken-down bridges, replace lead pipes and provide internet service to hard-hit rural areas.
With some glee, Biden cites Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who staunchly opposed the infrastructure bill and believes it “wasted federal tax dollars.” But Tuberville is now claiming credit for the $1.4 billion earmarked for his state to provide greater internet access, saying, “It’s great to see Alabama receive critical funds to boost ongoing broadband efforts.” Biden happily trolled Tuberville on Twitter saying: “I promised to be the president for all Americans. We’ll fund your projects. And I’ll see you at the groundbreaking.”
Biden’s legislative prose is also being translated into constructing 150 battery plants and 50 solar projects, many in red states. Today, unemployment is at a record low with more than 13 million jobs — 800,000 of them in manufacturing — created during Biden’s tenure. Most do not require a college degree and can earn their recipients more than $100,000 per year.
More legislative prose is contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, which is bringing about big changes. Diabetes medications for seniors have been cut from hundreds of dollars per month to a manageable $35. The law also allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices, resulting in further cost savings for both seniors and the government. Hearing aids that previously cost up to $5,000 per year are now for sale for a few hundred dollars and can be purchased at a local convenience store. All the while, the federal deficit has been reduced by $1.7 trillion.
This is a record of legislative accomplishment unmatched since the heady days of former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. Rejecting the trickle-down economics of Reagan, “Bidenomics” seeks to build an economy “from the middle out and the bottom up.” As Biden sees it, the consequence of trickle-down economics was to “hollow out” entire towns and communities as jobs were shipped to China and much of Asia.
And Biden is promising to write more prose into the books of law. These include the elimination of junk fees that add to the prices of concert and airline tickets, renewing the child tax credit to assist working families, providing free pre-K public education and community college, a minimum tax for billionaires, and eliminating the sale of assault weapons.
For much of the past 40 years, politics has been about performance. Former President Trump is a master of the performative aspects of our politics. But there are signs that performative politics may be on the wane. Voters are tiring of the play-acting done by Republicans like Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and others. All are faces eager Democrats want to associate with the Republican Party knowing their visages alienate moderate and independent voters.
Biden’s bet is that prose will matter more than poetry to voters in 2024. Addressing a Maryland fundraiser, Biden took note of this, saying, “I think part of what we have to do is try to get away from the basic labels — that ‘Biden is a liberal’ or ‘Biden is a right-winger’ or ‘Biden is whatever he is’ and talk about the facts.” It is those facts that are making a difference to voters Biden hopes will pull the lever for him in 2024.
Trump revamped the Republican coalition by cementing the loyalties of small-town, non-college-educated, white, blue-collar voters and casting himself as their champion. In 2020, Trump won 67 percent of votes from white people with no college degree, despite Biden’s own blue-collar roots that were forged in Scranton, Pa., and Claymont, Del. While Biden may not win a majority of their ballots in 2024, he is not ceding this turf to Trump.
Elections are won or lost at the margins. Biden is making a big bet that the prose of governing will matter most to voters next year.
John Kenneth White is a professor of politics at The Catholic University of America. His latest book, co-authored with Matthew Kerbel, is titled “American Political Parties: Why They Formed, How They Function, and Where They’re Headed.” He can be reached at johnkennethwhite.com.