When talking to voters, it’s readily apparent that most Americans don’t want a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. But that’s what you are getting in November.
In a sense, we are witnessing the longest general election campaign since 1828, when Andrew Jackson ran against John Quincy Adams after the ‘Corrupt Bargain’ kept Jackson out of the White House in the election of 1824.
Trump’s campaign essentially began with his continual false claims about election fraud in 2020, morphing into a message that America is in deep trouble.
“Our country is dying,” Trump declared on Super Tuesday. “We’ve watched our country take a great beating over the last three years.”
The outlook from President Biden is decidedly more optimistic, as he rattles off his legislative achievements on infrastructure, semiconductor production, gun safety, and more.
“You don’t have to agree with me on everything to know MAGA extremism is a threat to this country,” Biden said.
Trump’s most specific policy pitch is a crackdown on illegal immigration, taking full advantage of Biden’s missteps on border security.
“Open borders are going to destroy our country,” Trump argues.
Asked how Trump should set himself apart from Biden, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had a somewhat ironic piece of advice.
“I think make it a policy contest,” Graham said.
Let’s be honest — Donald Trump is no policy wonk.
Trump often talks about the need for U.S. energy dominance but doesn’t mention that U.S. oil production is now at record levels.
“We’re going to pay off debt,” Trump said this week, not mentioning how he ran up nearly $8 trillion in debt while in office.
While Trump complains about the economy, the stock markets have soared. Unemployment and economic growth are better than his time in office.
“Economic activity expanded at a strong pace over the past year,” the Federal Reserve Chairman told Congress on Wednesday.
But the hangover from high inflation still dogs Democrats.
“Everything costs more in northwest Georgia, and it’s all because of Joe Biden,” said U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome.
At first, Biden and many Democrats tried to ignore Trump, as if he would simply fade away after the events of Jan. 6.
But that didn’t happen, and now Trump lords over Congressional Republicans as few could have imagined. Last month he helped doom a bipartisan border security compromise in the Senate.
“This November will be a choice between two opposing visions,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa.
Yes, it will be. And whether you like it or not — it’s your main choice on the ballot in November.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington, D.C. since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com
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