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It’s the job of politicians to appeal to voters. Right now what Joe Biden is selling is two wars and an economy that isn’t working for far too many ordinary people. If Donald Trump wins, don’t blame the electorate: this is Biden’s election to lose.

By Ben Burgis, Jacobin

It was a callback to a few years prior, when a rash of signs at anti-Trump protests had proclaimed that If Hillary Had Won, We’d Be at Brunch Right Now. “Brunch” became a shorthand for the attitude of liberals whose political complacency had been shattered by the rise of Donald Trump — and who now wanted their complacency back.

biden crooked on stage

As 2020 drew to a close, Trump finally seemed to be out of the picture. He’d decisively lost the election — with Biden beating him in the crucial swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia and racking up almost seven million more votes than Trump overall. So the debate between leftists and “brunch” liberals was about whether to keep pushing for a more just and equal society or to call a return to the Obama-era status quo good enough.

As 2023 draws to a close, Trump is beating Joe Biden in Michigan. And Pennsylvania. And Nevada. And Arizona. And Georgia. (Biden is leading by two whole points in Wisconsin if you want to take comfort in that.) A lot could change in the next year, of course, but as of this moment a second Trump administration looks not only possible but disturbingly likely.

Some liberals are reacting by expressing anger or incredulity at voters to Biden’s left who aren’t satisfied with what the president has offered them so far. They find the idea that some of these voters may stay home or vote for an independent candidate like Cornel West outrageous. Biden hasn’t been perfect, but the job numbers are good and he did some good things and if he hasn’t done more, that’s not really his fault — he’s trying! — and anyway Trump would be worse.

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