McDonald: Biden could steal part of Trump's base

A New York Times article caught my eye, since I worry about silly little things like the end of the world as we know it due to our collective inaction regarding climate change.

The Times article suggests that the politics surrounding this issue is shifting, thanks in part to Joe Biden’s approach to it. Citing Gallup and Pew polling data, the article points to a clear majority who say the environment is indeed getting worse and the federal government isn’t doing enough about it.

Polls are also showing that a supermajority of Americans, upwards of 70%, now want to see tougher regulations on power plants and vehicle emissions, and that we need to be developing clean-energy alternatives.

Contrast the positions that Donald Trump and Biden have on this issue and you get the distinct impression that Trump, who has for years denied that global warming even exists, is so far out of step with mainstream thinking that he’d be a joke if he weren’t president.

Meanwhile, Biden is approaching the issue with an eye on the practical, looking to mitigate climate change through economic revitalization.

Consider what Biden said in a speech he gave July 14 in Delaware:

“When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is ‘hoax.’ When I think about climate change, the word I think of is ‘jobs.’”

Biden is proposing a $2 trillion clean energy plan to address climate change and its effects on our world and our economy. Some have called it his version of a “new deal” for Americans, and it’s far more pragmatic than idealistic. He wants to combine climate policy with economic development, by shifting our nation’s energy consumption to new and cleaner industries and putting people to work building the national infrastructure that would support such a dramatic shift.

Wind and solar, electric cars and other features in his energy plan would be enacted with job-creation in mind.

That’s appealing to a lot of working-class voters, many of whom previously defected to Trump out of frustration with “elite” Democrats’ failure to act on the bread-and-butter realities that keep them afloat, the Times article suggests.

In another piece, Times columnist David Brooks, a free-thinking moderate conservative if there ever was one, writes that Biden has put together a plan that “could reshape the American economy and the landscape of American politics in fundamental ways,” saying that Biden might just show us what “radical centrism looks like.”

It’s beginning to become clear to me why Trump has been so fearful of Biden getting the Democratic nomination. Biden has the ability to steal away some of Trump’s base. Even Trump’s “sleepy Joe” nickname is sounding more like “steady Joe” to those who have grown tired of the president’s unstable behavior and are seeking a more moderate and level-headed leader.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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