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Opinion|Why Can’t Biden Triangulate Like Trump?
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Opinion
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Ross Douthat
WHY CAN’T BIDEN TRIANGULATE LIKE TRUMP?
April 13, 2024, 7:00 a.m. ET
Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
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By Ross Douthat
Opinion Columnist
For anyone with sincere and absolute convictions on abortion, pro-life or
pro-choice, Donald Trump’s attempts to reposition himself this week should be
somewhere between depressing and infuriating.
For pro-lifers, the problem is the cynicism — the reminder that Trump is purely
transactional in his relationship to their ideals, a lousy spokesman for the
cause of unborn human life and a willing betrayer when politics requires it.
For pro-choicers, the problem is the chutzpah — the man who did so much to
overturn Roe v. Wade trying to disavow responsibility for its policy
consequences.
But Trump’s cynicism is also one of his political strengths. What he does
crudely, with naked calculation and comic transparency, is what successful
politicians used to do more normally: triangulate between your base and the
general public, make showy moves to reassure swing voters that you’re not just
an ideologue, suggest that you’re willing to negotiate when public opinion is
against you.
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Trump often does this with symbolism rather than substance, with dishonest
framings of his own record and promised policy innovations that don’t actually
materialize. But still, he does it all the time, not just on social issues like
abortion. The public doesn’t like his opposition to Obamacare? Next thing you
know he’s promising to mend the program rather than ending it.
Middle-of-the-road voters seem uneasy about Israel’s war in Gaza? There’s Trump,
Mr. Israel in his first term, suddenly sounding notes of caution and concern.
Sign up for the Israel-Hamas War Briefing. The latest news about the conflict.
Get it sent to your inbox.
What’s non-negotiable with Trump are his personal grievances, his amour-propre,
his election-fraud narratives, his authoritarian style. That kind of
intransigence is his major political weakness (in addition to being a source of
danger for the country). But on policy, he’s always ready to perform flexibly,
even if there isn’t a clear plan underneath the posturing.
Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.
Ross Douthat has been an Opinion columnist for The Times since 2009. He is the
author, most recently, of “The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery.”
@DouthatNYT • Facebook
A version of this article appears in print on April 14, 2024, Section SR, Page 3
of the New York edition with the headline: Biden Can’t Triangulate Like Trump.
Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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