This is how Joe Biden can beat Donald Trump like a drum

Compare and contrast. That’s what a political campaign is for; candidates present their vision of where they will take the country, and why you should elect them to do it versus what the other candidate wants to do.

So far, Joe Biden has been running as the candidate who doesn’t lie and tells the truth, who will protect our democracy, and do the things that good Democrats always say they will do – provide health care, protect Social Security and Medicare, support the troops and take care of the vets, and work on the economy so there is equal opportunity for all.

But he’s running against the Donald Trump of 2024, not 2020, or even the soft-focus fascist of 2016. Accusing Trump of lying every time he opens his mouth is stating the obvious, as is accusing him of extremism and racism and all the other terrible isms, including the modern-day fascism of MAGA Republicans.

Listen to what Trump told the 51 million people who listened to or watched the debate last Thursday: “We’re a failing nation right now. We’re a seriously failing nation. What’s taken place in our country, we’re literally an uncivilized country now.”

Compare that to what Joe Biden told his fellow citizens. He did so in a halting, hoarse voice, but his words ring out in a patriotic call to arms and love of country:

We are the most admired country in the world. We’re the United States of America. There’s nothing beyond our capacity. We have the finest military in the history of the world. The finest in the history of the world. No one thinks we’re weak. No one wants to screw around with us. Nobody. The idea that somehow we are this failing country, I never heard a president talk like this before. We – we’re the envy of the world. Name me a single major country’s president who wouldn’t trade places with the United States of America. For all our problems and all our opportunities, we’re the most progressive country in the world in getting things done. We’re the strongest country in the world. We’re a country in the world who keeps our word and everybody trusts us, all of our allies.

Joe Biden should start making ads quoting Donald Trump’s utterly unhinged remarks at his rally in Waco, Texas last year on the anniversary of the FBI siege of the Branch Davidian compound. Donald Trump had just begun his second run for the presidency, and he wanted Americans to know where he stands. Joe Biden should make the point that Donald Trump chose that place and that time to tell us how much he hates this country:

“We are a failing nation. We are a nation with the highest inflation rate in 50 years, where banks are collapsing and interest rates are far too high. We are a nation where energy costs have reached their highest level in our history. We are a nation that is consumed by the radical left’s new deal [that] will lead to our destruction. We are a nation that lost its confidence, willpower, and strength. We are a nation that has lost its way.”

Here is how Donald Trump sees the greatest and oldest democracy in the history of the world:

We are a nation that is hostile to liberty, freedom, and faith. We are a nation whose economy has collapsed … whose stores are not stocked, whose deliveries are not coming, and whose educational system is at the very bottom of every single list. Large packs of sadistic criminals and thieves are able to systemically rob stores and beat up their customers and workers and leave with armloads of goods with no retribution. Where the authority of our great police has been taken, where their families and pensions have been threatened, and their lives were being destroyed because of the mere mention of the words, ‘law enforcement.’ We are a nation that no longer has a free and fair press. Fake news is all you get, and they are the enemy of the people. We are a nation where free speech is no longer allowed.

Americans love this country. Joe Biden loves this country. Compare and contrast that to Donald Trump and the Republican Party he has remade in his own image. He hates America. He has convinced his MAGA followers to hate this country as much as he does.

This election is between those who love America and those who are being told every day how and why to hate their own country. People are proud of their hometowns, proud of their families, proud of their schools, proud of their heritage, proud of our history. Pride feels good. Shame doesn’t. Love feels good. Hate doesn’t.

Joe Biden can take this stark contrast between light and dark, between himself and Donald Trump, and he will win the election.