Why Biden’s China/COVID ad helps Trump

“The Biden ad is terrible. The tone is pure Trump. It should never be shown. Do better.” — Prof. George Lakoff, 4/19/20

This weekend the Biden campaign rolled out an ad on China & coronavirus. It’s their attempt at a response to an attack by a pro-Trump PAC. This is for folks asking what’s wrong with it:

The whole reason the GOP is pushing a blame-China focus is to change the subject from Trump’s massive failures on testing, masks & ventilators, & social distancing, which are the reasons coronavirus is out of control in the US today.

China’s actions, good or bad, have nothing to do with why South Korea & US had their first Covid patient the same day, but South Korea contained the virus & the US did not. We should hammer at Trump’s own failures, which are why so many in the US are now dying.

This Biden ad accepts the GOP’s China-blaming focus for the US crisis (which is contrary to the facts) and so helps Trump determine the frame of the debate. You can’t beat Trump on xenophobia — he will always do it better.

“If you argue against us while using our language, we’re winning.” — former George Bush advisor Matthew Dowd

This is George Lakoff’s most basic point about what NOT to do in political communication — don’t let your opponent frame the terms of debate. But the Biden campaign is doing it. The GOP wants to change the subject from Trump’s own failures — & Biden’s ad helps them do that.

But wait — why is Biden even _trying_ to outdo Trump in this way? The emotional thrust of Biden’s ad is that coronavirus’ spread in the US is China’s fault, and could have been avoided by Trump being “tougher” on China. That’s a lie. It’s a softer echo of Trump’s racist “Chinese virus” rhetoric. And this is dangerous.

Repeating Trump’s China-blaming rhetoric puts Asian Americans in danger. Thousands of racist assaults have already happened. By accepting & repeating this false assumption, the Biden ad feeds an atmosphere that’s getting our friends and neighbors attacked. But the Biden campaign is spending money to put this garbage on TV.

You can’t beat Trump on xenophobia. But it’s a betrayal of solidarity to even try. “An injury to one is an injury to all.” That should be our starting point, always. We need to reject this, together.

Trump’s declaration Monday night about ending all immigration underscores the urgency of defeating him. We’ll do that by standing up against anti-foreigner fearmongering — not by adopting a softer version of it.

Trump prospers thru division. The way to beat him is with solidarity. Let’s support these Asian American leaders who are telling Biden, “this ain’t it.”

___________

“Wow, @JoeBiden. Already trying to out-Trump Trump. This kind of fearmongering is causing violent attacks on Asian Americans. If you are trying to reform your past history of racist policymaking, like your 1994 crime bill, you had better do some homework. This ain’t it.
“Look, I desperately want @JoeBiden to beat Trump. Of course I do. But I don’t want him to foment racist scapegoating. And I want him to build a platform all of us can fight for, and in carrying it out for us once he is in office. Once again, this ain’t it.
“Of all the ways Trump has actively obstructed a sensible public policy on covid, causing countless lives lost in the US, @JoeBiden’s going to fixate on the PRC angle and put out a propaganda film that will fuel racist attacks on Asian Americans? No, I am not having it.”
— Cecillia Wang, deputy legal director, national ACLU
twitter.com/WangCecillia/status/1251710858062778368

“Vice-President Biden — please remove this racist ad, stop your China scapegoating, & help counter the rise in racism & xenophobia! #IamNotAVirus #StopRacism”
— Eric Mar, former president of the San Francisco Board of Education
twitter.com/ericmar415/status/1252010824765337600

“China-bashing ads by both Trump and Biden campaigns are not helpful either. They promote racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans, who were also critical of China’s mishandling of #coronavirus pandemic but now find themselves unfairly blamed for #covid19.”
— Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund (AALDEF)
twitter.com/aaldef/status/1251923199819988993

“This is…not it. This is racist and xenophobic and buys into the disgusting narrative that Trump is spinning. I ask @JoeBiden why. A race to be the most racist against Asians is not ok and not what we need right now.”
— NY Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou
twitter.com/yuhline/status/1251945323494281218