Joe Biden’s campaign is facing a strategic dilemma. Since the president’s job-approval ratings have been consistently low, his path to reelection depends on making 2024 a comparative choice between himself and Donald Trump, his scary, extremist predecessor. That task is becoming more urgent as evidence emerges that a sizable number of voters either don’t remember or misremember the four turbulent years of the Trump administration. But paradoxically, educating voters about the potential consequences of a Biden defeat could annoy and alienate them by pushing Trump fatigue to new heights.
One, fatigue isn’t about forgetting, it’s about not caring. Second, more than one problem can exist at once.
“Trump fatigue” is not why Biden will lose if he does. He has alienated the people who care the most. That is his singular failure in all of this that will cost him his win, a product of total hubris.