Dem
51
GOP
49
Joe Biden is a centrist at heart. He defeated multiple progressive candidates in the 2020 Democratic primaries and thinks he has a good feeling for what the average voter—at least, the average Democrat—wants. He is also surely aware of what happened in 1968. On the other hand, if young voters stay home en masse on Nov. 5, he's in deep doodoo. So he is trying to stay out of the campus wars as much as he can.
But he knows he can't continue to pretend nothing is going on indefinitely. So now he has taken a position designed to aggravate as few people as possible. He is saying that of course students have the right to protest anything they want to but that violence is not protected and will be dealt with by campus and local authorities. He might have struck the right tone. Even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) seems to agree with him. Sanders said: "He's exactly right that we don't want protests that are violent, and we absolutely will not tolerate antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, or any form of bigotry."
A new poll from YouGov speaks to the political challenge that Biden faces. It says that among Democrats, 46% support the pro-Palestinian protesters, 31% oppose them, and 23% don't know what to think. Among independents, 24% support, 44% oppose, and 32% don't know what to think. A person who needs both Democratic and independent votes cannot strongly support or oppose the protests, as either position will alienate roughly 40% of the voters that person is trying to court. Hence Biden's tentative support for the protesting, but strong opposition to extreme/violent activity.
Donald Trump is trying to cast Biden as part of the woke mob and, in fact, accused the President this weekend of running a "gestapo" administration. If Biden can project an image of reasonableness, that could work with many voters, also with the majority of students, most of whom are not involved with protests and just want to get on with their classes. Also, Trump calling for violence on campus may remind voters of Jan. 6, 2021, which probably does not work for him. Similarly, Trump might want to pause for a moment and think about if he really wants to invite voters to ponder parallels between the current presidential candidates and Nazi Germany.
All of this said, the best solution for Biden would be for the violence in the Middle East to come to an end. But, well, read on. (V & Z)