It’s official. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are headed for a rematch in 2024. Both men officially clinched their respective party nominations on Tuesday night, putting an effective end to a not-especially-dramatic presidential primary season.
As the real race opens, Trump has a small, steady and surmountable lead over Biden in public polling. But there are almost eight months for the race to evolve. Here are six questions worth watching as it does.
Why Care?
Poll after poll and headline after headline blares the same message: Voters don’t want a Biden v. Trump rematch. And yet, here we are.
Instead of pining for a new face, people might want to pay attention to what the two candidates are running on. Both of these old men are pitching visions for the country that seek to turn the page on the past 40-plus years of American history. They just happen to be wildly divergent visions.
Biden centers his reelection campaign around the symbolism of democracy, including his most radical departure from the policies of previous administrations: his economic agenda.
In his first term, Biden built his economic policy agenda around one idea: turning the page on the neoliberal economic paradigm that took root with Ronald Reagan, and has been sustained by Republicans and Democrats ever since.
That theory, centered on market forces as the ultimate decision makers, put financiers and the politically-insulated Federal Reserve in charge of national economic policy-making.
In its place, Biden has overseen the passage of what looks like the beginning of a resurgence in democratic, people-centered decision-making in the economy. The Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act both contain the beginnings of a new industrial policy vision, directed by the democratically elected government, to reinvigorate the country’s industrial base through industries of the future like clean energy, semiconductors and electric vehicles.
Trump, meanwhile, presents an…
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