So, an awful big percentage of the current political persuasion game is actually as old as politics -- heck, as old as language -- itself. It’s the art of creating characters. And, in politics, most especially, it’s about building villains.
It’s an absolute truth/truism that collectives of people who are essentially lite enemies will put aside lesser hates and band together when a truly gruesome and powerful villain arises. Thus, the entire plot of things like Lord of the Rings (Sauron!), Game of Thrones (The Night King!), and WWII (um, that guy).
Which brings us to Trump. (And Biden, but hold on a second for that turn.) Hell, even some of the people who vote for Trump admit he’s a villain. Or at least an anti-hero, which is when a character is part villain, but with enough hero left in that you can still root for them pretty full-throatly. (Nice trick, narrativity.)
Trump leans into villainy. Creates conflict everywhere. Takes on anyone, everyone. Elevates his opponents to levels of super-villains (Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, and on and on and on). Says things he’s told not to say. Revels in villainy. All the while while proclaiming he’s actually a victim (another big-time story character), and a hero (representing the greatest people, ever, fighting crime for you, Gotham).
So, yeah, Trump, total villain to all those in political opposition. A dictator-in-waiting. The worse thing for democracy since televising State of the Unions in the 70’s, when there were only three stations.
But Biden? Well, Biden is a toughie for the Right. He has mucho hero bona fides -- kept going after the tragic death of his wife and child. Rode the train into Washington for forty years. In the public eye for decades, only a few missteps (he got swept up into the Right’s slandering of Anita Hill). His son, Beau, war hero, died of a brain tumor. Biden is a grandpa, a working class champion, a husband, a Catholic (echoes of JFK), a former stutterer, and has hundreds of videos of him being compassionate to others.
Pretty strong.
Except, that doesn’t matter. The Slander Monster haunts modern politics. Slobbering its ugly goo equally on those who deserve it, and those who don’t.
So, the Right has to slander Biden. To at least lower his hero status. And try to move him into evil-villain. It’s the game. It’s the Big Game for the Right, slander is its main mojo.
And because the Right doesn’t distinguish at all between using truth or fiction (nice rhetorical advantage, when you can justify making things up that are rhetorically useful for your side), the slandering has been non-stop from the time that Biden announced and was elected.
So, Biden as “crime boss” (what? really?). As frail, incompetent senior. As “not caring” about the border. As progenitor to a coke-hound, money-grubbing son. As being paid off by foreign entities. Etc, etc, etc.
All fiction. But all bile-covered cannon balls lobbed Biden’s way.
Because the Right’s rhetoricians know that a clean hero can beat a semi-filthy anti-hero every time.