Biden has poor narrative spinners…

I remember the Bally fitness club commercials from the 1980s. The clubs depicted in the advertisements seemed real glitzy and the actors in the spots all looked no older than twenty-five years old with bodies chiseled from being in the gym half the day. I could never relate to what I saw on the television. This was the 1980s so they were mostly white (pre George Floyd enlightenment and DEI) and again, looked like they did not need help with their fitness goals.

A gym to me back then looked like a place to be shamed and ridiculed for being fat.

It would not be until the 1990s before I would actually set foot in a gym. Up until the early 1990s, my main form of exercise was jogging and playing racquetball. Were it not for the construction of the Bobby E. Leach fitness center on Florida State’s campus (Go Noles!!) with its eight racquetball courts, I would have never set foot in one. With racquetball being my entree, I was able to acclimate myself to the busy-ness of the gym and with the desire to be a fitter player, allow myself to be introduced to weight-lifting. It was a good thing, too, because I do believe that hitting the weights and building muscle helped to ward off any major injuries.

The right narrative, getting fitter and stronger for racquetball, pulled me into the gym. But what also helped was facing the right narrative spinners. When I took that deep breath and decided to make the plunge it was a young staffer that showed the best machines to start on, the muscles those machines would help me build, how to record my progress, and the overall benefits of weight training.

Years later I would employ four trainers to help me reach my goal of optimal performance on the racquetball court. They were able to tie their philosophy and narrative to mine by listening. To satisfy their self-interest in securing the bag and getting my coin, they had to validate the importance of their product by telling and repeating the story that what I was enduring during training would benefit me. And they would have to share with me how well I was doing and improving in order to bring me back for more.

Validating why the executive power should remain vested in him as President of the United States is Joe Biden’s number one goal. How well he exercises the executive power as commander in chief, when appointing ambassadors or entering treaties, or recommending measures that improve the state of the union will augment the argument for his return to office for another four years. How well is he matching his self-interest in a return to office with the electorate’s self-interest in a functioning political economy?

Any president has to optimize his primary power: the power of persuasion. Mr Biden must convince the majority of the electorate that depends on a labor market that offers a livable wage that his policies are creating an environment and providing an infrastructure that allows the trade of an asset that increases in value, time, for monetary units of compensation. 

Is Mr Biden’s message resonating with the electorate?

Alton Drew

28 December 2023

For my take on the political economy, buy my book at amazon.com/author/altondrew