A set, a location, a message: “If I want to beat Trump, then it must happen here”, it calls Joe Biden from the stage of the trade Union premises. Here, the Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania, the heart of the rust belt that Donald Trump is allowed three years ago, the victory in the presidential election. From here, Biden starts his election campaign to lead him to the White house, past all the other Democrats, bidding for the nomination of the party. Many of these competitors like a younger, fresher, fresher than the 76-year-old former Vice-President, but his first appearance shows why he is at this time well positioned to for the party against Trump.
the trade unionists came to this Assembly are, of course, to see Biden: firefighters, teachers, steel workers – people like John Larocco from Pittsburgh, is in Jeans and a gray shirt to the left. He was more than 40 years as a truck driver, now he is in pension. Larocco chooses mostly the Democrats, but Hillary Clinton he supported 2016: “I remained on the day of the election at home.” For Biden, he’ll go to the ballot box. “He is a strong, experienced candidate,” he says. “He knows what the working people in this country moving and what you need. And he is a decent man of character.”
There is also the other supporters who are not members of any trade Union – people like Sally stone, who has bought in front of the entrance for $ 20 a Biden T-Shirt, she pulls on the white blouse. Stone lives in the Pittsburgh neighborhoods of Squirrel Hill, in the right burst of extreme half a year ago, a synagogue, and eleven people killed. She was even Jewish, and she was glad of the significant words with which Biden spoke about right-wing violence in the United States, as he announced last week in a Video of his presidential candidacy. “In times like these we need someone like Biden, who condemned these things clear. The hatred we experience is really bad.”
An economic boom and its consequences
On the stage, in front of a majority of older, white audience, speaks Biden because both: about the “struggle for the soul of America” that he wants to lead. “We need unity instead of division, truth instead of lie,” he says under great applause. And he talks about the shift that he wanted to strengthen. Yes, the economic data are good, but for the people in Pennsylvania have not improved the situation. “The stock market is booming, but you know nothing about it! There was a tax cut of two billion in the past year, but you know nothing about it! Have you benefited from it? Of course not,” says Biden. “I’m still broke,” says a man in the hall in between. In order to renew the middle class, need a change in thinking about what makes a successful economy, says Biden. A national minimum wage of $ 15 per hour you get around.
It is not a new demand, which it establishes there. But Biden is also for five decades in politics, he has been a candidate twice for the presidency, he was for eight years Vice-President. If there’s one thing for Biden definitely is not, then it is the New. Some Democrats also don’t want to but. “We may need in 2020, a candidate that is to the left, the high-flying ideas,” said Harold Schaitberger, the head of the largest Union of firefighters, before the candidate entered the stage. “We need someone who can win.” Even if their influence has shrunk in the past few years: The trade unions play in the democratic party, still an important role. The firefighters have asked people early behind the former Vice-President, comes to him.
Wins is to Biden so – especially in the rust belt. The Democrats want to take back the White house, you need to get a majority in at least some of the industrial areas, the Trump of 2016 helped to victory: Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. In these States many lives, especially of those voters who had appealed a life for democratic candidates, including for Barack Obama and then in 2016, turned to the Republican Trump. In Pennsylvania, there were only 44’000 votes, which gave the rash. The Democrats believe that their opportunities are not good here, because they are sections here in the mid-term elections of 2018. In the case of Biden’s add to that that he grew up out of state, in the working class town of Scranton.
How wide is Biden’s base?
But before the 76-Year-old can compete against Trump, he must defeat an army of democratic competitors. With the support of trade unionists alone the will not succeed, certainly not in a party, which is increasingly younger and female. Maybe Biden’s base is wider than it is in the power of media coverage can sometimes seem. In the queue in front of the Union local also four student participants from the local University. Your absolute favorite candidate, not Biden, Stephanie Rigot says. You like Senator Elizabeth Warren, has argued, among other things, to issue students their often horrendous debt. “For Biden speaks but that he would have against Trump is probably the better of the chances.”
Whether the party chooses a basis in fact, so strategically, is open – especially if Biden in the course of the election campaign as a worse candidate should be. Already his list with pre-layers is a long one. Only recently, the former Vice President was in the headlines because he women came through the years to close, with Kisses and hugs, which are perceived as inappropriate. However, among the female visitors in Pittsburgh, there are some who defend Biden on this matter without being asked. “Look, I met Joe ten years ago,” says Mary Turak (59) and shows on your phone a picture of you standing next to Biden. “He kissed me on the head. And it was an honor for me.” (Editorial Tamedia)
Created: 30.04.2019, 06:29 PM