Bold Political Reform to Shake Up the Establishment Could Redeem Biden’s Desperate Reelection Bid; Look to Ro Khanna’s 5-point Plan

Trump’s real shine
Ask any Trumper or politico to explain the real reason behind Donald Trump’s political shine and they will tell you it’s because Trump is not a politician, a perceived outsider of the establishment even as he’s held the top executive post in government and politicized the D.C. game to the hilt.

Perception matters and Trump’s unrefined, street-talk ways of speech, crude and non-politician brash demagoguery and irreverent posturing – all work well to support this anti-establishment persona, while reality points to Trump as the mastermind insider of the modern GOP establishment.

Why does the anti-establishment image matter and is so appealing? It’s because all the frustration that Americans have that their government has failed them, their disappointment in politicians and their angst at the rot in D.C. politics can be honed and translated into votes. Apparently, into lots of votes as polls show a grossly imperfect candidate in Trump is at the verge of winning a second presidency.

What exactly does the establishment represent to millions of disillusioned voters? Americans are sick of corruption, that their multitudes of wealthy representatives in Congress keep getting elected year after year with having to show little in accomplishments.

Americans are tired of big money influence from billionaire individuals, superPacs and corporations that in essence buy politicians to keep the status quo while grassroots Americans slip further into discontent, slip further into hard financial times.

Biden and Democrats need to run on political reform
To turn the tide in Biden’s desperate attempt at reelection, what he needs to do is rally for true and genuine political reform. It’s worth driving home this point: political reform, political reform.

This is the only way to shed the anti-establishment suit millions of Americans are suiting Biden up to be. And it doesn’t help that his rhetoric of being a populist doesn’t jibe with reality.

When you look at the success of Barack Obama, he represented hope, arguably the most convincing political campaign in modern history. And it was believable given his obvious demographic, a Black American who spoke of change.

Bill Clinton’s campaign was successful because he resurrected a JFK aura, a middle-aged president – something different then, and a vice president pick in Al Gore who mustered similar demographic appeal.

Obama and Clinton at their prime seeking election were perceived as fresh and anti-establishment, even though history tells this turned out to be only marginally true.

Americans do not look at Biden in the lens of hope nor is he middle-aged (symbolic of transition, kinetic, of going to new places and change).

This is why Biden must take on the mantle of bold political reform. And if he and his political handlers are smart, they should be looking to Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-Calif) bold and groundbreaking 5-point, comprehensive political reform as the sale to sell to the American public.

Khanna’s 5-point plan is exactly what Biden should not only be pushing in rhetoric, but meaningful embrace it as a hopeful plan for a new America. What is Khanna’s 5-point plan?

1. Ban all PAC (political action committee) and lobbyist money from congressional campaigns. 
2. Ban members of Congress from stock trading, as well as ever becoming lobbyists. 
3. Term Limits for members of Congress.
4. Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices.
5. The implementation of an Ethics Code for the Supreme Court Justices.

Khanna said he is introducing the slate of reforms now, as a package, to inspire Biden and other Democrats to take action.  He said, “There is a sense on both the left and the right of a crisis of confidence in institutions ― whether that is the Congress or the Executive Branch or the Court. That level of anger has led to a rejection of politics ― an anti-politics, which has created an opening for all kind of demagoguery and sensationalism to fill the void.”

He adds, “Unless the Democrats offer a bold vision of reform that we campaign on and deliver on when we win, it’s going to become harder and harder to prevent sensational and demagogue-type figures from filling that void.”

Khanna is correct.

Biden’s age was never really the problem as his corporate media supporters like to push and consequently some Americans are buying into. Biden’s problem has always been that his approach to governance is old. His ideas are old.

Trump, who is just a few years younger, is not slapped with this old man image because everything about him in terms of approach to governance is not old (but for the wrong reasons). How so? No one really knows what to expect in his second term. The speculation is dictatorship. But still, how would this happen and to what extent keep voters in suspense. It’s appealing (again, for the wrong reasons) because people are so desperate for change that they are even entertaining dictatorial change.

With Biden, what Americans already anticipate is more of the same thing, old politics to come from an aged man who is offering no hope for real change – a perpetuation of establishment rule.

Take up bold political reform, Biden, and you just might have a chance. But time is running out.