Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Max It’s no secret that President JOE BIDEN has a problem with young voters. He’s old. And his political appeal is predicated on restoring civility and norms, not inspiring younger generations to rush to the polls. In a survey released by the New York Times this week, 94 percent of Democrats under the age of 30 said they’d prefer a different presidential nominee. Does it have to be this way? If you ask Democratic activists who work in this space, the answer is, actually, no — though they offer differing prescriptions for how to glow up Biden’s image with America’s youth. One idea is to focus on simpler policies; chief among them, weed. Yes, weed. Biden has steadfastly refused to support legalization, choosing instead to emphasize decriminalization. But, the thinking goes, he’s made pivots on other policy matters before (see: abortion) and tackled hot-button cultural issues in the lead up to past elections (see: gay marriage). “He should say publicly, ‘I've been wrong about marijuana policy my entire career, I've seen the light and listened to activists. I've listened to my party and this is what I will now do,’” said JOHN HUDAK, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “It’s an easy win he’s refused to accept as a win.” As Hudak sees it, there are obvious benefits to embracing legalization for Biden. For one, it doesn’t carry the baggage of other policies designed to court younger voters, like student debt relief, that could have inflationary side effects. More creatively, any discomfort Biden may have with legalization — and according to those who have worked alongside him, he has discomfort owing to the fact that his son, HUNTER, has suffered from drug addiction — can be assuaged by the likelihood that Congress won’t turn it into law. But the most obvious benefit is that it is insanely popular…. among everybody. The Civiqs survey numbers show 83 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 34 want legalization, alongside 71 percent of voters overall. “Cannabis reform is not ahead of its time, this is the time for cannabis reform,” said Hudak. “Supporting cannabis reform in and of itself won’t win [Biden] the youth vote. But it will telegraph to those voters that this is a guy who is listening to us.” Not everyone imagines things can be so easy. TRÉ EASTON, a Democratic strategist who has worked in the youth vote space, said he would love for Biden to get on board with legal weed. But he doesn’t suspect he will. Even if the president did, he wasn’t sure it would move the dial politically. The problem facing Biden, Easton said, was far broader than individual policy. “So much of it is just vibes, and the vibes you get from this White House is that they’re not prioritizing trying to make young voters happy,” he said. Easton’s central thesis is that young voters see in Biden a “slavish devotion to these institutions that have routinely failed them.” They don’t know a political system that works or that appears up to the fundamental challenges facing society, from climate change to sustaining democracy. “It’s not just young Americans who look at this system and see something broken,” said Easton. “Trump's whole appeal was that he could take a dysfunctional system and fix it… Americans see this system as fucked up.” The White House’s contention is that Easton is wrong, not on the merits, but on Biden. To them, Biden has actually started to make the system work again. He’s passed gun laws and infrastructure reform that eluded prior presidents. He’s stabilizing the country politically and toning down a partisan rancor that served as a blot on the past four years. He’s hosting picnics with members from both sides of the aisle! Their theory of the case worked in 2020. But as of now, the numbers strongly suggest that young voters aren’t buying it. And so, the party is left with a third option by which to court them: point to the other guy. “No one will tell you his numbers are good,” said one top Democratic strategist. “That would be bullshit. But every midterm I've been involved in, the party in power says it is a choice and not a referendum. What is different this time is that DONALD TRUMP wants to make it a choice.” “The more that Trump makes himself part of the conversation and clarifies it as you have a choice between sticking with Biden or going back to Trump, that helps us,” the strategist added. “Having that in the ether is incredibly important.” TEXT US — Are you a YOUNG BIDEN SUPER FAN? We want to hear from you! And we’ll keep you anonymous if you’d like. Or if you think we missed something in today’s edition, let us know and we may include it tomorrow. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com or you can text/Signal/Wickr Alex at 8183240098.
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