As former Vice President Joe Biden’s primary campaign has unfolded, so too have scenes of Uncle Joe angrily dismissing voters at town halls. Faced with questions about his record on climate change and his son’s foreign business entanglements, Biden has often chosen to respond with an unusual new campaign slogan: “Go vote for someone else.”

Why is Joe Biden acting so rude? Perhaps because he has had to curb his notoriously “affectionate, physical” campaigning style, which some pundits have euphemistically referred to as “tactile politics.”

Biden’s touching may be more about domination than affection. Through unsolicited back rubs, hugs, kisses, and hair sniffs, Biden asserts dominance, consciously or not. This physically aggressive behavior may be Biden’s way of displaying control over the recipients of his touch.

Now that Biden suppresses these unsolicited public displays of physical intimacy, he achieves dominance verbally, and quite angrily. “Look at my record, child,” Biden snarled at Lily Levins as she questioned his climate change policy in October 2019. Earlier in his career, Biden may have opted to physically embrace Levins rather than berate her, an act that might have left her looking confused and him looking friendly.

He does occasionally still get physical with voters, however; Biden mixed his trademark physical style with his newfound ornery style when he grabbed Iowan, voter, and former State Assemblyman Ed Fallon, who questioned his pipeline construction policies. Holding Fallon by his lapels like a loan shark collecting a debt, Biden deployed his slogan: “Go vote for someone else.” Unsurprisingly, this tactic did not persuade Fallon to support his primary candidacy, and it appears that Iowa caucus goers took Biden’s advice despite the million-dollar shadow money ad campaign promoting his candidacy in the state.

If Biden somehow manages to ride his newly belligerent style to Democratic Presidential Primary victory, more voters may do as he says and “vote for someone else,” especially if they hail from the progressive wing of the party that has for decades opposed Biden’s policies on social security, bankruptcy, the Iraq War, and criminal justice.

Voters may also opt to vote for no one at all. Democrats should not forget the lessons of 2016 voter depression, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost Wisconsin and Michigan to President Donald Trump, two states won by progressive icon Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary.

Voter depression was on full display in Michigan, where 87,810 voters cast a ballot but did not vote for president — nearly twice the number of undervotes in 2012. Clinton lost Michigan to Trump by 13,107.

It is hard to imagine Biden outperforming Hillary Clinton, especially now that he looks more like a Thurmond Democrat than the charismatic vice president who channeled the American Dream during his 2012 Democratic National Convention speech.

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders successfully built movements by channeling voter anger towards the establishment. Joe Biden is channeling establishment anger towards voters themselves, as neither Biden nor the establishment are allowed to physically dominate them anymore.

If they want to win the White House, Biden and establishment Democrats should realize that this is the voter’s world; they’re just campaigning in it.

Nick West is an American writer currently based in Hong Kong. Nick has contributed columns to the South China Morning Post, InsiderNJ, and previously served as Print Editor of NJ hyperlocal outlet New Brunswick Today. While his current city is at the edge of a viral pandemic, Nick is more sickened by Democratic Party establishment dysfunction than the novel coronavirus.