[update below] [2nd update below]
It’s become banal to say how pleasantly surprised we are by him—by his rhetoric and actions—since he took the oath of office on January 20th. By “we” I refer to those of us who supported Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders and were dismissive of Biden and his candidacy before he suddenly, contre toute attente, surged in March 2020 and then clinched the nomination in April. And while we warmed to him over the subsequent months, not too many had high hopes of what he would or could set out to achieve once elected. Being rid of Trump was almost enough.
Progressives’ pleasant surprise of the past three months has literally transformed into gushing enthusiasm since Biden’s address to Congress on Wednesday, with even the most Biden-skeptic gauchistes giving the speech the thumbs way up on social media. In my social media world, there is now a near total consensus that, in economic and social policy, Sleepy Joe is indeed the Real Deal.
The title of an article by Anand Giridharadas in The Atlantic (April 14th) summed up the matter: “Welcome to the new progressive era: Progressives thought they knew what a Biden presidency would look like. How did they get him so wrong?” It begins:
Washington in the first days of the Biden administration is a place for double takes: A president associated with the politics of austerity is spending money with focused gusto, a crisis isn’t going to waste, and Senator Bernie Sanders is happy.
People like to tell you they saw things coming. But as I talked to many of the campers in Joe Biden’s big tent, particularly those who, like me, were skeptical of Biden, I found that the overwhelming sentiment was surprise. Few of us expected that this president—given his record, a knife’s-edge Congress, and a crisis that makes it hard to look an inch beyond one’s nose—would begin to be talked about as, potentially, transformational.
If there are any doubts as to the Biden administration’s progressive cred, see the piece (April 28th) in the People’s World—the more or less official organ of the CPUSA, in Popular Front mode these days—by its editor-in-chief, “Biden to unveil proposals for radical reform of the economy.” John Bachtell, former CPUSA chairman (2014-19) and a contemporary of mine in college (we were dorm neighbors, took a seminar together on the thought of Antonio Gramsci, and talked/debated/sparred over politics), thus introduced it on Facebook:
When you take all of the Biden Administration accomplishments and initiatives so far – the American Rescue Plan and tackling the coronavirus, the hundred or so executive orders affecting policy across the board, the American Jobs Plan, and commitment to radically transform energy production, transport, and other sectors to reduce GGH by 50%, shifting the tax burden to the wealthy, the diverse cabinet and its connections to mass democratic movements, and now the American Families Plan – we are talking about a potentially transformative era in U.S. history perhaps not seen since the Civil Rights era, Great Depression, and Reconstruction. Not to speak of the democratic reforms contemplated by Biden and the Democratic-led Congress, i.e., the ProAct, For the People Act, Citizenship Act, LGBTQ Equality Act, and DC Statehood. It’s an agenda that’s desperately needed and can unite a majority of the country, and the broad political left and center. But unless it passes, all may be for naught and this illustrates the urgency of the mass democratic movements to unite behind the agenda. Winning it will also open new space for wider and more radical economic and political reforms. My colleague John Wojcik lays it out here.
The CPUSA’s French counterpart, the PCF, is on the same page:
“J’ai l’impression de Joe Biden a pris sa carte au Parti communiste français” 😀@Fabien_Roussel @France2tv #Les4V pic.twitter.com/p5OQWhpWkO
— PCF (@PCF) April 30, 2021
Fox News will have a field day with this if they find out about it but that’s okay. C’est la bonne guerre.
One observer who foresaw Biden’s progressive shift over a year ago is Peter Suderman, an editor at the right-leaning libertarian Reason, who had a commentary dated March 4, 2020, “Joe Biden is no moderate: [He] is a classic big-government liberal,” which I linked to in a post at the time. It’s a premonitory analysis and worth (re)reading.
Also worth reading is John F. Harris’ post-speech commentary in Politico, “Biden just gave the most ideologically ambitious speech of any Democratic president in generations: With his vow to spend money on blue-cotllar jobs and tax the rich, Biden’s program aims to splinter the Trump Coalition.”
As for what President Biden’s predecessor—whom Twitter so thankfully cancelled—is up to these days, this has been making the rounds on social media:
The one time leader of the free world who now lives alone in a hotel sharing buffets, common areas, and staff with strangers, yearns for attention and relevance so badly, he now stands on a patio step every night ranting to tens of people about a 6 month old election that he lost pic.twitter.com/xIuZ7jAkZD
— Mystery Solvent (@MysterySolvent) April 30, 2021
Biden may deserve a grade of A so far on economic and social policy but on foreign policy he gets but a B (I’ll raise it when he reverses Trump’s actions on Iran and Cuba). And while I’m taking a wait-and-see attitude on immigration, so far I give him a B–/C+. More on that soon.
UPDATE: Robert Reich has a typically spot-on commentary (May 2nd) in The Guardian, “The first 100 days of Biden were also the first 100 without Trump – that’s telling: The new president is benefiting not just from bold proposals and actions but from his predecessor’s catastrophic record.”
2nd UPDATE: James Traub writes in Foreign Policy (May 7th) that “America is becoming a social democracy: The Biden administration is accomplishing what was once thought historically impossible.”
Biden has good initiatives but with the Congress he’s got to deal with, I have low expectations. Such a shame.
I’m not too optimistic for Biden’s long term chances given the razor thin majority in Congress. If one D senator from a red state, or with an R governor, dies, it’s all over. And then there’s the House. Even if the Ds buck the midterm curse (as in 1998 and 2002), voter suppression laws, egregious gerrymandering following the redistricting, and D incumbents in Trump-majority CDs not running for reelection are going to make 2022 very dicey. This is the political reality we’re going to be living with for years to come.
As many have noted, what is most striking about the still young Biden presidency, is that it is a complete repudiation of Reagan. IN their own way, the Republicans have repudiated Reagan for years, as they have lurched into the darkness of the far right, but now the Democrats have remembered that they are the party of FDR and LBJ, not Reagan-lite.
I just wish the Democrats had a larger majority in Congress (see above comment), and that the Repubs weren’t irretrievably down the road to neo-fascism.
I am with you 100% on that. Regarding the slim Dem majority, I am surprised that there has not been more pressure on Diane Feinstein to resign, as she is quite evidently not well, before the California recall election. I can easily see a Republican getting a surprise win, and then Feinstein dying, and then bye-bye majority.
Your California scenario hadn’t occurred to me. It sounds far-fetched, though crazy things do happen in politics.
That said, a Republican being elected to statewide office in CA nowadays is really most unlikely.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/california-voters-should-start-preparing-for-a-recall-election/
You are right, of course, but my faith in the left to show up for off year elections and special elections is fairly minimal at this point. . . .
I do find the positive noises towards Biden from the European left to be interesting and perhaps a reflection of just how far from political power the European left is in Europe at the moment. On the other side of the political spectrum does Biden’s domestic centric agenda does run into conflict not in unmanageable ways but nonetheless with the center and center right governing parties in Europe? Some of Biden’s proposals regarding “Buy America,” international taxation, and trade do come into conflict with longstanding “interests” of the EU and EU Member state government.
I also suspect most people in the French govt, EU Commission, and other EU MS that actually deal with infrastructure and construction are probably not that impressed by Biden’s infrastructure plan for not really dealing with the high costs and inefficiency of the US Construction industry relative to France and other European countries. In fact a made a comment along these at Claire Berlinski’s Cosmopolitan Globalist a few days ago.
https://claireberlinski.substack.com/p/proposition-bidens-infrastructure/comments