Op-Ed: Biden… a lame duck turned into a progressive hero
Back in 2020 the country was just about falling to pieces, and we perhaps witnessed turmoil we had not seen since the ’68 elections. Going back to 2016 I was a self professed Bernie Bro. I was a complete fan of his agenda. Who wouldn’t support free childcare and tuition, raising the min wage, infrastructure, and decriminalizing pot?
Like many, I felt Bernie had been cheated out of getting the nomination, and I didn’t have much if any enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton, and didn’t care at the time that she lost. A whopping four years later, I underestimated how much damage one man in the White House could cause. The 2020 elections seemed like a repeated of the last election. Bernie lost again, and I had little to no enthusiasm for joe Biden. To be quite frank, I thought he was the last man for the job, and given his hawkish history on supporting wars and standing opposed to labor movements, I did not have a a good feeling about him at all.
Not only that… he lacked the enthusiasm and energy of the Sanders and Trump campaigns. His crowds were many times smaller and a lot older. I viewed him as a politician who was stuck in the past, and you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.
Well, do I have to eat my words? We are now more than a year into the Biden administration, and he has had ample time to prove he is an authentic leader. I can confidently say that Biden has turned out to be more than I ever expected, and when our nation needed a leader like him the most, he rose to the occasion in a powerful yet elegant way.
He did not have to stoop to insults, petty arguments, and forcefully kicking protestors out of rallies while chanting vulgarities. He did not entice Americans to storm government buildings and take politicians hostage. He engaged America with soft spoken Delaware dialect, reassuring the middle class that America’s dignity had been returned. Was this all for show, for pander, just for quick vote. Were we about to trust a man with a questionable past and controversial voting record?
We are now witnessing the dog day Summer of ’22. It is arguably the first Summer we have returned to normal since the pandemic. Heading out of the Trump administration, a pandemic handled he managed for over a year left us in economic downfall, and the worst mortality rate out of all other developed countries on planet Earth. One year later we are taking off our masks, eating in restaurants, attending rock concerts, and filling up airports. Within one year, the entire stock market loss we witnessed was regained and then some.
The Biden administration somehow prevented an economic depression, turned a recession into an economic boom, all while managing to pass COVID the largest stimulus package in history, with a Congress that was split down the middle. On March 11th, 2021, Biden signed and passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the biggest economic stimulus since LBJ. This was $1 trillion more than Obama’s Recovery Act during the Great Recession, and it was passed with a completely divided Congress, including a blue dog Democrat from West Virginia by the name of Joe Manchin. This sent direct payments of $1400 to 150 million American households, including $300 per week unemployment insurance, and extended moratorium on rent.
This was followed through on Apr 27, 2021, when Biden signed an executive order to give all federal workers and contractors a $15 min wage, since a Republican split Congress voted to block any raised to the federal minimum wage. Over the last year we have witnessed a skyrocketing booming real estate market, middle class wages are substantially rising at record pace. Even with gas and fuel prices setting record highs, we are witnessing record number of Americans taking vacations and traveling this Summer. This would have been considered a pipe dream just one year ago.
One of his promises was kept on February 2nd, 2021, when he signed executive orders to end the Trump policy of separating families at the border. You can debate who started it, but under Trump, we witnessed 5,500 families being torn apart, and when Biden entered office, there were more than 600 children which could not be reunited with their parents. This was a polar opposite stance from the former “tough on crime” Joe.
On August 6th of 2021, against all of his military advisors, followed through with a campaign promise to end “regime change wars”. Again, no one thought he would actually do it. The day would go down in infamy as either a success or a total failure depending on who you ask, but at the end of the day he actually followed through with Trump’s plan to withdraw, keeping his promise to invacuate 13,000 troops, while securing the release of 85 Americans, and for the first time in 20 years we consider the Taliban our adversaries again instead of enemies. This is something out of the books of the success of Ronald Reagan entering office to bring the hostages home.
“When I became President, I faced a choice — follow through on the deal, with a brief extension to get our Forces and our allies’ Forces out safely, or ramp up our presence and send more American troops to fight once again in another country’s civil conflict,” he said. “I was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan — two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.” — Joe Biden
While stepping into office, Biden selected our familiar friend Bernie Sanders to chair the most important seat in the Senate, Chairman of the Budget. While consulting with Bernie Sanders $715 billion infrastructure package that included provisions related to federal-aid highway, transit, highway safety, motor carrier, research, hazardous materials and rail programs of the Department of Transportation. No one thought it would pass. On November 15, 2021, Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, convincing the House to pass an amended bill 228–206 in the House, which included additional funding for broadband access, clean water, electric grid renewal in addition to the transportation and road proposals of the original House bill. This amended version totaled out with $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending, with $550 billion being newly authorized spending on top of what Congress was planning to authorize regularly.
In February of 2022, Biden attempted to pass free tuition for community colleges, working directly with progressive leaders of the Congress like AOC. When Republicans refused to vote on passing a bill that would have lifted up hundreds of thousands of college students in poverty, he took to the airwaves and public broadcast to voice his anger and frustration, advocating and fighting for young Americans with the spunk and energy of a man half his age, including comments from First Lady Jill Biden, voicing her disappointment.
In spite of not passing free tuition, Biden remained constant on passing a college relief bill, when during this Summer, the administration signed executive orders to cancel up to $10,000 in student loans for borrowers who earn less than $150,000. In total passing $25 billion in college relief. I watched my $6,000 of loans I had remaining from community college turn to zero overnight. This is not full forgiveness, doesn’t reach everyone, and doesn’t provide free tuition. However, this included 41 million borrowers under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, and at least three years of additional credit for more than 3.6 million borrowers seeking income-driven repayment, the department said.
Following the deadly massacres in May of 2022, involving the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that saw 19 children murdered along with two teachers, ten days after the Buffalo supermarket shooting that killed 10, Biden vowed to convince Republicans to pass gun control legislation. On June 24th, 2022, Biden passed the first major gun control bill since the Clinton administration, closing gun show and “boyfriend” loopholes, enhancing background checks for 18- to 21-year-olds, and incentivizing states to pass red flag laws. No it’s not an assault weapons ban, but it’s no small victory for the families that have lost their children to senseless gun violence since Columbine.
The only campaign promise which has not delivered yet, was pursing cannabis legalization or decriminalization.
“My administration will pursue cannabis decriminalization as well as seek expungements for people with prior cannabis convictions.” — President Biden (Feb 2022 Statement)
To be quite frank, he is the first President since Jimmy Carter to utter the words “legalize marijuana”, not something even Obama would do. The statement is still posted on his website. If he manages to accomplish under his term, he has the potential to go down as one of the great Presidents in American history that will certainly be remembered.
On top of that, he is seeking Congress to codify Roe v. Wade into law, another progressive agenda that the Obama White House didn’t even attempt, and with the announced retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer, Biden now has the opportunity to really nominate the first progressive judge in many decades, which would work our way towards balancing the courts which we desperately need right now after Trump’s term in office.
Joe Biden has turned out to be the most progressive (left leaning) President we have had in many decades, and let’s not forget Kamala Harris, who has been given more responsibility and power as a Vice President than perhaps anyone since Dick Cheney. She’s even been criticized for “ignoring” her donors and not answering phone calls from Superpacs, and demanding the lists of major donors (blocked by Supreme Court).
What originally made me worried about Biden was his conservative talking points on the campaign trail. I guess that just meant he was a master of persuasion and bridging both sides together. I can confidently say that the Joe Biden administration has very much been a surprise, proving that maybe 80 is the new 60. What’s even more impressive that unlike Obama which worked with a majority blue Congress for a number of year, Biden stepped into office with a GOP promising to block the “Biden agenda” by stopping him from getting anything accomplished. Against all the odds and television pundits that he would even win the nomination of his own party, he has made the impossible the possible, and almost exactly what we needed as a country after going through a pandemic. Maybe not so surprising if we remember, that it was him who forced Obama to take a stance on gay marriage that kickstarted the lawsuit that led to the full legalization. He may not run for a second term, but I would certainly vote for him again.
Perhaps the story as it’s written, shows that we don’t need to turn to partisan attacks and extremist views to accomplish any major goal. It takes teamwork, effort, and seeing both sides as human beings. I think Biden brought humility back to the White House, at a time when the country seemed more divided than ever before. He showed us again that you don’t have to be the loudest in the room to win an election or make your point, and I think that is an important lesson to learn.
He may have been the “really old” President, but there are two choices someone can make. As you grow older you can grip to the past and fight change from happening and hate the world around you, or you can embrace the future, reach out to younger generations who will be the future leaders, and be willing to evolve and learn as society changes. Biden is the prime example of the latter, and I think he has done that with grace and dignity. This is coming from someone who couldn’t have seen myself voting for the man just last year. Biden’s questionable past was one of my original concerns about how he would lead a new generation, and he has shown he is open and listening to young Americans.
We have a great leader in the White House right now, who has continued to impress both moderates and progressives simultaneously (lord knows that is no easy task). We should start paying attention to what he’s doing, because he’s a lot more than a four year filler. He’s setting a serious agenda and is going full speed ahead, and quickly turning into one of my favorite Presidents in recent years. I give credit where credit is due.
