Thread by @AnandWrites, "Let’s never do that again."The @NYTimes invited me to imagine a bold [...]

"Let’s never do that again."

The @NYTimes invited me to imagine a bold Biden presidency for the cover package of this weekend's Sunday Review.

Let others argue for caution. This is my passionate case for not going back to "normal." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Magic

He has the power to make real, transformational progress look like common sense. Will he use it, given the chance?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

First of all, a programming note: I'm going to be live right here on Twitter at 4 p.m. discussing the essay.

And now let me share some highlights.

First, we deserve catharsis.

We are on the cusp of a breathtaking moment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

But soon begins the battle over what follows catharsis.

Going back to normal? Or transforming the conditions that made Trumpism possible? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Magic

He has the power to make real, transformational progress look like common sense. Will he use it, given the chance?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

We are already seeing the partisans of the old normal hogging the narrative.

Whether @clairecmc on TV or the Dems on that leaked caucus call. Don't think big. Don't go bold. Caution. Coming together as its own reward.

I disagree. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Magic

He has the power to make real, transformational progress look like common sense. Will he use it, given the chance?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

If this election is to have lasting meaning, we cannot see a Biden campaign victory as license to cast away politics as a daily presence.

We cannot succumb to the liberal temptation parodied by the comedian @deadeyebrakeman to “vote for Biden so we can all get back to brunch.”

However effective it might have been at closing this race, this restorationist fantasy would be a terrible governing philosophy.

Because the pre-Trump world is no kind of place to go back to. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Magic

He has the power to make real, transformational progress look like common sense. Will he use it, given the chance?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

For this piece, I had a candid conversation with @SenSchumer in which he admitted that the Democrats in the Obama years and beyond hadn't been big or bold enough in their approach.

"If we don’t do bold change, we could end up with someone worse than Donald Trump in four years.”

It's one thing to say that. Another to do it.

So the essay tries to shake cynicism and ignore the can't-do-muchers and envision a bold, imaginative presidency for them. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Magic

He has the power to make real, transformational progress look like common sense. Will he use it, given the chance?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

If, thanks to Georgia, Biden does end up with a razor-thin majority in the Senate, seize it and kill the filibuster.

If Biden is to meet this moment, he can’t let his caution and deep hankering for comity stop him from making the changes families need. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Magic

He has the power to make real, transformational progress look like common sense. Will he use it, given the chance?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

It will be vital to know whom not to listen to.

Don't listen to the austerity folks. Don't listen to the Lincoln Project people. Don't listen to the fiscal conservatives with selective amnesia on balanced budgets. Don't listen to the pantry-is-bare-ists. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Magic

He has the power to make real, transformational progress look like common sense. Will he use it, given the chance?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Listen to the young leftists of color from cities in major swing states who actually appear to have won you the election, and not to the Jeff Flakes. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Magic

He has the power to make real, transformational progress look like common sense. Will he use it, given the chance?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

And if Biden doesn't get the Senate, fine.

He could bypass Congress to make forceful changes in people’s lives — which would in their own way help address one root cause of the gridlock those actions would be working around: lack of faith in government. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Magic

He has the power to make real, transformational progress look like common sense. Will he use it, given the chance?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

If he is bold and willing to make his case directly to the public, there are some issues, such as a wealth tax, that have surprising popularity on both sides of the political divide. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Magic

He has the power to make real, transformational progress look like common sense. Will he use it, given the chance?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

And as @amandalitman reminds us, you don't need a permission slip from @senatemajldr to build your own party more effectively than Obama did.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Joe Biden — simply by being himself and not Donald Trump — can make a monumental difference. His evident basic goodness and empathy being of real use. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Magic

He has the power to make real, transformational progress look like common sense. Will he use it, given the chance?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

Yet the Biden way — the smiles, the the backslapping of political foes — tends to elevate personal kindness over systemic justice.

In the end, a basic choice may stalk Mr. Biden: What matters more, the radiation of personal decency or the pursuit of structural fairness?

Boldness hasn't been Biden's way.

But perhaps, in these times that demand boldness, he can channel not FDR so much as LBJ.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

OK.

Shout-out to @talmonsmith, one of the most brilliant editors in the game. And kind.

And Honor Jones for assigning this essay to me.

And Ben Hickey for the gorgeous illustration.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

See you live on here in a minute!

Opinion | Joe Biden’s Magic

He has the power to make real, transformational progress look like common sense. Will he use it, given the chance?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/opinion/sunday/joe-biden-president-policy.html

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