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Today I’m experiencing a “complicated happiness.” Biden is not the person who I wanted to be president, but he’s orders of magnitude better than the troglodyte he’s replacing. (1/20)
I’m not happy that Biden is becoming president. Instead, I’m thrilled that we’ve expelled the most incompetent person to ever hold the presidency, the person who’s done the most damage to our government (and our faith in it) in the last couple generations, perhaps ever. (2/20)
For all Biden’s faults, and I find many, I know that he will at least bring a public servant’s heart to the presidency, and a commitment to our nation above his own interests and whims. He is very much like Obama in this way. (3/20)
He will make mistakes, he will make decisions that will infuriate me, but at no point will I have to wonder whether he’s betraying our trust (and his responsibilities) for personal gain or petty vengeance. (4/20)
How sad that this basic expectation of any elected or appointed official now seems like a high standard. How sad that we’ve let our standards fall so far, so fast. (5/20)
The contrast is stark, just as it was in 2009, and my happiness was just as complicated. Obama’s election was joyous in its symbolic breakthrough, and his coherence, erudition & poesy were a welcome reprieve from the previous regime’s shambolic anti-intellectualism. (6/20)
Facing down the second massive recession of my adulthood, I hoped the Democrats would resist the crony austerity of the GOP. But the hope was tempered - by Obama’s clear centrism, by his establishment cabinet, and by the low expectations I had for the Democratic party. (7/20)
Some friends were turned off by my pessimism in 2009, as I’m sure some are today. I’d be surprised if more weren’t with me this time around though - there’s not enough confirmation bias in the world to blind us to the right-wing rot quickly engulfing our country. (8/20)
So today deserves a celebration, a deep joy, a deeply relieved exhale, and also requires us to quickly put our heads back on a swivel and get back to work. (9/20)
If you’ve got high expectations, temper them now - both because of who Biden is, and because of the situation he’s in. He’s a natural moderate, a man who instinctively flees to the center, and that center has been violently dragged rightward for the last 60+ years. (10/20)
Biden still believes the fiction that there’s a reason to negotiate with a party more concerned with holding power than with governing or pursuing justice. Those tendencies are sure to be preyed upon by the reprehensible, truth-resisting GOP. (11/20)
The GOP will be egged on by their base, who’ve been enraptured by the vulgar, xenophobic rantings of a con-man. And neither the party nor the base show any signs of coming back to earth. (12/20)
Given these circumstances, I wish Biden wouldn’t pay so much lip service to working across the aisle, when the people on the other side are unprincipled obstructionists at best, traitorous authoritarians at worst, and anti-majoritarian throughout. (13/20)
I wish Biden would see that “negotiating” with the GOP is just preemptively ceding ground with nothing but histrionics in return. They’ll call him a commie and throw sand in the gears of anything he does, so why bother playing that game? Remember the ACA? (14/20)
But alas, I think he’s convinced that these tactics will unite the country and the government. I also think that path is doomed to failure. (15/20)
Of course, Biden’s cabinet is more ideologically left than Obama’s - certainly a good sign. And his agenda for the first 100 days is more progressive than I’d expected, also a good sign. So despite all these complications, I’m still happy, and just a little bit hopeful. (16/20)
The next two years may be the only time that Biden has a unified legislative and executive, albeit by the slimmest of margins. I hope that he and his team take seriously the policy demands of progressives like the (growing) Squad while there’s time and momentum. (17/20)
COVID has created more political will than I’ve ever seen to create a government that actually works well and serves its people. I hope Biden learns the lessons of history, and goes big while he can - materially beneficial social policy may yet save this nation. (18/20)
I know many progressive items are on the agenda, and I want Biden fighting for them, not backing away from political saboteurs that never intended to compromise anyway. And if (when!) they pass, I hope he takes credit. People need to see the government doing them good. (19/20)
Despite my worries, I am going to enjoy my complicated happiness today, knowing that our federal government will be guided again by a person committed to our collective well-being. The hard fight for justice continues tomorrow. Best wishes, Mr. Biden. (20/20)
