The First 100 Days: A Retrospective and Review
Stephen Dames - Co-Editor in Chief
When sitting down to write this piece—coincidentally the morning after my second vaccine shot—I decided not to focus on the issues that Biden has faced over his brief tenure in office. Rather than writing a hyper ideological screed praising or lambasting Biden—I’m certainly capable of both—I instead opted to write a purely political process story about Biden, the Senate, and the possibilities for further reform.
Biden has the possibility of being a truly progressive president—though by no means ideal, he would be the most progressive in my lifetime—but if there is one major obstacle standing in his way, it is the near universal demand (from the media and from many Americans) for senatorial bipartisanship. Our media is operating under a fundamental misapprehension of what bipartisanship is and what it could be today. Bipartisanship does not and should not mean catering your policy priorities to the whims of a few members of the opposing side, but it does and can mean reaching out to Americans who did not necessarily vote for you, or changing those priorities once a popular mandate has been stated. The job of the Democrats should be to govern—the job of the Republicans should be to oppose. While Republicans govern effectively and ruthlessly, Democrats play the game of congressional bipartisanship, turning big democratic mandates into wishy washy minorities. Of course party crossover is welcome, but any conception of bipartisanship that gets in the way of the fundamental relationship between governing and opposing prevents just governance and simply muddies the waters.
It is fundamentally more democratic and more egalitarian for Democrats to pass their policy priorities—and give the majority what they voted for—instead of cowering to a few obstinate senators who represent a small minority of Americans. By repealing the filibuster, further reforming the Senate, and overhauling the judiciary (or even by doing one or two of these things), Biden will be able to pass a large suite of bills that Americans voted for and desire in large numbers. Bipartisanship in the Congress — at least in our era—has not created better bills, but instead has created diluted, widely unpopular, and frustratingly vague pieces of legislation that don’t address the problems the American people need addressed. A recent example of this is the far too small stimulus package passed by Obama, where Democrats negotiated against themselves and drastically weakened the bill in an attempt to get nonexistent Republican support, which led to both a slow recovery from the recession and to the Democrats losing control of both houses of Congress in the 2010 midterms.
For those concerned with the Republican backlash in an untethered Senate, you need to consider two facts: (1) elections have consequences, and in a fair system the governing party should have power to govern they way they see fit; (2) precedent suggests that Republicans will have a difficult time touching an expanded welfare state once it’s put into place and sold (look to Obamacare, medicare reform, and the general disarray of the party).
Biden has two options on the table in front of him: he can choose to continue governing by reforming the Senate, forgetting about flawed congressional bipartisanship, and passing truly progressive legislation, or he can waste away a true Democratic majority on silly process and tradition. Increasingly, I and other leftists, trust that he’ll make the right decision.
Inica Kotasthane - Co-Editor in Chief
When thinking about the circumstances of President Biden’s administration, my mind immediately goes to a recent podcast episode of NGP’s Round Table, in which we discussed the evolving role of the presidency over time with historian Joshua Zeitz. The conversation, which lasted almost half an hour, is a great listen in its entirety, and something that stood out to me was the perception of government influence, namely, how the government’s presence in people’s lives seems to keep growing while the people’s desire to have that presence seems to keep reducing.
Simply put, Americans aren’t the most avid supporters of the government. This dislike is characterized by the hatred of taxes, consistently low approval ratings of Congress, and generally negative views of whatever legislation is passed—either it's too much or not enough. Arising in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the New Deal set a precedent of more government involvement in the day-to-day affairs of American citizens. While this involvement has remained, the desire to have that involvement hasn’t, and people no longer want the government to be in every aspect of their lives. That is, of course, until 2020.
The pandemic flipped a switch in the minds of Americans across the country. For the first time in a long time, the government was looked to as a solution rather than a problem. The questions of how to handle the spread of COVID-19 and how vaccines should be distributed were at the forefront of news headlines, and the government was expected to have answers. In the midst of this international crisis, the role of the President continued to have the same power as before, but the attitudes of the population had shifted—they no longer resented that power, rather, they desired its wielding.
Many believe that Donald Trump was not able to adapt to these changing attitudes. In terms of handling the pandemic, he did far too little far too late. The policies that were implemented, such as the mask mandate, were riddled with controversies, and the incongruities between Trump’s actions and words certainly did not help Americans understand that they needed to focus on fighting COVID-19 rather than each other.
By contrast, Biden has appeared to have taken a more active role as President, something that should help restore public faith in government. He is directly addressing the worries of the American public, as demonstrated by last night’s speech to Congress, and is dedicated to expanding the abilities of his administration to alleviate the various problems facing the nation. This heavy-handed approach is one that the country needs now more than ever, and I believe that it will contribute to an increasingly pro-government perspective as we move through this crisis.
Whether these perspectives will hold, however, is something only time will tell. We look forward to keeping you posted!
