Joe Biden has everyone fooled, and he\u2019s happy about it. To Trumpers, he\u2019s a doddering old man, just a \u201cfool\u201d manipulated by the \u201csocialist progressives\u201d surrounding him. They mention folks like Vice President Kamala Harris as leading the shadow government, though the \u201creal socialist progressives\u201d in the Democratic Party don\u2019t include her on their roster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if you look at Biden\u2019s cabinet picks, there\u2019s not a real \u201csocialist progressive\u201d in the bunch. They are all pretty \u201cmainstream\u201d Democrats, though in contrast to the white-male conservative Trump cabinet (and Mrs. DeVos and McConnell), they are a lot more \u201cliberal\u201d. Just check out the Biden \u201cteam picture\u201d, only a couple of old white men in the bunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To conservatives (not Trumpers), he\u2019s offering a Roosevelt like \u201cNew Deal\u201d big government. \u201cYee Gods\u201d \u2013 he\u2019s talking about spending trillions of dollars! To those conservatives, you are only allowed to use that number if you\u2019re talking about a top one percent tax cut, or a missile system to counter a military threat from the 1980\u2019s. Spending government money on child care, or college loan relief or nationwide broad band: \u201cwhy that\u2019s a frivolous waste of taxpayer dollars that our children will have to pay for\u201d. (Maybe we could just get Amazon and Facebook to foot the bill; they could actually pay some taxes on their COVID windfall profits).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And to the real socialist progressives of the Democratic Party, he\u2019s not doing enough. They want Biden out farther (though did you hear him whisper about the $15 minimum wage in his speech to Congress on Wednesday? Didn\u2019t he start at $12?) But they\u2019ve got another Joe to really be angry with, not Biden but Manchin. So, much of the vitriol that might have been directed at Joe Biden and should be directed towards Mitch McConnell and his obstructionist Party, is going towards the Senator from West Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And to the great mass of the American people, Joe Biden is a man of lowered expectations. We don\u2019t expect Obama-like oratory from Biden\u2019s speeches. In fact, for most of his supporters we\u2019re just glad he gets through without a famous \u201cBiden gaffe\u201d. So when Biden does more than just slog through an hour-plus speech on Wednesday, actually using his voice from a whisper to demanding assertion, hey \u2013 it\u2019s a great job! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The one \u201csuper-power\u201d of Joe Biden is that he can relate to Americans on the most basic level. We all suffer loss, and particularly in our pandemic era, even more people are hurting. Joe Biden can relate to loss, to suffering, and to redemption. His story, and his empathy comes across in almost everything he does. He can literally reach out and touch the grieving parent, or the unemployed steel worker, or the orphaned child. We all know that about Joe \u2013 and it\u2019s not a \u201cskill\u201d or a \u201cpolitical ploy\u201d. It\u2019s all him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Out of all of this, Biden is powering the government to one of the great legislative Presidencies. The conservatives are right \u2013 Joe Biden, fumbling, old Joe, is proposing big ideas that we haven\u2019t talked about since the Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal or Johnson\u2019s Great Society. Biden is trying to reshape America. It\u2019s about roads and bridges, trains and airplanes, broad band and electric cars. Physically America will be modernized by the Biden Administration. And whether the actual Republican Party vote for any part of it or not, Biden knows that a large majority of Americans want this. They want their highways fixed (drive through downtown lately?) and they want their utilities to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Joe Biden wants to create an America that lifts all of its people. Reagan \u201ctrickle-down\u201d economics, give money to the rich and they will spend it on the poor, doesn\u2019t work. But it has been the basis of American economic policy since Reagan took office. Clinton nibbled around the edges but made little change. Obama wanted to alter it, but found the politics of division blocked him at every turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden seems to have found a \u201cplace\u201d where he can get things done. No one \u201cexpected\u201d Biden to be successful. He was supposed to be \u201conly\u201d a transitional figure, a step from Trumpism in 2020 to the \u201cNew Progressives\u201d of 2024. But \u201cOld Joe\u201d seems to be smarter than we give him credit for. He\u2019s quietly getting things done in his own way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Franklin Roosevelt had an overwhelming majority in the Congress, and an overwhelming mandate from the American people for change. Lyndon Johnson also had a Congress and an electoral mandate, and he also was the \u201cright man\u201d, a Southern Democrat, to lead the fight for civil rights and improving urban life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Joe Biden, a man of the Senate and of the center, may have found his place in making major changes in America.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s not the \u201ccharismatic leader\u201d. He\u2019s the \u201ctranscendent legislator,\u201d letting every side get \u201csome\u201d credit, while he gets the job done.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For our time, he\u2019s the right man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And he\u2019s laughing up his sleeve as he does it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"