THOUGHTS ON THE NEW ADMINISTRATION’S AGENDA: A LITTLE ADVICE FROM FRIENDS

 

In a month, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. takes the oath of office as the 46^th President of the United States and Kamala Devi Harris the oath as the 49^th Vice President of the United States.  She becomes the first woman to hold either office.

They take over at a difficult, perilous time. A once-in-a-century pandemic rages, accompanied by devastating economic consequences. The country remains politically and racially divided as killings by police of African Americans continue and criminal justice reform remains undone. Climate change poses an existential threat to the entire planet. Biden and Harris have plenty to do and we have some advice for them on their agenda.

COVID, COVID, COVID
Biden has long acknowledged subduing the Coronavirus pandemic would represent his first and most pressing challenge. It’s difficult not to view the leadership void on COVID-19 as the Trump Administration’s greatest failure. As to Biden’s challenge, we recognize that not only did Trump fail through inaction (e.g., never effectively using the Defense Production Act) and lies (“We’re turning the corner.”), he made things worse by poisoning the well with the public in ways that will make Biden’s job more difficult. 

Biden thinks (correctly) we can tamp down the virus through measures like mask wearing and social distancing until vaccines essentially eviscerate the disease. Because of Trump’s politicization of mask wearing and social distancing, Biden will have difficulty getting buy-in on sacrifices that fight the virus in the interregnum between now and widespread vaccine distribution next spring and summer.

By tying vaccine development to his re-election campaign, Trump made some think vaccines now being rolled out were rushed for political purposes. Combine that with a growing, general anti-vax crowd and skepticism about medical researchers based on history in the black community, not as many people may take a vaccine as needed for complete effectiveness.

Biden must enlist every political icon (former Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama say they’ll get vaccinated publicly), celebrity, community leader, and trusted religious figure in encouraging vaccination and adherence to the measures still needed for suppressing the virus. Without beating COVID-19, Biden can’t get the economy going. He must push for a new stimulus/relief package from Congress. Yes, we know Mitch McConnell will likely stand in the way, but Biden must make clear to the American people who stands with whom. A president who pushes for what many Americans need so badly could make a difference. Biden can show there remains that thing called the “bully pulpit.” 

Race
At some point, every American president gets an exam question on race. Nearly all fail. Biden has a unique opportunity because, based on the protests last summer, much of the country seems ready to try. The old political barriers remain, but that’s no excuse for inaction. We see several legislative approaches Biden should support and push for:
·    enactment of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act (it’s already passed the House);
·    revising many of the actions taken in the 1994 crime bill Biden played a role in passing, emphasizing reducing incarceration for minor drug offenses;
·    limiting criminal and civil immunity in police shooting cases;
·    ending no-knock warrants; and
·    reform measures that would foster increased use of psychologists and social workers, not police officers, in certain domestic situations and other encounters that often lead to police shootings.

State and local governments probably can accomplish more on some of these things, but federal legislation could establish goals and guidelines.

We also think there’s merit in dusting off President Clinton’s “National Conversation on Race” idea. We have an open mind about what form such an effort should take. We know one thing: if we won’t talk about a problem as big, as morally important as this, it won’t ever get solved.

Climate
We’ve written on this a few times, but not enough. We promise we’ll do better. This year – this awful 2020— demonstrated the issue’s importance. Wildfires in the west, storm damage in the middle of the country, and hurricanes and tropical storms in the Southeast and on the Gulf Coast represent the most visible examples of the gravity of the climate change problem.  At least now we have a president who doesn’t deny the science and accepts that not much time remains for addressing the problem.

Biden has taken two steps we heartily endorse. He says he’ll immediately put the United States back into the Paris Climate Accord. This signals the new administration’s seriousness about making America a major participant in anti-climate change efforts. 

Second, Biden has named former State Secretary John Kerry his special climate advisor. Kerry knows this issue well and will sit on the National Security Council since climate change constitutes a national security issue.

We suggest an “all of the above” climate 

approach that advocates multiple ideas. Some special interest will fight every climate proposal. Even corporations professing

support for action on climate change present much different ideas than climate activists. The administration, therefore, should not hang its hat on any one solution. It will lose legal, legislative, and administrative battles, so it needs a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach. We see this problem as so big and so important; Biden must remain creative and push every idea that might do some good.  

       What advice would you offer on the Biden-Harris agenda? 

    

THE BIDEN-HARRIS WIN: LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD

 

Joe Biden has won the 2020 presidential

election. With the declaration Friday, November 6, three days after the election, that Biden won Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes the toxic Donald Trump presidency finally ends. The victory of Biden and his running mate, California Senator

Kamala Harris, means for the first time the United States has elected a woman to one of its two highest offices. Those are the facts, but hardly the whole story.

For all the encouragement we take from the fact Trump is on his way out, we recognize

Trumpism likely isn’t dead. He won over 70,000,000 votes with the counting continuing, and his party may control the senate, depending on what happens in the Georgia Senate runoff elections. Republicans unexpectedly picked up seats in the House. In the immediate aftermath of the election, Trump fired off a long list of false claims some broadcast networks wouldn’t air.

His team launched a plethora of lawsuits that appear meritless. In short, he’s up to all his old tricks. The full-throated rejection of Trump and his enablers we’d hoped for didn’t happen.

The nation may face four years of divided government in which gridlock appears the

most likely characteristic of life in Washington. The fact Biden and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell know each other well offered a glimmer of hope for deal making, but McConnell’s inherent capacity for

obstructionism left most saying, “Don’t hold your breath.”  Whatever lies ahead, the election results left a bitter aftertaste that requires addressing on several fronts.

 

The White Folks Problem

We don’t have all the numbers yet, so precisely analyzing the demographic aspects of the 2020 election must wait.  What we know is that Trump again won a strong majority of white voters, 57% in one set of exit polls. In 2016, we gave these voters a pass since few

knew what Trump was, the Democratic candidate was the roundly unpopular Hillary Clinton, and Trump had no meaningful public record. We can’t give them such a pass in 2020.

Since 2016, Trump has revealed himself for what he is – a racist, white nationalist who disdains the brown nation the United States increasingly becomes each day.  Trump’s opponent this time went into the election with a positive favorability rating. He’s assembled a record as president littered with racist acts and statements no one can credibly claim they don’t understand. Given that, we must ask, what are the white people who supported Trump voting for?

The answer, we’re afraid, lies in a hateful impulse against demographic change. Given Trump’s record, statements, and approach, we assume white people who voted for him, at the very least, prefer arresting the progress of the last fifty or so years toward a just, equal society. This not-so-charitable view of white Trump voters will no doubt earn us blowback. But what other conclusion can we draw? Do we completely disbelieve our eyes and ears?  We choose not to do that.  Sometimes life requires harsh judgments.      

 

The Black Men Problem

Many have been disappointed that Trump

increased his share of the African-American vote, almost entirely due to support he got from black men.  Again, the numbers aren’t conclusive yet, but one exit poll suggested Trump received as much as 20% of the black male vote. African-American women remained the Democratic Party’s most reliable constituent group, voting for Biden around 92%. Of course, some people are asking why so many black men voted for Trump.

 

The benign, respectable explanations center on (1) Trump‘s attacks on Biden’s support for the 1994 crime bill that resulted in mass incarceration of black men for minor drug offenses; (2) Biden’s selection of a former prosecutor as his running mate; and (3) Trump’s supposed expertise in business and entrepreneurship. This line of reasoning makes a credible argument for those wishing not to state cruder explanations. Woodson finds these explanations credible and feels that it is asking a lot to expect Black men to support any candidate at a margin greater than 82 percent. In Woodson’s view, it is entirely

credible for Black men to require Biden to prove to them that his support for the 1994 crime bill was a “mistake” as he has claimed. Rob feels no compulsion to avoid harsher judgements. He thinks that some African-American men find appealing Trump’s bullying,

misogynistic style, with its underlying philosophy grounded in patriarchy and homophobia. He doesn’t enjoy saying that, but thinks it may be true based on anecdotal evidence we’ve each collected in barbershops and on ball fields. Henry believes both explanations bear further consideration. For him, the interplay between the two may be more complex and he does not wish to draw a

conclusion now. There’s been a lot of talk about how America needs racial healing. And we agree that it does. But, according to Rob, the male vote suggests black America, too, has some internal work it must do on itself.

The Latino Problem

Biden may have lost Florida and Texas because of his under-performance among

Hispanic voters. He got a lot fewer votes in Miami-Dade County, Florida than Hillary Clinton did.  He also got a lot fewer votes in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas than Clinton did. Biden’s aides pointed out his success with Latino voters in Arizona and Nevada.  Fair enough, but the weakness in Florida and Texas illustrated that he didn’t invest in a comprehensive strategy that took into consideration all aspects of the Hispanic vote.

The notion of demographic change fueling a permanent Democratic majority in presidential elections has always rested on the party’s nominee getting a huge share of the Latino vote. The 2020 election demonstrated Democrats don’t fully understand all the nuance involved in courting the Hispanic electorate. That must get fixed – and soon.       

We had hoped the 2020 results would produce euphoria. The elongated count, the pandemic, and apparently not winning the U.S. Senate prevented that. But, getting rid of Trump is no small feat, especially given the demographic factors we’ve laid out here. After the last four years, let us not take our blessings lightly.