With Donald Trump now focused on how he exits the White House some way that does not lead to the Big House, Democrats turn to what a Joe Biden administration might do to improve people’s lives.
“To me the most important thing that Biden is up against is understanding the economy and this America through the eyes of young people,” Paola Ramos told MSNBC’s “AM Joy.” Millennials and Gen Z voters, especially people of color, are suffering the most under the Trump pandemic, Ramos believes. Racism, social justice and COVID-19 are foremost on their minds. More so than the economy, she insists. Policies alone will not convince them to invest themselves in an America they see failing them.
This is a “spiritual question” for Anand Giridharadas. “Does someone like Joe Biden, who radiates personal decency, and who is made personal decency the lodestar of the campaign … is he willing to fight for structural decency?” he asks, echoing concerns Ramos expressed. “Because. unfortunately, personal decency doesn’t actually get rid of anybody’s medical debt, doesn’t actually get anybody relief from the many overlapping sources of pain.”
Newly elected Republicans sound the same as old elected Republicans such as former Sen. Roy Blunt, observes James Downie of the Washington Post. Blunt arose during a period when Republicans trashed an economy left in decent shape by a Democrat. Now Biden has to clean up after another Republican who trashed an improving economy.
But this Capitol two-step is not progress of the kind either Ramos or Giridharadas seek. It will not itself end minority rule under Republicans whose legislative imperative is plunder. Nor will it address inequalities built into the system. The country needs transformational, structural change more than just another cycle of economic repair.
Too many Democrats have blamed Mitch McConnell for too long for failing in that, says Giridharadas. Biden needs to demonstrate he gets that not only by being decent himself but by fighting for structural decency. Even Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York gets Democrats’ need to go big, beyond the milquetoast policies of its recent past. But he’ll need a majority in the Senate to do it, Schumer hedges, and he’s right. But Democrats get no credit for talking big in the abstract and delivering small in reality.
Talk is cheap. So are show votes. Fighting like they mean it even if they fail will gain Democrats more street cred than big talk backed by excuses.