Steve McGookinWhen Major General William Walker, the first black Sergeant at Arms in the history of the US House of Representatives, announced President Joe Biden’s arrival in the Senate chamber on Wednesday night, it was the first of back-to-back moments of symbolism before the president’s speech had even started.
After walking down the aisle of the sparsely occupied room, Biden took his place on a dais already occupied by Vice-President Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi – the first time a president had been flanked by two women for such an address.
On the 99th day of his presidency, Biden brought a bold, ambitious policy agenda for helping Americans suffering from the effects of the pandemic to this joint session of Congress. It wasn’t technically a State of the Union Address, since presidents don’t give them during their first year in office, but this speech offered a roadmap to how his administration’s priorities are likely to play out. Coming later than most presidents’ initial Congressional addresses, it also acted as a progress report on the new administration’s mission to reverse the effects of the past four years.
Standing on the site of the infamous January 6th insurrection – for which his predecessor was impeached for the second time – Biden talked of the need to preserve democracy. Autocrats abroad, he said, “look at the images of the mob that assaulted the Capitol as proof that the sun is setting on American democracy.”
“They are wrong. And we have to prove them wrong,” he said. “We have to prove democracy still works. That our government still works – and can deliver for the people.”
Before a socially-distanced audience of just 200 people (compared to the 1,600 or so who usually crowd into the chamber for such events) the President spelled out his vision. Susan Glasser writes at The New Yorker:
“For just over an hour, Biden dazzled with the prospect of an American utopia – a stark contrast to the dystopian reality of our plague year just past. He spoke of “the largest jobs plan since World War II,” universal preschool, of “meeting the climate crisis,” and of the “chance to root out systemic racism that plagues America”; he called for gun control and immigration reform and cutting the prices on prescription drugs. He pushed for raising the minimum wage and equal pay for women and family and medical leave.
“Beyond a populist promise of higher taxes on wealthy corporations and people making more than four hundred thousand dollars a year, Biden did not mention the multi-trillion-dollar price tag that would come with his proposals. Nor did he talk about the remote chance of passage that so much of this agenda has on Capitol Hill, where, despite the general popularity of many of his proposals, gridlock prevails and the political reality is a fifty-fifty Senate. For the past four years, Donald Trump used his speeches to sell alternate realities to his supporters. Here, at last, was an alternate reality that Democrats could get behind.”
And, it seems, not just Democrats.
The latest opinion polls show strong approval for Biden’s performance during his first 100 days, as well as broad support among all Americans for his handling of the Coronavirus stimulus and infrastructure programmes, with – significantly – many Republican voters indicating that they agree with Biden that “trickle-down economics” has never worked.
According to CNBC, a Monmouth poll published on Monday found that nearly two-thirds of respondents back the infrastructure plan, as well as the idea of paying for it, in part, by hiking the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%.
“Nearly half of those polled by Monmouth said the federal government isn’t spending enough on transportation infrastructure, 49%, compared with 23% who said the government is spending the right amount and 14% who said it’s spending too much.”
According to Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post, the polls – although obviously transient snapshots – make worrying reading for Republicans.
Also significantly, the 78-year-old president who polled poorly among young people aged 18-29 during the Democratic primaries, now has the highest approval among the same demographic for more than two decades.
To add insult to injury, Republicans’ warnings of dire economic consequences from a Biden agenda have not yet materialized. The US economy grew at an annual rate of 6.4% in the last quarter, driven by government stimulus and increased consumer activity, while Biden’s 100-day stock market performance is the best of any president since the 1950s.
Can Republicans fight back?
But it’s not all plain sailing for Biden – and not necessarily just because veteran Democratic strategist James Carville thinks his party has a problem with “wokeness.”
As the White House tries to redefine “bipartisanship” to emphasise the appeal of their policies outside Washington, for now, the GOP can only try to oppose his agenda as best they can by chipping away at the process through obstruction in a precariously-balanced Senate. It is all the more remarkable that Biden’s initial agenda is so ambitious given a 50-50 Senate that relies on the casting vote of the Vice-President.
That dynamic can, of course, change overnight should a member become incapacitated or worse, and also assumes that the Democrats can consistently keep their own caucus intact. Biden will undoubtedly come under pressure from progressives on his left over issues like student debt, while West Virginia Sen Joe Manchin looks likely to be a stumbling block over the infrastructure plan.
But sooner or later it appears a battle is looming over the filibuster – the machinery that requires ten minority votes to pass legislation that cannot be advanced under budget reconciliation, like, for example the Democrats’ sweeping voting rights bill, for which Senate leader Chuck Schumer has suggested an August deadline.
The Republican party’s official response to Biden’s speech on Wednesday night was presented by Sen Tim Scott , but as Karen Tumulty writes, “in truth, none of what Scott had to say mattered. The larger, more defining message being delivered to the Republican base is the conspiracy-mongering that their leaders continue to foment.”
Republicans discussed their strategies for opposing Biden at their Florida retreat this past weekend, but with the specter of former President Donald Trump continuing to hang over the party, there is still a debilitating leadership vacuum.
The GOP may have been hoping for a boost in their electoral aspirations from this week’s census outcomes which saw California and New York both lose a Congressional seat – the west coast state for the first time in its history – while Texas and Florida each added seats.
Their focus even now is turning to the hugely important 2022 midterms, which could prove to be not just a struggle for control of Congress, but for control of the GOP ahead of the 2024 presidential cycle.
The ‘most honest closing line’
In all, President Biden gave a simple, sincere speech with his characteristic humility which, as MSNBC‘s Brian Williams observed, was made more dramatic by his voice dropping almost to a whisper as he delivered key lines to a chamber where the lack of a physical audience heightened the intimacy and impact.
Such forthrightness, what the New York Times described as a “pep talk to the nation in still-unusual times”, could prove to be a template for Democrats contesting those increasingly crucial midterms. He was also praised for the “most honest closing line” of any presidential address.
The speech drew comparisons to both LBJ and FDR in its progressive ambition, and to Dwight D. Eisenhower in terms of its reconstructive focus on infrastructure.
On Thursday, Biden was in Georgia – the state that clinched Democratic control of the Senate – to meet with former President Jimmy Carter, whom Biden endorsed in the race for the White House in 1976.
“He showed us throughout his entire life what it means to be a public servant,” Biden recently said of the 96-year-old, 39th President.
It’s a description that could just as easily apply to himself.
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See Also:
After Trump, What Lies Ahead For The GOP?
From The Big Lie To A Great Undoing
Biden – Finally – Wins Presidency
Also published on Medium.
