PRESIDENT Joe Biden: A Return to Normalcy?

[Alisamer]

9 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/07/us/politics/female-generals-promoted-biden.html?fbclid=IwAR02gig82XPUTqTIOsZGWrwpymfspxGEbsJfZ5a87onfx5pLrX7wnX6Hvrg

I think I'm with Esper and Milley on this one. There was going to be no "debate" with Fucknut. It was just going to be a straight out sabotage of these women's careers. 

You can't debate with a lump of fetid stinking cheese. It's a total waste of time.

Also, anyone else thrilled and relieved with how normally paced this thread is? No 3am firings by unhinged badly-spelled tweet, no random calls in to TV shows to brag about himself, no love letters to dictators, no attacks on government officials or celebrities including stupid nicknames or obscenities, no schedules including hours of TV watching and only minutes of actual work (if that)...

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, Alisamer said:

Also, anyone else thrilled and relieved with how normally paced this thread is? No 3am firings by unhinged badly-spelled tweet, no random calls in to TV shows to brag about himself, no love letters to dictators, no attacks on government officials or celebrities including stupid nicknames or obscenities, no schedules including hours of TV watching and only minutes of actual work (if that)...

My mom and I were talking about that the other day. I have no idea what Biden is thinking 99% of the time. I assume he's thinking of how to get the job done when he's working and his family and friends when he's not. No stupid golf games to line his pocket, no ugly screeching at reporters, nothing controversial. I also like that he's not weighing in on the dumb crap, like the Dr. Seuss nonsense. Adults ignore childish crap and just get the job done.

[church_of_dog]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

My mom and I were talking about that the other day. I have no idea what Biden is thinking 99% of the time. I assume he's thinking of how to get the job done when he's working and his family and friends when he's not. No stupid golf games to line his pocket, no ugly screeching at reporters, nothing controversial. I also like that he's not weighing in on the dumb crap, like the Dr. Seuss nonsense. Adults ignore childish crap and just get the job done.

Agree.  I do get a chuckle, though, out of the occasional pseudo-political comments on the "Oval Pawffice" twitter page, a fan page for the Bidens' dogs Champ and Major, generally written as if coming from the dogs themselves.

The posts are mostly about their life at the White House, getting pets from POTUS and FLOTUS, gleaning extra 'noms' and romping on the South Lawn, but now and there there is a post, such as the one on the evening of March 4th, saying things like "Did you notice our Dad is still President today?" 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

And zero unhinged tweets.

[GreyhoundFan]

This is a good op-ed by Paul Waldman: "Joe Biden is kryptonite to the Republican culture war"

Quote

In a House floor debate Tuesday on a measure that would strengthen labor rights, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) became visibly angry with his Republican colleagues. In a few shouted sentences, he summarized the Republican strategy Democrats find so frustrating:

Heaven forbid we pass something that’s going to help the damn workers in the United States of America! Heaven forbid we tilt the balance that has been going in the wrong direction for 50 years! We talk about pensions, you complain. We talk about the minimum wage increase, you complain. We talk about giving them the right to organize, you complain. But if we were passing a tax cut here, you’d be all getting in line to vote yes for it. Now stop talking about Dr. Seuss, and start working with us on behalf of the American workers!

But perhaps Ryan shouldn’t have been so upset. What he detailed — Republicans working assiduously on behalf of the wealthy, then feeding people culture-war silliness to generate resentment at Democrats — is an old story. It has been a fruitful formula for the GOP for decades.

But what’s so striking about this moment is how ineffectual it has become.

Why? Because Joe Biden is kryptonite to the culture war. And without a single figure on whom Republicans can focus that resentment, the link between culture and policy is broken.

On Fox News these days, among the most important issues facing America are the fate of a few obscure titles on the Dr. Seuss backlist and how prominently the “Mr.” in “Mr. Potato Head” will appear on the toy’s packaging. Meanwhile, Biden is about to sign what may be the most progressive piece of major legislation to become law since Lyndon B. Johnson was president.

The American Rescue Plan not only pours huge amounts of money on individuals and communities, it also utterly rejects the anti-government paradigm that has dominated Washington since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, a paradigm that held the past two Democratic presidents in its grip.

And it’s not just popular, it’s spectacularly popular, despite its association with Democrats (not a single Republican in either house voted for it) and the rigid partisanship of this era. This poll shows 70 percent of Americans supporting it; this poll shows approval of it at 75 percent, with Biden’s approval at a healthy 60 percent.

To call Republican opposition to the ARP anemic would be a compliment. Republicans tend to say it’s a “liberal wish list” (which is not entirely wrong), then quickly move to yet another whine about “cancel culture.”

The difference between now and 12 years ago — when we were also in the midst of an economic crisis and had just passed a large stimulus bill — couldn’t be more stark. Back then, Republican culture-war rabble-rousing was focused directly on the president, with every one of Barack Obama’s policies shunted through a prism of resentment and White status anxiety.

It was Obama’s effort to help financially destroyed homeowners that invigorated the opposition to him. In the rant that birthed the Tea Party, CNBC personality Rick Santelli shouted: “How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?”

Again and again, the president who had spent decades contemplating how to make himself unthreatening to White voters was characterized as the vehicle through which Whites would be disrespected, dislocated and disenfranchised. “Obama’s entire economic program is reparations!” Rush Limbaugh told his listeners. Policy was culture, culture was policy, and it all came together in the threat of a Black president and the change he represented.

Then in 2016, Donald Trump seized on those fears to win the presidency. It was not “economic anxiety” that pulled so many White voters toward him, it was cultural anxiety: the feeling that your way of life is receding, that popular culture rejects your values, that you’re being forced to consider the sensibilities of people you thought were beneath you on the ladder of status, and that it will only get worse.

When Trump was running against Obama and Hillary Clinton — walking embodiments of cultural change — that was one thing. But when the leader of the Democratic Party is Joe Biden, the whole enterprise of linking that cultural anxiety to policy arguments breaks down.

Biden isn’t just an older White man, though that’s critically important. He’s also someone who was long seen as the very opposite of a liberal cultural crusader, not just moderate on policy but someone who would push against social change. He’s not woke, and he sometimes gets in trouble because of it.

As president, Biden has so far shown no interest in culture war dust-ups — and unlike Obama, he can avoid being pulled into them against his will. It isn’t that there’s no longer an audience who will shake their fist along with Tucker Carlson at some piece of culture-war inanity, but the anger can’t be smoothly transferred to the president and his policies.

So while Republicans may still get their base mad about what some comp lit professor said somewhere or the prospect that a trans girl might get to play on her middle school softball team, they’re having a hard time directing that anger onto Biden and his policy agenda. Which opens up all kinds of space for him to maintain the momentum created by the ARP.

Democrats have long said that almost every part of their agenda is supported by the majority of the public, and now they can act like it. When they move to address inequality, expand access to health care, shore up the country’s infrastructure or combat climate change, they don’t need to be consumed with fear that the whole effort hinges on how resentful conservatives are about seeing interracial couples in breakfast cereal ads.

To be clear, the fact that it takes a White man to pass an ambitious liberal agenda is disturbing in a dozen ways. But right now it’s the reality. And Democrats should take advantage of it.

 

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Biden isn’t just an older White man, though that’s critically important.

You might remember how I wasn't a fan of Biden's candidacy. I actually preferred Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren. But @GreyhoundFan's article, and especially the above sentence, shows the flaw in my thinking and it lays out exactly why making Biden their candidate was actually an incredibly smart move on the part of the Democrats. I mean, can you imagine the uproar the Republicans would have made if there were a Madam President in office right now? 

So yes, it's a damn shame that it still takes an an old white man to pass an ambitious liberal agenda. But it has taken the wind out of the Republican sails. They have no ammo with which to attack him. They're left with levelling angsty accusations at companies for perceived cancel-culture, and looking incredibly stupid whilst doing so.

[Smash!]

I agree @fraurosena But he’s not just an old white man, he served in congress for a long time and was vice president. That makes him incredibly experienced and it shows. He knows exactly how to deal with the GOP shenanigans while getting his job done. I wasn’t a fan of his nomination as well but it turns out he’s the right guy to clean up this mess. I’m impressed by how he’s acting and what he’s done so far.

 

[Alisamer]

21 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

So yes, it's a damn shame that it still takes an an old white man to pass an ambitious liberal agenda. But it has taken the wind out of the Republican sails. They have no ammo with which to attack him. They're left with levelling angsty accusations at companies for perceived cancel-culture, and looking incredibly stupid whilst doing so.

I agree - while I didn't vote for Biden in the primaries I definitely voted for him during the election, and was worried some supporters of other candidates might not vote for him. 

Because I think in the long game he was probably the best, safest choice. Older white guy, experienced in politics, known to be more moderate, and therefore less scary to conservatives and Republicans willing to vote across the line. Willingly played second fiddle to Obama, which I've read endeared him to some Black voters, but still white himself so as not to frighten the racists too much. 

Just like I think the former guy's election was largely a backlash caused by racism against President Obama (combined with sexism and a widespread dislike of Hillary Clinton), I think Biden's win was helped by the fact that he is about as unthreatening an option as there was available.

And that same thing is now hurting the Republicans further... they can't really use racist and sexist dog-whistles about him like they could have against Obama and HRC, the majority of their ridiculousness seems to roll off him like water off a duck's back, and he's clearly just doing the job and not seeking constant attention. If they come out and oppose things they know the public approves of, that puts them in a bad light. That leaves them with nothing much to flail about, so they're trying to cause strife about Muppets, Mr. Potato Head, Dr. Seuss, and the Bidens' dogs. While more quietly voting against help for the American people and trying their best to make sure fewer people are able to vote against them in the future.

[Emma]

10 minutes ago, Smash! said:

I agree @fraurosena But he’s not just an old white man, he served in congress for a long time and was vice president. That makes him incredibly experienced and it shows. He knows exactly how to deal with the GOP shenanigans while getting his job done. I wasn’t a fan of his nomination as well but it turns out he’s the right guy to clean up this mess. I’m impressed by how he’s acting and what he’s done so far.

 

And this is why I’m against term limits. It takes time to build up the experience, knowledge and networks needed to get the job done. Let the term limits be decided at the ballot box.

[Alisamer]

33 minutes ago, Emma said:

And this is why I’m against term limits. It takes time to build up the experience, knowledge and networks needed to get the job done. Let the term limits be decided at the ballot box.

I respectfully disagree - I still am for term limits. Knowledge and network connections can be shared, experience counts but does it really take multiple decades in one position to get the necessary experience? 

I don't think anyone's thinking 2-year term limits here, I'm thinking more along the lines of 12-16 years or so, based on number of terms, which can be per position - no reason someone can't spend a 12 year term limit as a representative, 12 years in the senate, 4-8 years in a cabinet position, etc. I'd be willing to bet a lot of Biden's experience that's helping him comes specifically from his 8 years as VP. Frankly it might be better in terms of experience for someone to have a wider range of government experience rather than sitting in the same seat in the same position their entire working life. You could still get people with 30 years+ of experience, but it would be much easier for younger people to come in without having to face an incumbent who has been in the capitol so long they've become part of the furniture.

I'm all for experience, knowledge and networks, but I still think nobody needs to be in the same elected position for 40+ years, and definitely not in an appointed position until they literally die. Especially considering the speed at which life changes now. 

And since the Republicans specifically are actively limiting voting as much as possible in order to hold on to their positions, and have been successfully doing so for decades, I don't think deciding limits at the ballot box would currently work. In an ideal world, that would be an ideal solution, but I personally don't feel that works right now.

Also - we have term limits for the president... why should the presidency, the top position in the land, the most visible, most well known, most influential position be the only one with term limits?

[fraurosena]

What? He doesn't hold it up for all the world to see he can write his name in big, bold, almost illegible letters? What kind of president is that?

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"3 takeaways from Biden’s first prime-time address to the nation"

Quote

President Biden delivered his first prime-time address to the nation Thursday, on the anniversary of the coronavirus outbreak being labeled a pandemic and on the day he signed a $1.9 trillion relief package — the first major piece of his agenda to pass through Congress.

Below are some takeaways from Biden’s speech.

1. An Independence Day goal line — with caveats

It’s been just under a year since former president Donald Trump set an ambitious goal for moving beyond the coronavirus, aiming to have things fully open again by an upcoming holiday: Easter. That goal, as with many of Trump’s predictions and goals during the pandemic, proved to be overly optimistic.

But on Thursday, Biden gave another holiday for which to aim: July 4. Biden cast it as a chance to “not only mark our independence as a nation, but we begin to mark our independence from this virus.”

The goal is less ambitious in many ways, including in just how back-to-normal Biden aims to be. He said the goal will be to have small gatherings, rather than the “packed churches” that Trump suggested could be just around the corner.

But with patience on restrictions waning, Biden seemed to recognize the need to set a goal line for some kind of return to normalcy.

Biden also gave people another date to mark on their calendars: May 1, when he said all adults should be eligible to receive vaccinations for the virus. Biden stressed that it doesn’t necessarily mean everyone will be able to actually get one by then.

Getting people to do what they need to in the meantime — including getting vaccinated — is now the name of the game. But Biden sought to at least give them a holiday they can look forward to and hope to celebrate in a manner that’s somewhat familiar, while also making clear, repeatedly, that it will be a celebration that needs to be won.

“So for all of you asking when things will get back to normal, here is the truth: The only way to get our lives back, to get our economy back on track, is to beat the virus,” Biden said. “You’ve been hearing me say that for — while I was running and the last 50 days I’ve been president. But this is one of the most complex operations we’ve ever undertaken as a nation, in a long time.”

2. Some stern words for skeptics

Along with the call for people to do what’s needed to meet the goal for normalcy, Biden had some surprisingly stern words for skeptics of government scientists and their proposed mitigation techniques.

With some states moving away from mask mandates and many Americans — especially Republicans — still resisting even voluntary masking, Biden labeled it the “easiest thing to do to save lives,” sounding a bit exasperated while adding “sometimes it divides us.”

While encouraging people to listen to scientists, Biden also addressed the skepticism of the scientists who work for the government.

“We need to remember the government isn’t some foreign force in a distant capital,” Biden said. “No, it’s us, all of us, we the people. For you and I, that America thrives when we give our hearts, we turn our hands to common purpose.”

Biden’s speech was heavier on unity talk than these bits of somewhat tough love, but unity talk is to be expected. How Biden confronts those who resist mitigation, especially now that it’s a Democratic administration asking for it, will be one of the biggest tests from here on out. And Biden in a few moments didn’t try to sugarcoat it.

3. Pumping up his vaccine record — a bit too much

The biggest early test of his administration has been the vaccine rollout. But as has been the case before, Biden’s effort to pitch it as a success story was overstated.

Biden at one point said that two months ago, “this country didn’t have nearly enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all or even near all of the American public, but soon we will.” The vaccines were still very new at the time, though, with really no expectation that we’d have near the amount needed to vaccinate everyone when Biden came into office. Biden and the administration have in the past oversold the idea that there was no vaccine distribution plan.

Later in the speech, Biden suggested his vaccine rollout was vastly exceeding what its doubters suggested was possible.

“You may recall, I set a goal that many of you said was kind of way over the top,” Biden said. “I said I intended to get 100 million shots in people’s arms in my first hundred days in office. Tonight, I can say we’re not only going to meet that goal; we’re going to beat that goal.”

Biden has said versions of this before, but, as fact-checkers have noted, there is little evidence that there was such huge skepticism of that goal in the media when he first set it. And indeed, when Biden came into office, there had already been several days of 1 million people being vaccinated — the daily number required to hit 100 million in 100 days.

In other words, to hit the goal, he mostly just needed to keep things moving in the direction they were going. There is always some game-playing when it comes to setting expectations and then beating them, and vaccines continue to ramp up. But casting this as some unthinkable feat goes too far and detracts from legitimate claims to success.

 

[ADoyle90815]

I think Biden's 4th of July comment about having small gatherings is possible as most adults could get vaccinated in May, with the second doses in June, or for those getting the J&J one that's only one dose, people will be fully vaccinated in time.

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh no, we're approaching the Obama Tan Suitgate level...

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Biden just fired a warning shot at Mitch McConnell and Republicans"

Quote

Mark it down. President Biden has now declared in his most explicit terms yet that Democrats may soon face a stark choice: reform the filibuster or accept that their agenda is a dead letter.

At bottom, this constitutes the firing of a warning shot at Senate Republicans, especially Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Or it should, anyway: It will only matter if Biden and Democrats are actually prepared to act on it, because McConnell will proceed as if they are not.

Biden’s new comments came in an interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, in which Biden came out for reforming the filibuster. This is generating headlines, but what may be even more important is this: Biden displayed a newfound recognition of basic realities about today’s GOP — and about our politics in general — that can’t be wished away.

Here’s the key exchange:

STEPHANOPOULOS: I know you’ve been reluctant to do away with the filibuster. Aren’t you going to have to choose between preserving the filibuster and advancing your agenda?

BIDEN: Yes. But here’s the choice: I don’t think you have to eliminate the filibuster. You have to do what it used to be when I first got to the Senate … and that is, that a filibuster, you had to stand up and command the floor. … So you gotta work for the filibuster.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you’re for that reform? You’re for bringing back the talking filibuster?

BIDEN: I am.

The most important word here is “Yes.” With it, Biden voiced an awareness, perhaps more clearly than ever before, that the fate of Democrats’ agenda will likely depend on a willingness to stiffen up their spines and reform the Senate in the direction of true majority rule.

During the 2020 campaign, Biden infamously declared that if Republicans lost, they would seek “consensus” after having an “epiphany.”

This suggested a conviction that any GOP intention to adopt a scorched earth strategy similar to that of 2009 — which employed the filibuster to deliberately withhold bipartisan cooperation for purely instrumental purposes — then it would be overwhelmed by the shock of electoral defeat. Biden also vowed to secure Republican cooperation, implying lingering faith in a glad-handing bipartisan give-and-take out of a long-vanished time.

After Biden’s win, of course, Republicans denied it had happened for weeks, and many joined an effort to nullify that outcome.

On ABC News, Biden also indulged in more of that sort of talk, declaring: “I think the epiphany is going to come between now and 2022.” Whether Biden really believes this, it’s now packaged with an explicit declaration that Democrats really might have to target the filibuster or see their agenda perish.

In this juxtaposition a rhetorical structure is taking shape that might create a path to get to that point.

How Democrats might get to reform

Adam Jentleson, a former senior Senate aide who has written a good book on the need for Senate reform, notes that when former Senate majority leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) nixed the filibuster on judicial nominees in 2013, it only came after a long process of extensive GOP obstruction.

“A change of this magnitude only happens if it’s helped along by structural shifts in the way people are approaching politics,” Jentleson told me. “In 2013, it was unrelenting Republican obstruction over years that made change inevitable.”

Jentleson said the same is happening now, but more quickly, because many Democrats came into this Congress expecting a repeat of 2009. We’ve also had years of public debate over the filibuster, which has punctured the mythology surrounding it, particularly that it facilitates bipartisanship, when the truth is the opposite.

So when Biden suggested in 2020 that he’d cajole Republicans into working with him, it seemed frustratingly oblivious to that intellectual progress. But that posture might also help create a route forward.

As a creature of the Senate with obvious affection for the institution, Biden can continue to express a hope for bipartisan cooperation above all — while also suggesting that if it doesn’t materialize, Democrats might have to prioritize the survival of their agenda and support reform for the good of the institution itself.

“Part of the reason Biden is going to be able to get this done is that he has enormous credibility on the matter,” Jentleson told me. “When he comes to the American people and says, ‘We have no choice but to do this,’ people will believe him.”

If Democratic filibuster reform opponents — like Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — are ever going to evolve, this is how it might happen.

Indeed, as Jonathan Bernstein suggests, by floating bringing back the talking filibuster, Biden may be appealing to Manchin, who has himself suggested this. It’s unclear how much this change would do, but by supporting Manchin’s version of reform, Biden may slowly nudge him toward supporting an end to the filibuster, if and when it becomes clear — even to Manchin — that the Democratic agenda depends on it.

A deeper rethink?

Regardless, we have to hope Biden’s new comments suggest he’s rethinking some deeper convictions.

First, Biden plainly believed that Republicans would be responsive in some sense to a popular majority electing Democrats and their agenda. Second, he also seemed to believe that as a result, Republicans would end up being motivated by a good faith desire to find common ground in the public interest, rather than responding to that majority repudiation by doubling down on anti-majoritarian tactics and revanchism.

Everything we’re seeing now confirms that Republicans are radicalizing in that latter direction. So if Biden is rethinking those original expectations, that would really constitute the sort of warning shot that Republicans should worry about.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

It's fun to see the little things coming back:

 

[tsukinokawa]

On 3/15/2021 at 9:15 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

Oh no, we're approaching the Obama Tan Suitgate level...

 

fun fact: peloton in my language means "fearless" 

[Bluebirdbluebell]

I'm really depressed by the thought that our country didn't hit rock bottom with Trump, we still have farther to sink, and nothing really changes. This last mass shooting is reminder for me that our country is incredibly volatile and we could have more violence, etc. It's really upsetting. 

What is going to take for our country to turn it's self around and commit to ending mass shootings and become more peaceful, and commit to fighting climate change, etc.?

[Becky]

13 hours ago, Bluebirdbluebell said:

I'm really depressed by the thought that our country didn't hit rock bottom with Trump, we still have farther to sink, and nothing really changes. This last mass shooting is reminder for me that our country is incredibly volatile and we could have more violence, etc. It's really upsetting. 

What is going to take for our country to turn it's self around and commit to ending mass shootings and become more peaceful, and commit to fighting climate change, etc.?

I hear you. Here's a hug from an internet stranger.  

I know it can be overwhelmingly sad and discouraging.  For me, it helps to spend time in nature, and to take regular breaks from news media.  I also remind myself that the vast majority of people in the country and the world, even those with whom I disagree, are people just trying to live life.  Shine your light!

[Alisamer]

On 3/21/2021 at 6:17 PM, Bluebirdbluebell said:

What is going to take for our country to turn it's self around and commit to ending mass shootings and become more peaceful, and commit to fighting climate change, etc.?

Cram all the gun nuts and Trumpsters into Texas and let them secede? No offense, Texas. 

That was partly sarcastic and partly fatalism. I made the mistake of looking at the comments on a positive news story about the Covid vaccine. There really are thousands of people out there who think Covid is fake, the vaccine is dangerous/will change your DNA/has a microchip in it/doesn't work. There are millions who think Trump did a good job. Even some people I know to be otherwise caring, compassionate people somehow did enough mental gymnastics to vote for the former guy.

At this point we really may be beyond help. Better education would be a step forward, but that'll take years to come to fruition if it's even possible with Republicans all over fighting against any sort of real education for children. 

It's disheartening. I'm at the point of choosing to do what I can, even if it's small, and otherwise take care of myself. I like @Beckys idea to spend more time in nature. I've recently become interested in the possibility of hiking - I'll have to take it super slow and work my way up to something actually resembling a hike, but yesterday I made an actual step toward that goal - I found some trekking poles at a thrift store for $5!

[fraurosena]

47 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

At this point we really may be beyond help. Better education would be a step forward, but that'll take years to come to fruition if it's even possible with Republicans all over fighting against any sort of real education for children. 

I agree that education is a must, but will take much too long for it to take any effect. What will have immediate effect would be to shut down rightwing propaganda machines like Fox News who perpetuate the narrative that protecting gun rights is far more important than protecting lives. 

Change the narrative, and you change what people think.

[Xan]

The Fairness Doctrine was established by the FCC in 1949 and was eliminated in 1987.  I think we need to bring it back.  There are just too many sources that are pure echo chambers and vast numbers of people in this country who never hear the other side.

[GreyhoundFan]

Sadly, the GQP/NRA members of the senate will doom these important bills:

 

[clueliss]

Missouri AG Schmitt (among others) is suing the Biden Administration (let's just note that Eric Schmitt just announced he was running for Blunt's Senate seat)

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Gee, building from the bottom instead of the freaking repug "trickle down", I bet reagan is turning over in his grave.