This is the best article I have ever read since Biden's inauguration. As a 19-year-old, two-time Bernie voter, I am witnessing this divide amongst my progressive friends and family. I proudly admit that Biden has far exceeded my expectations He is also giving the progressive wing a serious political platform in his administration. However, many are still skeptical and commit to what I believe are petty (and harmful) efforts in order to punch holes in his policies that great overall (1400 vs 2000, etc). I will admit that I am still pretty disappointed by Biden's relatively weak $15 minimum wage push, but to act like the $1.9T stimulus was not one of the most progressive bills passed in modern US history is ridiculous. I believe it is crucial to give credit where credit is due, regardless of the politician, and to not just attack Biden because you're still sore about the 2020 primary results. Thanks for this excellent article Noah!
Noah's post here comes off to me as quite Political Journalist Brained.
It emphasizes inside-baseball questions of political intrigues within US political cliques, instead of the substantive consequences of policy. Sure, there are some references to the latter. But a vibe I'm getting — and I hope it's just in my head, as vibes often are — is basically "can't believe leftists are threatening to discredit themselves in the center's eyes by giving a shit about foreigners' lives".
I also reckon that Noah's overrating Biden's left-wing policy achievements. Supposedly "Biden is bringing the most transformational progressive agenda since LBJ", a claim justified by pointing to:
• "rejoining the Paris climate talks" (a return to the Obama-era status quo ante),
• "canceling the Keystone pipeline" (a return to the Obama-era status quo ante),
• "ending the Muslim Ban" (a return to the Obama-era status quo ante),
• "and much more" (like what?),
• "a huge $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill" (Bush, Obama, and Trump all signed big relief bills into law),
• and a bunch of stuff that hasn't happened yet (permanent, unconditional child allowance; "big immigration bill"; "minimum wage"; "green infrastructure bill").
That is, the Bringing The Most Progressive Agenda claim rests entirely on stuff Biden has yet to do, and on stuff that retreads Obama-era policy! What Biden's done can only be called The Most Progressive Agenda Since LBJ if we pretend the Obama-Biden administration never happened. Noah laughs off The Left's predictions in general based on one Jacobin article, yet the most impressive Biden stuff Noah can cite perfectly fits this left-winger's expectation that Biden'll run a 3rd Obama administration!
I've seen Biden's online defenders cite how briefly he's been in office as a reason why actual left-wingers should hold their fire. Well, maybe, but the flip side is that Biden and his defenders have far fewer accomplishments to point to in his defense. If left-wingers aren't allowed to attack Biden with cynical predictions about Biden's future behavior, centrists aren't allowed to defend Biden with starry-eyed predictions about Biden's future behavior. And his track record to date is Obama 2.0, not LBJ 2.0, if that's all we may go by.
The left is already splintered. On the one you have people like Jimmy Dore who are grifters. They really don't care about policy, only about gaining a following. On the other hand you have the Squad, Justice Democrats, the Sunrise movement, DSA. They are interested in getting stuff done. They will be disappointed by Biden's foreign policy but will be happy with any progressive victory and will push for more steps towards action on climate change, growth of renewable energy, an increase in the minimum wage, protecting voting rights and labor law reform like the PRO act.
This is so thoroughly dishonest. I would love nothing more than for racist uncle Joe to prove me wrong, be FDR 2.0 and make democrats dominant for a generation. If you think the average poor voter in Georgia follows politics closely enough to know that "as soon as you elect them, I'll send you $2k checks" actually means that Biden is going to start the negotiations at $1400 and you might get the checks in 3 or 4 months you need to get out and talk to more voters. Speaking of that, I know dozens of people who went door to door in Georgia making promises of $2k checks to their friends and neighbors for voting, who feel completely hung out to dry.
Please tell me where you get your drugs because I would love to be so I high I thought that Biden refusing to so much as try; much less fight for $15 and implying that only Harvard grads have student debt makes him some progressive icon. Rolling out COVID relief would have been a great thing to pair with Student debt cancellation, So of course he didn't. Not to mention he is even failing at trivially easy wins like refusing to follow through his campaign promise to drop the appeal to SCOTUS in which DOJ seeks to continue excluding Puerto Rican's from SSI.
As usual Democrats will try their too clever by half games and come up with a million reasons why they couldn't just push through wildly popular policies that benefit average people. But I'm sure anything they do pass will be intentionally confusing, means tested, and stigmatizing for anyone who uses it.
Seriously though, I have no tolerance for giving politicians undue praise after sitting through 8 years of Obama hagiography while watching him intentionally maximizing the number of foreclosures on poor people, oversee the largest loss of black wealth in history, expand drone wars, turn the African country with the highest HDI into an open air slave market, and categorically refuse to prosecute his campaign donors for blowing up the economy. If this follows NYT and WaPo into unrestrained Biden boosterism for running the same tired democrat playbook count me out.
Criticizing Biden is not just for shits and giggles. It's very simple. We just want to push for more change. We would not have made the progress we have already made without criticizing the democratic establishment and pushing for more.
The media in particular should always be criticizing because they should be watchdogs for the powerful
My point of view is just one data point, but I don't think that as a Leftist my main concerns are spending more on welfare and returning to Obama-era climate and immigration stances. People like me want an actually transformed system. Federal minimum wage will not be raised to $15, because Joe Manchin and others will tank it, and Biden surely knows this and knows that he can safely pitch this policy as "red meat" to people like me safe in the knowledge it won't actually become law. Meanwhile health insurance premiums are still insanely high and if I don't have an employer in the S&P 500 and I'm not poor enough to be on the admittedly excellent Medicaid (that is, in a state that expanded it under Obamacare) then I'm really still SOL for healthcare. The infrastructure thing, if it happens, will certainly earn my praise. But that's a big if. So far nothing Biden has done is remotely stunning to me. Still voted for him though, and I hope the next 3.75 years will change my mind.
I don't know if triangulation is the right way to think about it. There have been concrete ways that the White House has reached out to progressives to let them have a seat at the table as discussed here.
As a card carrying neoliberal, this is the hippie punching I gladly paid for
On a more reasonable note, I don’t think one can emphasize enough that for people who have made leftist activism a lifestyle, there is nothing, nada, zilch that Biden could do in any possible world that would satisfy these people. Based on personal experience interacting with them both online and off, He could abolish private property and guillotine everyone with a >0 net worth and they would still find some reason to complain; it absolutely is a cult of personality
Well written. However as someone with two young kids who will not be receiving the child credits, let me assure you it's not "unconditional". I get your meaning wrt welfare work requirements though.
Anyway, the bigger question for the future of political cohesion here is which priority the Left actually wants to be tackled first, and whether there's a deal to be made with Manchin and Sinema for it. Is that Infrastructure? Might be the easiest sale, but will it appease? Is it voting rights - demanded by the social Left but not the economic Left quote as much? Some doubt whether Manchin and Sinema would spend their political capital on that. And so on.
Basically, for this analysis to hold value, it needs to be able to predict the ordering of moves of the administration as it attempts to keep its promises. At least in broad strokes. Otherwise we're just retconning the model to fit what happens, and so we haven't learned anything.
Some people considered me a leftist because I harshly criticized Bill Clinton and more moderately criticized Hillary, and in fact I abstained from voting in 2016 in protest. I regretted not voting for all of 2020. Where do I stand now? I’m very happy with Biden. I think he’s living up to my wishes. I have no criticism as of now. I’d like him to stay pretty harsh on the foreign policy issues, and despite being left out of his stimulus, I applaud him for getting it done. I’m not playing games. Long term I want more viable political parties because I don’t want to get burned again by another Clintonesque opportunist, but Biden is doing well.
The English aristocracy did this for centuries: wait until the pressure for change became irresistible, then Stop Resisting. Give enough ground to buy a few decades of relative tranquillity. It seems obvious, but as any French or Russian citizen could tell you, is not an easy strategy to pull off in practice. Easier if you have something resembling a functional democracy, but still not straightforward. Biden seems to be using his brain -- either the one in his own head, or the collective thought of his advisers.
- Admittedly, I was a Bernie-bro who wanted "Biden to lose". But, I gotta say I've done a 180: Bernie's still my dude, but I'm a bit of a Biden-booster now.
- I wonder how much of the factionalism is dependent on whether you went to college or not. There's a pseudo-intellectualism to a lot of the twitter stuff bourn out of learning sociological concepts/ big words in college.
If leftists focus on foreign policy, an issue of waning concern to most Americans, they will continue to write themselves out of any meaningful national dialogue.
They *can* still influence Biden's domestic policy, even if they 'agree' with it. Like AOC said, the $1400 is great; more would be better.
And that's their job -- to push the White House to be more ambitious. As FDR said, "I agree with you; now go out there and make me do it."
So what's their best strategy? I'm not sure, but I can tell you what the *worst* strategy is: to question people's motives; to smear them when they don't align with your preferred policy. It's fine to say that a Biden initiative is not enough; it's not fine to say that this proves they're neoliberal whores for corporations.
So much of the justification for providing 1400 to top up 600 months previously which even the most modest familiarity with economics would allow one to perceive is not at all like a 2000 lump sum especially for poor who are often forced to pay usurious rates on loans concern the need to and morality of using the threat of extreme want to prevent workers from withholding their labor for better wages and working conditions. These are ideological justifications that Biden has employed for decades and will continue to do for the remainder of his presidency.
The left would do far better to continue to argue that employment contracts should be voluntary and that the government at the very least should not have as policy to add to the already disproportionate bargaining power of employers.
While the left should add to Biden's voice when he advances our values such as supporting the right of Amazon workers to unionize he still embraces policies that both directly oppose the ability of workers to bargain on an equal footing with employers for truly voluntary contracts and are extremely unpopular. Those should still be our main focus.
This is the best article I have ever read since Biden's inauguration. As a 19-year-old, two-time Bernie voter, I am witnessing this divide amongst my progressive friends and family. I proudly admit that Biden has far exceeded my expectations He is also giving the progressive wing a serious political platform in his administration. However, many are still skeptical and commit to what I believe are petty (and harmful) efforts in order to punch holes in his policies that great overall (1400 vs 2000, etc). I will admit that I am still pretty disappointed by Biden's relatively weak $15 minimum wage push, but to act like the $1.9T stimulus was not one of the most progressive bills passed in modern US history is ridiculous. I believe it is crucial to give credit where credit is due, regardless of the politician, and to not just attack Biden because you're still sore about the 2020 primary results. Thanks for this excellent article Noah!
Noah's post here comes off to me as quite Political Journalist Brained.
It emphasizes inside-baseball questions of political intrigues within US political cliques, instead of the substantive consequences of policy. Sure, there are some references to the latter. But a vibe I'm getting — and I hope it's just in my head, as vibes often are — is basically "can't believe leftists are threatening to discredit themselves in the center's eyes by giving a shit about foreigners' lives".
I also reckon that Noah's overrating Biden's left-wing policy achievements. Supposedly "Biden is bringing the most transformational progressive agenda since LBJ", a claim justified by pointing to:
• "rejoining the Paris climate talks" (a return to the Obama-era status quo ante),
• "canceling the Keystone pipeline" (a return to the Obama-era status quo ante),
• "ending the Muslim Ban" (a return to the Obama-era status quo ante),
• "and much more" (like what?),
• "a huge $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill" (Bush, Obama, and Trump all signed big relief bills into law),
• and a bunch of stuff that hasn't happened yet (permanent, unconditional child allowance; "big immigration bill"; "minimum wage"; "green infrastructure bill").
That is, the Bringing The Most Progressive Agenda claim rests entirely on stuff Biden has yet to do, and on stuff that retreads Obama-era policy! What Biden's done can only be called The Most Progressive Agenda Since LBJ if we pretend the Obama-Biden administration never happened. Noah laughs off The Left's predictions in general based on one Jacobin article, yet the most impressive Biden stuff Noah can cite perfectly fits this left-winger's expectation that Biden'll run a 3rd Obama administration!
I've seen Biden's online defenders cite how briefly he's been in office as a reason why actual left-wingers should hold their fire. Well, maybe, but the flip side is that Biden and his defenders have far fewer accomplishments to point to in his defense. If left-wingers aren't allowed to attack Biden with cynical predictions about Biden's future behavior, centrists aren't allowed to defend Biden with starry-eyed predictions about Biden's future behavior. And his track record to date is Obama 2.0, not LBJ 2.0, if that's all we may go by.
Well pulled the trigger and became a subscriber - really enjoying the newsletter - budget be dammed!
The left is already splintered. On the one you have people like Jimmy Dore who are grifters. They really don't care about policy, only about gaining a following. On the other hand you have the Squad, Justice Democrats, the Sunrise movement, DSA. They are interested in getting stuff done. They will be disappointed by Biden's foreign policy but will be happy with any progressive victory and will push for more steps towards action on climate change, growth of renewable energy, an increase in the minimum wage, protecting voting rights and labor law reform like the PRO act.
This is so thoroughly dishonest. I would love nothing more than for racist uncle Joe to prove me wrong, be FDR 2.0 and make democrats dominant for a generation. If you think the average poor voter in Georgia follows politics closely enough to know that "as soon as you elect them, I'll send you $2k checks" actually means that Biden is going to start the negotiations at $1400 and you might get the checks in 3 or 4 months you need to get out and talk to more voters. Speaking of that, I know dozens of people who went door to door in Georgia making promises of $2k checks to their friends and neighbors for voting, who feel completely hung out to dry.
Please tell me where you get your drugs because I would love to be so I high I thought that Biden refusing to so much as try; much less fight for $15 and implying that only Harvard grads have student debt makes him some progressive icon. Rolling out COVID relief would have been a great thing to pair with Student debt cancellation, So of course he didn't. Not to mention he is even failing at trivially easy wins like refusing to follow through his campaign promise to drop the appeal to SCOTUS in which DOJ seeks to continue excluding Puerto Rican's from SSI.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-takes-up-puerto-rico-case-biden-pledged-to-abandon-11614638996.
As usual Democrats will try their too clever by half games and come up with a million reasons why they couldn't just push through wildly popular policies that benefit average people. But I'm sure anything they do pass will be intentionally confusing, means tested, and stigmatizing for anyone who uses it.
Seriously though, I have no tolerance for giving politicians undue praise after sitting through 8 years of Obama hagiography while watching him intentionally maximizing the number of foreclosures on poor people, oversee the largest loss of black wealth in history, expand drone wars, turn the African country with the highest HDI into an open air slave market, and categorically refuse to prosecute his campaign donors for blowing up the economy. If this follows NYT and WaPo into unrestrained Biden boosterism for running the same tired democrat playbook count me out.
Criticizing Biden is not just for shits and giggles. It's very simple. We just want to push for more change. We would not have made the progress we have already made without criticizing the democratic establishment and pushing for more.
The media in particular should always be criticizing because they should be watchdogs for the powerful
My point of view is just one data point, but I don't think that as a Leftist my main concerns are spending more on welfare and returning to Obama-era climate and immigration stances. People like me want an actually transformed system. Federal minimum wage will not be raised to $15, because Joe Manchin and others will tank it, and Biden surely knows this and knows that he can safely pitch this policy as "red meat" to people like me safe in the knowledge it won't actually become law. Meanwhile health insurance premiums are still insanely high and if I don't have an employer in the S&P 500 and I'm not poor enough to be on the admittedly excellent Medicaid (that is, in a state that expanded it under Obamacare) then I'm really still SOL for healthcare. The infrastructure thing, if it happens, will certainly earn my praise. But that's a big if. So far nothing Biden has done is remotely stunning to me. Still voted for him though, and I hope the next 3.75 years will change my mind.
I don't know if triangulation is the right way to think about it. There have been concrete ways that the White House has reached out to progressives to let them have a seat at the table as discussed here.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-bidens-left-wing-brain-trust?utm_campaign=scroll&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=share&scrollvisitsource=share&scrollsharetoken=9tkaie1jehc78a6bo7nl6nph9o
As a card carrying neoliberal, this is the hippie punching I gladly paid for
On a more reasonable note, I don’t think one can emphasize enough that for people who have made leftist activism a lifestyle, there is nothing, nada, zilch that Biden could do in any possible world that would satisfy these people. Based on personal experience interacting with them both online and off, He could abolish private property and guillotine everyone with a >0 net worth and they would still find some reason to complain; it absolutely is a cult of personality
Well written. However as someone with two young kids who will not be receiving the child credits, let me assure you it's not "unconditional". I get your meaning wrt welfare work requirements though.
Anyway, the bigger question for the future of political cohesion here is which priority the Left actually wants to be tackled first, and whether there's a deal to be made with Manchin and Sinema for it. Is that Infrastructure? Might be the easiest sale, but will it appease? Is it voting rights - demanded by the social Left but not the economic Left quote as much? Some doubt whether Manchin and Sinema would spend their political capital on that. And so on.
Basically, for this analysis to hold value, it needs to be able to predict the ordering of moves of the administration as it attempts to keep its promises. At least in broad strokes. Otherwise we're just retconning the model to fit what happens, and so we haven't learned anything.
Some people considered me a leftist because I harshly criticized Bill Clinton and more moderately criticized Hillary, and in fact I abstained from voting in 2016 in protest. I regretted not voting for all of 2020. Where do I stand now? I’m very happy with Biden. I think he’s living up to my wishes. I have no criticism as of now. I’d like him to stay pretty harsh on the foreign policy issues, and despite being left out of his stimulus, I applaud him for getting it done. I’m not playing games. Long term I want more viable political parties because I don’t want to get burned again by another Clintonesque opportunist, but Biden is doing well.
The English aristocracy did this for centuries: wait until the pressure for change became irresistible, then Stop Resisting. Give enough ground to buy a few decades of relative tranquillity. It seems obvious, but as any French or Russian citizen could tell you, is not an easy strategy to pull off in practice. Easier if you have something resembling a functional democracy, but still not straightforward. Biden seems to be using his brain -- either the one in his own head, or the collective thought of his advisers.
Two Things:
- Admittedly, I was a Bernie-bro who wanted "Biden to lose". But, I gotta say I've done a 180: Bernie's still my dude, but I'm a bit of a Biden-booster now.
- I wonder how much of the factionalism is dependent on whether you went to college or not. There's a pseudo-intellectualism to a lot of the twitter stuff bourn out of learning sociological concepts/ big words in college.
If leftists focus on foreign policy, an issue of waning concern to most Americans, they will continue to write themselves out of any meaningful national dialogue.
They *can* still influence Biden's domestic policy, even if they 'agree' with it. Like AOC said, the $1400 is great; more would be better.
And that's their job -- to push the White House to be more ambitious. As FDR said, "I agree with you; now go out there and make me do it."
So what's their best strategy? I'm not sure, but I can tell you what the *worst* strategy is: to question people's motives; to smear them when they don't align with your preferred policy. It's fine to say that a Biden initiative is not enough; it's not fine to say that this proves they're neoliberal whores for corporations.
So much of the justification for providing 1400 to top up 600 months previously which even the most modest familiarity with economics would allow one to perceive is not at all like a 2000 lump sum especially for poor who are often forced to pay usurious rates on loans concern the need to and morality of using the threat of extreme want to prevent workers from withholding their labor for better wages and working conditions. These are ideological justifications that Biden has employed for decades and will continue to do for the remainder of his presidency.
The left would do far better to continue to argue that employment contracts should be voluntary and that the government at the very least should not have as policy to add to the already disproportionate bargaining power of employers.
While the left should add to Biden's voice when he advances our values such as supporting the right of Amazon workers to unionize he still embraces policies that both directly oppose the ability of workers to bargain on an equal footing with employers for truly voluntary contracts and are extremely unpopular. Those should still be our main focus.
"AOC would have supported sanctions against the Soviet union" Always trust tankies to make AOC look good.