The Laziness of Labels

Moderate: Adjective. Average in amount, intensity, quality, or degree.

Anybody who watched Wednesday evening's speech by President Joe Biden knows that what he is proposing and his vision for America are anything but moderate.

Biden's cogent and comprehensive vision for America is one designed to meet the moment. And there is nobody better suited to meet the moment than scrappy Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. from Scranton. A man whose family was uprooted from their working-class home to traverse to a new home a state away. A man who came out of nowhere to become the country's youngest senator. A man who tragically lost his wife after a horrific car accident and who took the oath of office from a hospital room with his two young boys sitting on a bed nearby. A man who nearly resigned from the Senate but instead stuck it out and became a staple in the halls of Congress. A man who twice ran for president, failing to win a single primary or caucus. A man who willingly accepted the role of Second Lieutenant to the country's first Black president. A man who tragically lost his son to cancer and whose medical bills almost crushed his family. A man who was left for dead after the first 3 primaries of the 2020 presidential campaign. 

There is nothing moderate about President Joseph R. Biden. 

And so it should come as no surprise that there is nothing moderate about his policies either. Biden has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to the politics of the day. He was one of the first senators to introduce a climate bill in 1987, a full 3 years before Bernard Sanders even entered Congress. He authored the Violence Against Women Act in 1990 becoming the first United States Senator to author a bill on the growing threat against women. As Vice-President, he proved himself to be ahead of his party and even ahead of his president when he publicly supported marriage equality in May of 2012. This was seen as a gaffe and Biden apologized to President Barack Obama but there can be no denying his heart was in the right place. Even with this documented history, Joe Biden's 2020 presidential candidacy was viewed through the lens of him being a "moderate" Democratic candidate.

But this label was never accurate. It was a media concoction, designed to create must-see drama. By creating the false dichotomy that there were only two "lanes" for 2020 Democratic candidates, the media quickly grouped the country's most diverse presidential field in history into two dumbed-down buckets for its viewing audience. There was the Bernie-Warren lane and the moderate lane. Nothing in between. No nuance. No gray area. It was these two lanes or bust for the American news media throughout 2020. Minor policy disagreements were blown up in post-debate coverage. Poll and poll were viewed through these two lanes. Once the early primaries got underway, the coverage went straight to this narrative. An up-and-coming moderate won Iowa! The far-left won New Hampshire and Nevada! The old moderate won South Carolina! What would Super Tuesday bring? 

Missing from all this coverage was the critical piece: Democrats are not a monolith. There are not two simple "lanes" no matter how much the media wanted to make that a thing. Voters wanted somebody who could reignite the Obama/Clinton coalition and beat Donald Trump. They wanted someone who had broad appeal across the political spectrum. Someone who could speak to union workers about rural job loss during one event and later speak to communities of color about criminal justice reform at another. Democrats knew that communities of color, especially Black women, were the base of the party. Voters on Super Tuesday definitely knew this. They knew that the next nominee had to be the one candidate who could connect with that demographic. They knew that there were not two lanes but instead was one path and one path only to defeating Donald Trump and that path would be via the candidacy of Joseph R. Biden. 

The speech we heard on Wednesday night was not moderate. But neither is Joe Biden. Biden is a product of the times and knows exactly where today's Democratic Party lives and breathes. His policies are exactly in line with the majority of the far-left and it drives them crazy. They hate the fact that Joe Biden gets to enact the things that they most care about. But the far-left never had a monopoly on policy. Their Lord and Savior, St. Bernard of Burlington has yet to author a single, meaningful bill despite having three decades to do so. Biden knows that good governing occurs in the halls of Congress and not on Twitter. His American Rescue Plan was supported by 63 percent of the country. His infrastructure plan has the support of 68 percent of the country. Biden knows the American people are with him. Republicans are not. Biden is betting on the fact that Americans will see Republican intransigence and remember it going into the midterm elections.

Because at the end of the day, Joe Biden knows both where the country is and what government can do to meet them there. He sees government as a force for good. He knows where the country is on both political and social issues. He is able to see how voters can simultaneously want corporations to pay more taxes while also wanting transgender protections. He can advocate for expanded access to broadband internet while simultaneously advocating for increased funding for home health care. He can speak to the need to bring our soldiers home while at the same time speaking to the need to make community college more accessible and affordable for an everchanging workforce in the 21st century. This ability to balance the political as well as social needs of America in 2021 takes skill, experience, and empathy. It takes courage and political conviction to lay out the most ambitious agenda that America has ever seen. You only do it if you know that the people are on your side. 

And you only do it knowing that there is nothing moderate about what you are proposing to the American people.