One year in
I perused various newspapers yesterday, the coverage almost uniformly was about how the administration had "disappointed". Hogwash.
In a 50-50 Senate, Pres. Biden was able to get two huge packages through: The American Rescue Plan, and the bipartisan infrastructure deal. With no help from the GOP, he was able to cut unemployment down to what it was before the pandemic. With no help from the GOP, he was able to slash child poverty rates. With no help from the GOP, he was able to... You get the picture.
He couldn't get Build Back Better. Yes, I blame Senator Joe Manchin for this. But more, I blame the so-called "moderates" in the GOP like Mitt Romney and Susan "Concerns" Collins.
Voting rights legislation is in limbo. And yes, I ascribe blame to Sen. Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema for their irrational totemic attachment to the filibuster—a tradition which has been carved out hundreds of times. But more than them I blame the GOP senators who had voted for the renewal of the Voting Rights Act in 2006, under a GOP-led Senate, and who still serve in "the world's greatest deliberative body" but refuse to fix what Chief Justice John Roberts broke.
But here's what the Biden-Harris Administration has been able to do in the face of virulent obstruction from the "loyal opposition":
- 75% of Americans have now been vaccinated against COVID. When he assumed office, the previous president had failed miserably in his vow to send out hundreds of millions of vaccines.
- Expanded the Affordable Care Act. Fourteen million Americans have signed up for affordable, quality health coverage since the beginning of open enrolment in October.
- Put America back on the global stage after the previous president ran a mercenary foreign policy, giving favors to those who praised him and favoring America's traditional adversaries.
- Ended the forever war in Afghanistan.
- Confirmed more judges to the federal bench than any other president in his first year in office.
- And more here.
If it seems like not much was accomplished, it's because we have a feckless press which misses the lurid drama and easy copy of the previous administration. The press shouldn't be a handmaiden to power. But it seems that our press always favors Republican narratives whenever Democrats are in power. Any salient press would point out where things went well and where they fell short. But since the pullout from Afghanistan, the press has been on a crusade against this administration. War is the health of the nation, and the press was apoplectic that Pres. Biden pulled out of a conflict which the press had been ignoring for years.
We have much work to do this year. But, while I'm apprehensive about the midterms, I'm not despairing. According to the polling, it's all up for grabs. Redistricting is going so well for Democrats that they might actually net seats, rather than lose them. We have strong Senate candidates, which, if they win, will give us the ability to shunt Senators Manchin and Sinema to the sideline. The economy will only get stronger. Projects from the infrastructure bill are already in motion. We have a lot on which to run.
Don't get down. Don't get despondent. We're winning. We must act like it.