Any Biden shift toward the Left now should not be viewed through the prior primary prism

[Tom Rinaldo]

TRANSPARENCY DISCLAIMER: I changed the original OP subject line Tuesday at 8:17 AM EST from its original version, which was: "Joe Biden doesn't need to move to the Left to mollify Sanders voters." I did so because after this OP was originally posted Bernie Sanders endorsed Joe Biden for President, which somewhat changed the context I was referencing in the original subject line.


Joe Biden needs to move to the Left to confront the cascading urgent needs of our nation. This isn't about Democratic politics anymore. Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee and all rational Sanders supporters (which means the vast majority of Sanders supporters) will vote for Biden over Trump. No, this is about what it will take for President Biden to counter the gravest domestic threat that America has faced since the Great Depression

The disruption that this nation has just begun to face is unprecedented in scope to anything that any incoming American President has faced since FDR was sworn into office. Barack Obama faced a huge challenge when he first took office. This one will dwarf that. Reports are starting to filter out that the Covid-19 does not behave like a conventional flu virus. Warm weather does not seem to appreciatively slow its spread. If true that means we won't receive a summer respite from this pandemic, instead we may face rolling waves of disease peaks and troughs as we alternately loosen and tighten social restrictions. Over the long term, even before the widespread introduction of an effective vaccine, the severity of the outbreaks might be tempered somewhat by growing "herd immunity" if nothing else, as more of us are exposed to and recover from Covid-19 hopefully with some degree of immunity to it built up. But that is a particularly grim version of something to look forward to. Meanwhile our social, medical and economic systems are already breaking under the strain.

The Achilles heel of our employer based health insurance system has been exposed, namely it having been based on secure employment. Those who can still afford to purchase private insurance today will be facing far more expensive premiums next year after private insurers re calibrate their costs from Covid-19 and adjust accordingly. Meanwhile our for profit health care provision system has been severely tested and cracks are emerging and widening daily. What does it say when private hospitals risk closure because they are losing money from an overflow of the wrong kind of patients? What does it say when hospitals are forced to reduce their payrolls during a pandemic? What does it say when only those living in certain states can qualify for Medicaid after they lose their private insurance, and that those states will soon have to drastically slash government spending in areas like education and public safety in order to redress massive budget short falls from increased medical costs AND reduced tax revenues?

What have we learned about the essential services that working class Americans provide our nation, often earning marginal incomes while facing the higher risks of life threatening virus exposure as they venture out of home each day to do the work that all of us who can shelter at home depend on? Even with their sacrifices, and they are indeed sacrifices, will the supply chains of food and other essential goods remain intact over the coming months as inventories are drawn down and illness stalks our workplaces? Who will stamp out profiteering on indispensable items, under what authority?

When the least among us can spread disease to the so called greatest among us through invisible chains of contact, the privileged can only buy limited protection and absolutely no guarantees. But who will drive that reality home to those who occupy the upper strata or our social pyramid by using the force of law? Without a massive redistribution of wealth in America the base of our economic pyramid will collapse, and the efficacy of State Governments to shore up the public need will dissolve in the face of fiscal insolvency. There is still great wealth in America but most of it rests in very few hands. Will our federal government act to pry much of that loose?

History records the bold measures and programs that FDR initiated in his first 100 days in office and then in succeeding months and years. Here is a listing of some of them:

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
The Civil Works Administration (CWA)
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
The Federal Security Agency (FSA)
The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC)
The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
The Public Works Administration (PWA)
The Social Security Act (SSA)
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
The Works Progress Administration (WPA)
https://www.thoughtco.com/top-new-deal-programs-104687

One could say that FDR sharply turned our nation toward the Left, and he did so in an America that had just elected two conservative Republican administrations preceding his. When the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary race began we were looking towards an immediate future that no longer remotely resembles the one that the reality has replaced it with. Prior calculations about what is and what is not politically feasible were crunched with now obsolete sets of data. The America we occupy as May approaches barely resembles the America we were familiar with on the eve of the first presidential primaries. Platforms that may have made sense to run on now no longer hold up under the accumulated weight of currently pressing social needs.

This isn't about validating Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. A good case can be made that Joe Biden is precisely the human being who Americans are capable of giving their trust to now as our leader. May he now turn boldly to the left in keeping with the times that we are living in, and the solutions that are called for.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Biden will have his hands full just trying to repair the damage

Trump and the GOP have inflicted on this country in the last three miserable years. Whether that means moving to the left, right, center, up, down or sideways is irrelevant. It's likely to take his entire first term just to put the executive branch back together and try to restore a functioning federal government. I don't think ideology should get in the way of that, and I don't think whatever he has to do will be, or can be, anything but desperately pragmatic.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. That same advice, in my opinion, could have been given to FDR

Maybe it was and his was prescient enough to ignore it. When circumstances become dire what are called ideological approaches in normal times are thought of pragmatic solutions to pressing emergencies in times of crisis

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. FDR was trying to save capitalism. Bernie's claim that FDR was

a socialist was pure nonsense, as FDR himself would have said. FDR's New Deal programs weren't intended to change the economic structure of the US; he was trying to stimulate the economy in response to the depression, and the programs that were put in place were not intended to be permanent - and most of them went away as soon as WWII started because they were no longer needed. I expect the Biden administration will do what needs to be done without an eye to ideology, just as Obama bailed out the auto industry following the crash of 2008. That, too, was not socialism or even left-wing (socialism would have been nationalizing it).

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. Yes, and he did

And it once again needs saving via new bold actions. That's my basic point. Which programs are temporary and which become permanent can be sorted out in due time.

[The Magistrate]

10. Norman Thomas On The New Deal, Ma'am, Is An Old Favorite...

https://newpol.org/is-the-new-deal-socialism-by-norman-thomas/


I am concerned to point out how false is the charge that Roosevelt and the New Deal represent socialism. What is at stake is not prestige or sentimental devotion to a particular name. What is at stake is a clear understanding of the issues on which the peace and prosperity of generations — perhaps centuries — depend.


But, some of you will say, isn’t it true, as Alfred E. Smith and a host of others before him have charged, that Roosevelt carried out most of the demands of the Socialist platform?

This charge is by no means peculiar to Mr. Smith. I am told that a Republican speaker alleged that Norman Thomas rather than Franklin D. Roosevelt has been President of the United States. I deny the allegation and defy the allegator, and I suspect I have Mr. Roosevelt’s support in this denial. Matthew Woll, leader of the forces of reaction in the American Federation of Labor, is among the latest to make the same sort of charge.

Emphatically, Mr. Roosevelt did not carry out the Socialist platform, unless he carried it out on a stretcher.

[Tom Rinaldo]

17. I like this quote

"What is at stake is not prestige or sentimental devotion to a particular name. What is at stake is a clear understanding of the issues on which the peace and prosperity of generations — perhaps centuries — depend."

And I also like this part:

"Emphatically, Mr. Roosevelt did not carry out the Socialist platform, unless he carried it out on a stretcher."

A dash of wry humor that I never knew was in the man. But then again, though in a sense I am well aware of Norman Thomas, in many ways my knowledge of him is actually limited.

[The Magistrate]

18. He Was A Real National Figure In His Day, Sir

It seems to me most likely that a great many of the people posting here who declare Roosevelt the sort of 'real Democrat' people like Mrs. Clinton and even Mr. Biden are not, really, and who hold themselves out as the 'Democratic wing of the Democratic party', would, had they been alive at the time, and with the same strain of political lights to guide them then as they have now, have ranged themselves more alongside Mr. Thomas than Mr. Roosevelt, and said the latter was a trimmer, knuckling under to segregationists and not going nearly far enough with his 'New Deal', and added charges he was a war-monger into the bargain by Mr. Roosevelt's third campaign. Myself, I suspect I might well have ranged alongside The Kingfish, Huey Long --- a man who knew how to make conservatives and corporations squeal.

[cbdo2007]

3. He doesn't need Sanders voters, he needs to convert Trump voters who think Trump

is doing a terrible job.

Trumps super base that will never move is probably 30-35% - that leaves about 15-20% that are moderates that aren't really paying attention and can be swayed.

75% of Sanders voters will vote for whoever the Dem candidate is, the others will say they won't, but will anyways. That's how it always goes. Maybe a very small amount will go third party, but they aren't enough to sway the outcome.

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. That may be true but my point now is no longer about the election

it is about what our government under President Biden will need to do to face the challenge we are collectively faced with

[Bettie]

6. Thank you!

This is exactly the point!

We are in a crisis and if we win this election, there need to be major changes to ensure that we're not in this situation again!

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. You are welcome

I think that our political system is still in shock and hasn't yet fully grasped the magnitude of the social crisis that this public health crisis will cause. We need to be gearing up for bold public initiatives to address all of the needs that will soon come unavoidably apparent

[crickets]

11. You are absolutely right. nt

[I_UndergroundPanther]

8. I for one

Would love it if he went more left.

[lagomorph777]

12. Bravo. Well-said.

I must say, my reaction after reading the whole post was much different than my reaction to the headline.

[Tom Rinaldo]

14. Thank you for reading it despite your first reaction to the subject line

I often feel bedeviled by how to title an OP here. There are always pros and cons to different approaches. I was hoping it might push enough different buttons to kick off a discussion including people who may have had conflicting primary choices. Joe Biden won't be President for approximately 9 more months (yes I am being optimistic about the election results). That leaves time for a lot of serious planning before he starts his first 100 days in office.

[Peacetrain]

13. Great minds thinking alike today!!

[Tom Rinaldo]

15. Ha. The titles are pretty similar aren't they?

And there is enough overlap in content to not be incompatible.

[Peacetrain]

16. I know.. I missed yours otherwise I would have come in here..

But what the heck.. not the first time I have done that

[Tom Rinaldo]

19. I just changed the subject line (explanation given above)

The point of this OP was never intended to focus on any perceived rivalry between Biden and Sanders "camps". Rather it is about the challenge that will confront Joe Biden once he becomes our President