Overview:
From an unpromising beginning, Joe Biden has become one of the most progressive presidents the U.S. has ever had.
I’m not ashamed to admit it: Joe Biden has exceeded my expectations.
When he was running in the 2020 presidential primaries, I wasn’t thrilled by him. I thought Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren were better options. Both of them represented a bold progressive spirit that America sorely needed—while Biden, I believed, was at best a reiteration of the status quo. I thought he stood for more of the same bland, watered-down, just-barely-left-of-center politics that have defined the Democratic Party for decades.
But I was wrong.
Enter Dark Brandon
I never expected to write these words, but Joe Biden is the most transformative Democratic president of my lifetime. Despite having only a nailbiter majority, he’s racked up a long list of big, significant wins.
At the top of this list is the Inflation Reduction Act, far and away the most ambitious law ever passed to fight climate change and build a better future for our children. He brought the U.S. back into the Paris Agreement and shut down the Keystone XL pipeline. He won ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, phasing out hydrofluorocarbons that are a major cause of global warming.
He’s passed a series of less world-historical, but still big and badly needed, infrastructure bills. He’s made several other progressive wishlist items a reality, like enshrining Juneteenth as a federal holiday, ending the forever war in Afghanistan, forgiving student loan debt, giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices, capping insulin costs, and outlawing forced arbitration and NDAs in workplace sexual assault cases.
He’s been a steadfast supporter of arming Ukraine to defend against Russia’s savage war of aggression. He oversaw the appointment of a special counsel that’s now moving forward with the well-deserved prosecution of Donald Trump. He’s confirmed a record number of federal judges.
Biden appointees in the executive branch have made an impact as well, like the restoration of net neutrality from the FCC, and a a massively significant decision from the National Labor Relations Board expanding workers’ rights to organize.
And now, this:
President Joe Biden made history Tuesday when he visited a picket line in Michigan in a show of loyalty to autoworkers who are striking for higher wages and cost-of-living increases.
Biden, who is looking to polish his pro-labor persona, is the first sitting president to appear on a picket line.
Speaking through a bullhorn, he told the striking autoworkers in Wayne County, “You deserve what you earned, and you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you’re getting paid now.”
“Biden makes history by joining striking autoworkers on the picket line.” Peter Nicholas, NBC News, 26 September 2023.
I was, frankly, shocked to hear that Joe Biden is the first sitting president ever to show up on a picket line. Barack Obama, when he was a candidate, said he would do it but never did.
Even in the golden age of American unions, presidents like Eisenhower or Kennedy never took a step as audacious as this. But after all, why not?
Republican presidential candidates speak to evangelical churches, because they know that’s their base of support. If there’s anything that Democrats have consistently stood for, it’s the working class and unions. In an age of gross inequality and concentrated corporate power, politicians should take a stand for labor against capital. The moneyed classes may throw a tantrum over it, but there’s no more natural alliance than a Democratic president and organized labor.
Hot Labor Summer
It’s been a year of renewed labor power and activism. And for the most part, unions have been winning.
The Writers’ Guild of America just won their strike against the Hollywood studios. The Teamsters got a new contract with UPS, securing wage raises and air conditioning in their delivery vans (!!). Although Biden and the Democrats attracted criticism for blocking a railroad workers’ strike, they came back to help them get the sick leave they asked for.
Now the United Auto Workers have gone on strike against the Big Three automakers: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis (Chrysler). Among their demands are for a 40% raise—the same percentage that company executives have granted themselves over the past few years. That’s the kind of cheeky negotiating tactic I can get behind!
By appearing on the UAW picket line, Biden has put a very large thumb on the scale on the side of the workers. He’s shone a national spotlight on them and given legitimacy to their demands.
Granted, this is a symbolic gesture. But symbolism matters.
The “bully pulpit” is both the president’s most underappreciated power, and in some ways, his broadest. By design, the president isn’t an all-powerful king. His hands are tied by existing law. He can’t force Congress to pass legislation or choose how the courts rule. But, more than the other branches of government, he has power to persuade. For better or for worse, he defines the national mood and chooses what to focus our attention on.
In a strike, where public perception and sympathy plays a large part in deciding the outcome, that matters. When corporations know that the public mood is against them, they have an incentive to settle labor disputes as quickly as possible. That’s a huge gift both to the UAW and to union power in battles yet to come, and we have President Biden to thank for it.