I saw a tweet shortly after the US election results became known, about having the feeling of a background process running in your brain, draining energy, suddenly being shut off. This seems like an apt description, and if that was true after the election, it is even more true after the inauguration ceremony.
Like so many others, Biden wasn’t my first pick, but unlike many others, I didn’t buy into the rhetoric painting him as a Republican lite, since his voting records simply didn’t back this up. I am not claiming that his voting record was far-left, but it was firmly to the left of even the most moderate Republican in recent times.
What did worry me a bit about him, was that he has been part of the political system for so long, that it might be hard for him to fight the urge to compromising, which most politicians develop over time. On the other hand, the fact that he has been part of the political system, also means that he wants to restore it to something not serving the political urges of a would be despot.
Now, Biden has been in power a few days, and I must say that I have been delighted beyond expectation by his actions.
Opening Arguments has gone through Biden’s actions on his first day. They were happy, to put it mildly.
I am looking forward to seeing what Biden will be bringing to the table in the coming period. For an indications of what that might be, I think we could do worse than look at the Biden Promise Tracker created by Politifact.
As an aside, isn’t it great that there are websites tracking promises, rather than lies.
It’s worth noting that Biden was, you know, Vice President during the Obama administration. He had a front-row seat for the carnage. So if any Democrat might be expected to have a clear concept of how little the GOP cares for such bourgeois fripperies as “bipartisanship” and “good governance”… it’s Biden. This, it seems to me, is good reason to think that Biden’s talk of compromise and such is merely aspirational, not anything he actually expects the GOP of go along with.
And even if Biden actually is deluded enough to believe the GOP will play ball with him? Biden’s VP is Kamala Harris. It won’t be the first time an ineffectual white guy gets all the credit and all the attention, while a Black woman gets shit done.