The Week in Review
Joe Biden's near-term future is looking bright. The Republican Party's ... not so much.
First things first, Tom Schaller has written his inaugural column for Truth and Consequences - a look at how Trump and the GOP’s divisive rhetoric has turned Americans against Americans. Read it here.
Next, here’s two things we learned this week: Joe Biden is setting a course to be the most progressive president since LBJ and Marjorie Taylor Greene is the future of the Republican Party.
To the first point, I wrote about Biden’s under the radar progressivism at the mothership newsletter. Here are just a few of the executive orders that Biden has signed in nine days in office.
Require masks to be worn on federal property as well as most forms of domestic travel.
Established a position for a COVID-19 response coordinator within the executive branch (how that wasn't done a year ago is astounding).
Created a task force to address health inequities in the response to COVID-19.
Rejoined the World Health Organization.
Ended the so-called Muslim ban.
Revoked the ban on transgender Americans serving in the US military.
Halted funding for and construction of the southern border wall.
Prevented the Department of Justice from renewing contracts with private prisons.
Paused federal student loan payments.
Began the process of ensuring that federal contractors provide their workers with a $15 minimum wage.
Rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement.
Ended the Keystone Pipeline Project; put in place a moratorium on oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; and paused all new oil and natural gas leases on public lands.
Mandated that climate change should be viewed as a central element of US national security and foreign policy, set a goal of a carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035 and began the process of replacing all the cars used by the federal government with zero-emission vehicles.
Required that all residents be included in the census, including undocumented immigrants.
That’s a lot of progressive stuff in a short period of time and it’s not even taking into account the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill that Biden has proposed. What has impressed me most about Biden’s actions to date is that unlike many previous Democratic presidents he’s not trying to distance himself from the liberal wing of the party and he’s acting unashamedly. Biden is adopting progressive policies and is not trying to obfuscate what he’s doing or showing much fear of a political backlash.
Part of what is benefiting Biden is that, as bizarre as it might sound, he is not currently the center of media attention. More than a week into his presidency and the focus has largely been on Congress, former president Trump’s impeachment trial, and the GameStop story. Republicans have tried to attack Biden for not unifying the country and relying on executive action over working with Congress, but the party is facing so much internal dissension that these criticisms are not gaining much traction. After four years of Trump’s unending shenanigans there’s perhaps less media and popular interest in a president who is boring and doesn’t spend most of his time, proverbially, throwing feces at his opponents on Twitter. Surely this will change at some point (I think) but as long as Biden’s operating under the radar - and doing things that are unabashedly progressive - that will work in his political favor. Even better for Biden is if the incipient signs of an economic recovery - and higher rates of COVID-19 vaccination - continue. While Biden took office at a moment of great challenge for America there is truly nowhere to go but up and the building blocks are in place for that to occur.
Now for the bad news … Marjorie Taylor Greene. The deluge of videos and archived Facebook posts that have come out this week confirm what seemed obvious a few months ago: this is a genuinely crazy person. She’s like a YouTube comment board come to life. While it’s difficult to spend so much time on someone who believes Hillary Clinton kills children and drinks their blood, a Jewish laser beam started a California wild fire, and it’s appropriate to call a survivor of a school shooting a “coward” Greene is the proverbial canary in the coal mine for the post-Trump Republican Party.
If Greene is allowed to remain in Congress and is not censured or stripped of her committee positions then one can fully expect that the GOP’s descent into madness will continue unabated. The reasons not to censure Greene are unfortunately clear: she has a following in the party and taking her down would inflame the party’s most hard-core supporters. Political expediency and indulging the conservative fever swamp, which have been the dominant characteristics of the GOP for the past several years, demand that Greene should be left alone.
But if her unique brand of awfulness and conspiracy-addled rantings are not enough reason for Republicans to realize that enabling tin foil hat wearers has gone too far I feel confident in saying that nothing will. One already has the sense that it’s unlikely to occur. Indeed, it’s striking that self-appointed Serious Man Ben Sasse, who wrote a piece for the Atlantic two weeks ago blasting QAnon and its impact on the GOP, has been silent on the latest revelations about Greene.
Before the election I spoke to a Republican operative who tried to justify the decision by then-Senator Kelly Loeffler to appear at a campaign event with Greene by noting that she is popular among the GOP base and Loeffler was facing a tough fight with another conservative candidate, Rep. Doug Collins. When I asked “where do you draw the line?” and suggested that a pro-QAnon candidate might be the place, the operative responded with a chuckle and said “that’s a good question.” The problem it seems is that Republicans have already come up with the answer: there is no line.
Other Stuff
Earlier in the week I interviewed labor activist and writer, Rich Yeselson about Biden’s pro-worker policies just a week into his presidency. Friend of the newsletter and subscriber Jo-Ann Mort reminded me of the excellent piece she wrote last Fall for “Democracy” on how Biden’s pro-worker stance is nothing new. It’s well worth a read.
If you’re wondering about the picture above, my nine-year old daughter had remote art class today and proudly showed me the picture she’d made on her computer. “It’s called ‘Fire on the Mountain’” she told me, like one of Daddy’s favorite Grateful Dead songs. When I told her I was working on a post for my newsletter I said maybe I should include the picture - an idea she loved. But I asked her to add a caption and she came up with the line above. By the way, did I mention that my kids are the best!
You're daughter IS awesome! What a caption to go with the great drawing!
Love the art and caption by your daughter!