‘He’s got to fix it’: Biden must deliver swift results or risk backlash, allies say
President Joe Biden faces a tense and impatient public after assuming office Wednesday, one that has endured a tumultuous year of crises that have torn at the nation’s social fabric.
If the new president wants to build an enduring base of political support, Democratic lawmakers and senior political strategists say, he’ll need to swiftly deliver tangible results or face a backlash that could cost his party its slim congressional majorities.
“Keep it simple is my message,” said Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, an early supporter of Biden’s presidential bid. “People out there are desperate to see their elected lawmakers work together and pass something that doesn’t reinvent the wheel, doesn’t tear down the system, it just makes things a little easier on them in a moment of crisis.”
Biden’s inauguration as the country’s 46th president is the culmination of an unlikely campaign, one that saw him overcome a dismal start to the Democratic primary and later defeat an incumbent president. For the longtime Democrat, it was the highlight of a political career that began in the Senate in 1973. But none of those experiences compare to the situation Biden now inherits, amid a pandemic that has claimed the lives of 400,000 Americans and induced an economic downturn. The nation was also wracked last summer by racial justice protests and more recently by an attack on the Capitol.
Biden has responded to the challenges by urging unity from Americans across the political spectrum, a theme he made central to his inaugural address Wednesday. “We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal,” he said. “We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts.”
But political strategists insist that while Biden must try to soothe the country, it won’t be nearly enough to win a majority of voters’ support long term. He can’t afford to lose many voters, either: Even as Biden won more than 81 million votes, Trump earned more than 74 million votes, the most ever for a losing presidential bid.
“There are a lot of people who didn’t like Donald Trump who are going to be heartened by a Democrat in the White House who is a decent human being and likes and respects people,” said Faiz Shakir, who managed Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign. “But it’s not sufficient to do the work of demonstrating why Democrats should be in power in the White House, House, and in the Senate.”
Shakir, echoing the sentiment of many liberal activists, said Biden cannot become bogged down by questions of legislative procedure, including the filibuster in the Senate that will require the support of GOP legislators to overcome. Voters simply don’t care about that, he said. “If you had power, what did you do with it? That’s what people want to know.”
Biden will immediately be forced to balance demands from more liberal members of his party as Democrats take full control of Washington for the first time in 10 years with his pledge to pursue bipartisan compromise.
The first test will come with his recently unveiled $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which includes another round of stimulus checks, more unemployment aid and higher funding for testing and vaccinations. Some progressives would like to see the proposal go further, while it remains unclear if enough Republicans will support the measure to allow it to pass through the Senate.
Rep. Barbara Lee of California, a former co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she would like to see a package that includes $2,000 stimulus checks every month, rather than the single $1,400 payment that’s in the current plan. But she thinks Biden’s experience working across the aisle as vice president and as a senator will allow him to ultimately forge a deal. “Biden can pull Republicans together to make sure they support the package,” she said. “This is not a regional issue, it’s not a partisan issue. This is a matter of life or death.”
Some former GOP political operatives say that if Biden manages the pandemic well, including accelerating vaccine distribution, it could help him maintain the support of moderate GOP voters who backed him last year, even if they’re otherwise ambivalent about some of his policy goals.
“There’s going to be a trade-off,” said Sarah Longwell, founder of Republican Voters Against Trump. “He’s going to do some progressive things that Republicans are not going to like, but he also has an opportunity to do a lot of things that people like and make people’s lives better because of the virus.”