Biden must rein in party if he hopes to get anything done
President-elect Joe Biden and his team, even just during the transition process, are finding that Washington, D.C., is not the same place he left four years ago as the outgoing vice president of the Obama administration.
Political lines have been redrawn during the Trump presidency and longtime political stalwarts in both parties are being challenged by newer, more ideologically driven populist movements who are skeptical of the Washington establishment.
As Biden has begun filling his new administration with veterans of the Obama years, he has met vocal resistance from some in the Democratic party’s progressive wing, who have been frustrated with retreads like Tom Vilsack, Dennis Mcdonough and Susan Rice.
Last week, rising progressive star and the most famous member of “the Squad” on Capitol Hill, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-cortez told online publication The Intercept that her constituents are looking for more than the same old D.C. crowd in 2020.
“We now have a Biden administration that’s bringing back a lot of Obama appointees, but when Obama was making appointments, he was bringing back a lot of Clinton appointees,” the congresswoman said. “And so this is not just a revolving door of private industry, but it’s a revolving door of just the same people for the last 10, 20, 30 years, in a time when this emerging populism and one of the main reasons — a huge reason why we got Donald Trump in the first place … was just an extreme disdain for this moneyed political establishment — that just rules Washington no matter who you seem to elect.”
The same publication published leaked material from a confidential virtual meeting of the president-elect with civil rights leaders who expressed disappointment with some of his appointments, Tom Vilsack at agriculture in particular.
And in the meantime,
Even with huge supermajorities and sky-high early popularity, President Obama struggled to achieve his ambitious agenda.
many of Biden’s appointments are facing potentially difficult confirmation battles in a Senate that is likely to remain under Republican control in January and has not forgotten the antics of liberal “resistance” Democrats to attempt to stonewall and disrupt confirmations during the Trump years.
For one thing, Biden’s choice of recently retired Gen. Lloyd Austin for Defense Secretary will need Democrats to backtrack and grant him a waiver to serve in the civilian role, a waiver many of them opposed when Trump nominated Gen. Mattis just a few short years ago.
We will soon see if what Biden said during the campaign is true when he told Trump, “I am the Democratic party!”
Despite the rapidly shifting political ground, Biden must find a way to bring his rambunctious party together if he wants to accomplish anything during his presidency. Even with huge supermajorities and sky-high early popularity, President Obama struggled to achieve his ambitious agenda.
For Biden, with the stakes higher, the news cycle faster, and the rhetoric more extreme than ever, it will be much more difficult. These early signs of rebellion from within his own party’s ranks do not bode well.