Biden Offered a Return to Normalcy. Will His Base Let It Happen?

Teachers unions are at odds with the wishes of the public, and progressives want nothing to do with unity or serenity.

By
164

Joe Biden ran for president on a “return to normalcy.” His challenge is that there are three competing definitions of normalcy for him to contend with.

Biden didn’t actually use the slogan “return to normalcy.” But as numerous political observers (including yours truly) noted during the campaign, that was both Biden’s implicit appeal and his best shot at victory. As Jonathan Martin and Sydney Ember of the New York Times wrote in March 2019, “Biden, in speeches at home and abroad, has used much of the first part of this year pledging to restore the dignity he believes that the country has lost in the Trump years, promising a restoration rather than a revolution.”

For much of the primary season, the competition among Biden’s Democratic opponents was over who could offer the most radical agenda. When it became clear to rank-and-file voters—and a few key Democratic leaders—that such radicalism could cost Democrats the general election, Biden surged to front-runner status.

The interesting thing about Biden’s return-to-normalcy campaign is that it predated the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s not how it worked with the original version.

Start a Free Trial
Get every newsletter and all of The Dispatch. Support quality, fact-based journalism. Get Started ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
164
By
Comments (164)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Kurt Von Fuchs

    As the new head of the CDC explained on NPR this morning even when we have 100 million people inoculated that still leaves 200 million to go. We won't be past this and tell a majority of Americans are inoculated not just you and your family

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    “America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution,". I always thought the next line was "not competence, but corruption"....I could be wrong....

    Collapse
  3. Avatar photo
    Bill Nelson

    Is equipoise-free the equivalent of adult urinary leakage undergarments? Successful progressive movements are characterized by a relatively slow pace. Where they run into trouble is they experience a little success and then accelerate. And a progressive movement will eventually crash because it has no internal brake, a conservative is a progressive who has stopped.
    So the key question for the movement today is when has it accomplished it’s goals. And what does Biden actually believe in, if anything. What I think is that Biden is not different from Trump in that there are no core beliefs, just a desire to be popular.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

      I think equipoise in that context would be when you call the incontinence hotline on a busy day and they ask if you can hold....

      Collapse
  4. Davis Everson-Rose

    The voters elected Biden and gave him a Democratic House and Senate, who are now acting on their campaign promises, as the Republicans did/tried to in 2017-18 when they held the WH, House and Senate. The COVID relief bill is supported by ~70% of Americans and Biden's approval rating is well north of 50%. If voters wanted Biden to back off from the Democratic agenda to seek compromise with the GOP, they would have elected more Republicans. As it is, a party that holds the executive and majorities in both houses of the legislature is working around the minority's weaponization of Senate procedure to implement its agenda.

    Our President, unlike in parliamentary republics, is head of government. He is currently running the government according to the agenda he laid out on the campaign trail. I am very anti-Trump, but when he won he governed according to his agenda, such as it was. It's one thing to criticize Biden, another to declare that he is obligated to listen to GOP concerns when the GOP has been voted out of power.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Cornelius O’Brien

      I discount that 70% poll figure for the large swath of respondents who really don't understand the bill or its deficiencies. However, I think Congressional Republicans saying "but unity" are full of it. Crocodile tears. Biden is proceeding as he was elected to and that is how elections work. By Fall, he may be a spent force, especially if he opts for half-measures now. I say this as someone who has serious problems with the Covid relief bill. Perhaps he is senile and doesn't remember, but the Obama veterans in the administration remember how it worked with the ACA when they tried to get Republican support. It is institutionally verboten by party leadership.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Pat Riot

        How many in that 30% only know it's something Democrats want and therefore they have sworn a blood oath to oppose it? That's how polls work...

        Collapse
      2. Avatar photo
        Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

        Perhaps Republicans are still studying how raising the federal minimum wage to $15 reduces covid?

        The only way I can see it is if retail lays off a bunch of youngsters, who then stay home and play video games....

        Collapse
      3. Davis Everson-Rose

        Ah, that's a good point about the poll. The current bill is on track to have the shortest time between passing the budget resolution and the actual bill for any reconciliation bill ever, so I think Democrats both in Congress and in the White House have wised up to the GOP playbook. This bill is a huge start, and with the FY22 reconciliation bill slated to be an omnibus infrastructure/climate bill, along with vaccinations and economic recovery, I think the Democrats will be sitting pretty at the end of the year.

        Collapse
  5. Mary Stine

    Let's remember the facts here: Biden has been president for slightly over one month without the usual preparation due to foot-dragging by Republicans in both houses of Congress. He's juggling: a pandemic, a climate disaster, an insurrection investigation with the possibility that some members of Congress may actually have been involved, the ongoing threat to national security from product shortages, sophisticated hacking and hollowing out of vital security agencies. I believe Jonah himself, in either a podcast or one of his previous articles, noted the danger of going too small on pandemic amelioration. These are not normal times. To return to normal requires a multipronged large effort. The minimum wage hike is long overdue. Maybe it could be less, but if you really want people at the bottom to support themselves, their families and the economy, this is what needs to happen. The cost of housing alone in many cities in the Midwest has more than doubled in the last 5 years at lower levels, in large part due to gentrification of our inner cities and even suburbs.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Bill Nelson

      “...a climate disaster...”
      A weather disaster and it is not on the level of a hurricane, no physical damage. Just inconvenience.

      Collapse
      1. Mary Stine

        Are you nuts? Do you actually live in Texas?? The extent of physical damage to farms, ranches, utilities, chemical plants, not to mention private homes and churches is still to be quantified. The damage to wildlife and trees unused to this weather is obvious.
        This was beyond a mere "weather event". By the account of some officials in Texas, and many private citizens, this will be worse than Hurricane Harvey.
        Labelling this a "mere inconvenience" is insulting.

        Collapse
    2. Nickson

      I know we used to have a consensus on a national minimum wage, but a one-size-fits-all minimum wage really seems like a bad idea nowadays given the huge cost of living disparities from region to region. These disparities have grown over the years. And there’s no doubt that a higher minimum wage will result in fewer jobs, especially among small businesses. On the other hand, the “working poor” end up being subsidized by SNAP, Medicaid, etc, which we taxpayers pay for, so by not paying enough to live on companies are basically forcing taxpayers to subsidize their businesses. It’s a complex problem. Still, I think the minimum wage is a very blunt instrument, and attacking the issue of underpaying employees through corporate tax incentives would be more effective, but take much more effort to structure properly.

      Collapse
  6. Avatar photo
    Will Bates

    I think this article and its reception is exactly what I have feared to be the result of the Trump presidency: the soft bigotry of low expectations.

    As a center-left democrat I have thus far been disappointed by Biden. He should be coming out stronger for getting kids back in schools (ignoring Teachers Unions to that end), and the $1.7T bill is populist hogwash.

    The problem is, when you just had 4 years of Trump, anything that doesn't look actively counterproductive, looks productive.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Will Bates

      Sorry, I just realized I used the wrong idiom here.

      Collapse
  7. carmazon

    The Republican base and most of its politicians are working hard to make Biden appear normal. As long as Trump is the leader/role model for the Republican party Biden doesn't have to do much to seem comfortingly normal.

    Collapse
  8. Avatar photo
    CynthiaW

    Warren Harding had a lot of vocabulary.

    Collapse
  9. Avatar photo
    BrettH

    Nice piece, I enjoyed the read. Jonah long ago persuaded me that public sector unions, outside of PD and FD (these are high risk professions after all), are a massive conflict of interest.

    Collapse
    1. Shaybult

      I hear/read the PD/FD exception a lot, and I don't really get it. Public sector unions are a conflict of interest. They don't stop being a conflict of interest because the employees in question have high risk jobs.

      Given what I've seen police unions choose to fight for and defend, I'm all for abolishing them along with the teachers unions.

      Collapse
    2. Avatar photo
      George.Skinner

      Even unions for high risk professions need to face more accountability. According to the National Fire Prevention Association, reported fires per year has dropped steadily from about 3,000,000 in 1980 to 1,300,000 today. Similarly, deaths per million population due to fires has dropped from 30 in 1980 to 11.3 today. Improved building codes and other safety measures have reduced the demand for fire fighting despite an increasing population, yet fire department costs have increased more than inflation over that time. Most calls answered by firefighters are medical in nature, and they're typically duplicating the response of paramedics. Are firefighters an essential service? Yes! Are firefighters putting their own lives at risk by answering the call of duty? Of course! However, it's still a fair question whether we need to spend quite so much on this service given the change in demand, and whether the spending on fire departments is squeezing spending in other areas that require attention. Part of the reason this isn't cut is because the unions are very effective at maintaining their public image, and very effectively applying pressure to any politicians who don't toe the line with respect to their budget requests.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Narwhal

        The fact that this story is probably unknown to most US citizens and the issue receives no discussion says a lot.

        https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fires-set-by-firefighters-a-long-standing-problem-experts-say-1.3563183

        Just to be clear, I don’t mean to slander the vast majority of firefighters by posting this. I mean to highlight that it is an underreported story which receives little or no discussion.

        Collapse
        1. Avatar photo
          Cornelius O’Brien

          If you have a good local paper and you read it, you know this happens with some frequency. Local TV will cover it if there’s a fatality. Anecdotally it’s not typically a professional fire fighter. Instead it’s a junior member of a small town volunteer company.

          Collapse
          1. Avatar photo
            Narwhal

            From the article I posted,
            “An arson expert based in California says firefighter arson is a recognized, ongoing problem, but it's difficult to know exactly how common it is because authorities don't keep records.”

            “Fire agencies historically hid these," Nordskog said.”

            Collapse
          2. Avatar photo
            Narwhal

            Fair enough. I’ve never seen it covered in any local paper, but that may because I missed it or I don’t live in a place where it is more likely to occur. Or both.

            Collapse
    3. Avatar photo
      Narwhal

      They need to be weakened. All of them. Too many examples of corruption, incompetence, and/or misdeeds going unpunished.

      I’ll be shocked if any politician from either major party takes this stance given that both major parties benefit from the support of public sector unions.

      Collapse
    4. Avatar photo
      Dan

      I could support a Police Union once we purge all the white nationalists out of them.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        CynthiaW

        Do you think a police union without white supremacists would never prioritize its members interests of those of the public?

        Collapse
  10. Avatar photo
    Narwhal

    “For much of the primary season, the competition among Biden’s Democratic opponents was over who could offer the most radical agenda. When it became clear to rank-and-file voters—and a few key Democratic leaders—that such radicalism could cost Democrats the general election, Biden surged to front-runner status.”

    Perhaps the most consistently reliable part of the Democratic base are older black women voters. And they helped deliver the nomination to Biden. Bernie had some momentum until February 29th and then the Southern states started voting.

    Some far-left progressives believe a narrative that the DNC scuttled the Bernie campaign in two consecutive presidential primaries. I think this is because they are either unwilling to or incapable of facing an uncomfortable fact. Many older black voters are social conservatives and deeply religious.

    Some far-left progressives are openly hostile to people with deeply held religious beliefs and this group backed Bernie more than any other candidate. This group typically directs that hostility towards white evangelicals and rarely towards black Protestants. But, it doesn’t change their general view on the matter.

    I haven’t watched or read the Handmaiden’s Tale, but I’ve seen some ads and clips and Giliad looks awfully white. My hunch is that the book and show don’t address that many black Protestants might be more comfortable in Giliad than most far-left progressive Brooklynites or far-left wealthy big donors who live in LA or SF.

    All that said I don’t think the current GOP is in a position to make big gains by exploiting the differences in the D base for various reasons.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      cheerio

      I have read The Handmaid's Tale and (at least in the book) the reason why Gilead is so white is because the radical religious cult that took over resettled "the children of Ham." Of course, who knows what they meant by resettled. In the series, being resettled to different zones usually meant a death due to radiation sickness and hard labor. In the book white women were enslaved and systematically raped to produce white babies.

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Narwhal

        So it is entirely off the wall fiction. Ok. Thanks for the info.

        Collapse
        1. Avatar photo
          cheerio

          Yes, _The Handmaid's Tale_ is a work of speculative fiction (much like _1984_ and other dystopian novels), the author Margaret Atwood maintains that all of the scenarios offered in The Handmaid's Tale have actually occurred in real life in varied places and in history, particularly among American Puritans in New England (witchcraft trials) as well as the utopian regimes in 20th century Romania and Cambodia. So not entirely off the wall.

          Collapse
Load More