
As Joe Biden names his cabinet and appoints figures to his most senior administration posts, he has assumed the reins of power as president-elect. At the beginning of this process, Democratic progressives held out hope that Biden would act inclusively to appoint allies of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and The Squad to some of thse positions. After all, despite their opposition to Biden’s centrist policy agenda, they campaign heartily for him and mobilized young people and minorities like never before. The proof of the pudding is that this election saw the highest participation rate since 1902. Biden won more votes than any previous Democratic presidential candidate.
Despite all this, it’s become clear that Biden has no interest in placing his trust in progressives by appointing them to these posts. Biden is a centrist. He is straight out of Democratic corporatist central casting. He is appointing the same people he’s known over the decades in the Senate and when he was Obama’s vice-president. As a recent headline read: this is not a Team of Rivals, but a Team of Buddies.
Not only is Biden ignoring progressives, he’s broadcast his disdain for them. At a recent meeting with seven African-American civil rights groups, when questioned about his commitment to their agenda, he protested (audio available above) vociferously, falsely claiming that he was the only Democrat who spoke out against the Charlottesville riot. He even doubled down saying that “no progressive” did so:
Let’s get something straight. You shouldn’t be disappointed. What I’ve done so far is more than anybody else has done this far. OK? Number 1. Number 2: I mean what I say when I say it! I mean what I say when I say it! I’m the only person who’s ever run on three platforms I was told could not possibly win the election. And I never ceased from it. One was on restoring the soul of this country because of what I saw happen in Charlottesville. That was it. No one else was talking about it. The words of presdients matter. Nobody else. No progressive was talking about it. I did!
It’s hard to know whether Biden spoke intemperately and in haste, and that was an unintentional error; or whether it was a deliberate lie. The president-elect has a habit of making spontaneous, off-the-cuff claims that come back to bite him. This could be one of those.
Of course Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren spoke out forcefully about Charlottesville. Biden has no monopoly on virtue in this regard. So the attempt to aggrandize himself at the expense of progressives not only falls flat. It’s insulting. Nor has Biden apologized for this major gaffe. And I have no heard an outcry from the groups he insulted. So perhaps he will get away with this insult.
During the same talk, he echoed the anger of Democratic moderates like Rep. James Clyburn who claimed that slogans like “socialism” turned off swing state voters and cost Democrats those eleven lost House seats:
“I also don’t think we should get too far ahead ourselves on dealing with police reform in that, because they’ve already labeled us as being ‘defund the police’ anything we put forward in terms of the organizational structure to change policing — which I promise you, will occur. Promise you,” Biden said.
“That’s how they beat the living hell out of us across the country, saying that we’re talking about defunding the police. We’re not. We’re talking about holding them accountable. We’re talking about giving them money to do the right things. We’re talking about putting more psychologists and psychiatrists on the telephones when the 911 calls through. We’re talking about spending money to enable them to do their jobs better, not with more force, with less force and more understanding.”
This of course falls far short of the demands of Black Lives Matter. It is a terrible deflation of expectation by members of the Black community who deal every day with mass violence by police in most of major cities. It simply will not do. It falls far sort of the mark.
Returning to Clyburn: when he denounced Black Lives Matter’s slogan, he even invoked John Lewis, who wasn’t alive to dispute him, to bolster his claim. Lewis, ironically, was beaten to within an inch of his life by racist Alabama state troopers. It seems doubtful that he would harbor any sympathy for colleagues defending police.
Biden owes Clyburn, who threw his support to Joe Biden after early primary victories by Bernie Sanders offered him a possible path to win the nomination. Clyburn’s endorsement brought the South Carolina African-American vote to Biden, who won that state’s primary and then went on to victory. Coincidentally, Clyburn is the largest Congressional recipient of campaign cash from Big Pharma, which opposes Medicare for All, one of Sanders’ main planks.
Other moderates like ex-CIA officer, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, excoriated left-wing Democrats for espousing using slogans like “defund the police.” In fact, no Democratic candidates endorsed such an approach, though many did advocate transferring responsibility certain police functions to social services and mental health agencies.
The carping by losing Democrats also obscured the fact that most of the planks of the progressive agenda like a Green New Deal, free college tuition, Medicare for All, and reforming the criminal justice system are endorsed by a majority of Americans. A comfortable majority of Americans even approve of the Black Lives Matter itself, which first espoused the “defund the police” slogan. All of the progressive candidates running for Congress won. When Alexandria Ocasio Cortez even offered election campaign consulting to her moderate colleagues for their own elections, only five took up her offer. All five won their elections.
Who lost? Candidates who were either running in marginal districts which they’d won against prior Republican incumbents or candidates like Max Rose, who ran like a Republican dressed as a Democrat. The lesson should be: if you’re a Democrat run like one. Don’t run away from issues for which there is majority support in America. Run proudly on those issues. Even if there is strong opposition. Look at Bernie Sanders campaigns. When he first ran for president most pundits thought of him as the longest of long shots. They saw no room in presidential primaries for a democratic socialist. Guess what? There was. Because Sanders made room. He forced himself into the national conversation by proving the public would respond to an honest politician whose ideas were spoken rationally and sensibly.
Foreign Policy Can Make or Break a President
The struggle for the hearts and minds of the Party is playing out largely in terms of domestic policy, the pocket-book issues on which many voters make their decisions. But it’s critical not to lose sight of the fact that presidencies are often made or broken in the field of foreign policy.
One of Obama’s greatest achievements was the Iran nuclear deal, which restrained that country’s nuclear program and assured it would not manufacture nuclear weapons. Contrarily, the humiliation Jimmy Carter suffered during the Iran hostage crisis, and collusion between Reagan and Ayatollah Khomeini to delay their release until after the election, destroyed his re-election bid.
But foreign policy doesn’t just define a presidency or ensure its political survival, it is a moral imperative which defines our values for the world. Recall that Bill Clinton’s refusal to intervene in the Rwandan genocide permitted the murder of 800,000 Tutsi, and led to the rise of yet another genocidal leader, Paul Kagame. What our presidents do or refuse to do on the international stage defines us as a nation.
Progressive Democrats need to propose the same type of coherent, comprehensive foreign policy vision which they offer in the domestic arena. Except in fits and starts, they have not done so. I produced a webinar for KBOO community radio a few weeks ago with panelists Omar Rahman and Muhammad Sahimi proposing what a progressive U. S. Middle East policy would look like.
One of the main criticisms of Bernie Sanders on the left during the 2016 presidential primary was that while he was laser-focused on domestic issues, he hadn’t given nearly as much attention to foreign policy. When he did address it, his views seemed far less visionary and compelling than those on domestic programs. His liberal Zionist approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict, which included an allergic reaction to a one-state solution and a cut-off of U.S. military aid, offer just a few examples.
Progressive Foreign Policy Agenda
Progressives must demand a Biden foreign policy team that is independent of ties to defense contractors, multi-national companies, and corporate lobbyists. These are the figures in both Republican and Democratic administrations who have led us to wars which have benefited their former clients and employers.
As the American Prospect wrote:
The defense industry’s influence on national-security policy has led to a…reckless prioritization of military action over diplomacy, including the United States’ military involvement in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Afghanistan, and its continued support of Saudi Arabia’s bombing of Yemeni civilians. Bloated defense spending sails through Congress while investments in health care, infrastructure, medical research, education, and housing struggle to get traction.
[The] Biden administration has the ability to pursue a progressive national-security agenda: prioritizing diplomacy over military action, reducing the Pentagon’s budget, opposing regime-change interventions, supporting refugees, and condemning governments that violate human rights. But the Biden camp must first end the military-industrial complex’s influence in the executive branch.
Rep. Ilhan Omar recently penned her own vision of a progressive U.S. policy she hoped Biden would adopt.
The first task would be to undo the extensive damage Trump did to our international commitments. Trade is a key component of U.S. foreign policy as it benefits our economy, our workers and our consumers. But trade deals must incorporate protection for the environment and ensure that foreign workers not be exploited in wages or working conditions; and that they not be pitted against American workers in a win-lose scenario.
The Big Tech corporate juggernaut has caused immense harm domestically, as we’ve seen in our recent national elections, but its impact extends far beyond our shores. We have an obligation to regulate its activities, break up anti-competitive monopolies, and restrain its worst impulses in order to prevent harm outside our borders.
Biden has promised to returning to the Paris Climate agreement. In concert with the domestic Green New Deal, progressives should champion commitments not only to carbon neutrality and sustainability, we should export the technology and expertise on a global scale. We should collaborate with foreign countries in developing these solutions in the same way we’re developing a COVID19 vaccine through international cooperation. We must be open to learning lessons from nations which are ahead of us in their campaigns to achieve these goals.
Another critical foreign policy objective must be to revive arms control and nuclear non-proliferation. Trump failed miserably in permitting major arms control treaties with Russia to lapse, thus renewing a bilateral nuclear arms race. During the last four years, both countries have begun research on even more deadly weapons like hypersonic missiles. We must renew these treaties and restrain the deployment of these new dangers to world peace.
Trump totally mismanaged our relations with China. They are in a worse state than they have been since the Korean War. A progressive approach would dis-entangle the political, military, and trade conflicts which emerged over the past four years. While we should fully embrace Hong Kong’s democratic movement, there is no need for trade wars which punish both manufacturers and consumers in both countries. China clearly is a rival, but it should not become an enemy.
The outgoing U.S. president also approved selling nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia, which could easily lead to a new arms race between the Saudis and Iran. We have no way of guaranteeing the security of technology we offer them. We cannot ensure they don’t offer it to other states with whom they are allied. And if the House of Saud is overthrown, we have no idea who will take its place and what they might do with our nuclear technology. Our policy should refuse to encourage such proliferation. If instead, we encourage regional stability, lessen hostility, and offer security to rival states, they may not be as tempted to pursue a nuclear path.
A progressive U.S. foreign policy would not only return to the JCPOA agreement with Iran as Biden has promised to do, it would seek full normalization of ties. Mutual recognition, ending sanctions, and mutual de-escalation of various interventions of both the U.S. and Iran in regional conflicts. Our military presence in the region often does not stabilize societies, but rather incites much greater bloodshed. If we seek to stop Iranian intervention in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, then we and our closest regional ally, Israel, must stop our own adventurism.
America must embrace a policy of non-intervention both in our own hemisphere (i.e. Venezuela, Cuba) and the Middle East as well. We should restore human rights as an element of our foreign policy. Countries like the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which permit monarchs and dictators to run roughshod over human lives, must pay a price in their relations with the U.S. A temporary pause in arms shipments as we did with the Egyptian junta is a slap on the wrist with no meaningful impact.
Here are a few examples of what a progressive Middle East policy agenda could look like. A comprehensive proposal to revamp U.S. relations in the Middle East could include:
End counter-terror drone attacks and targeted assassinations, which killed thousands in the region.
Recognize a Palestinian state and offer full UN status.
Oppose anti-BDS legislation in Congress and state legislatures as violations of free speech
Resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict by compelling Israel to fully withdraw from pre-1967 borders and recognize a Palestinian state; if it refuses, the U.S. should end all military aid to Israel and propose a UN sanctions regime until it acquiesces. Alternatively we could turn to a one-state solution as the sole remaining viable solution.
Demand that Israel negotiate resolutions of its conflicts with Syria and Lebanon which would necessitate an end to military attacks and interventions outside its borders.
Reset relations with Iran through a return to JCPOA, ending sanctions, promoting trade and investment, and negotiating an end to its intervention in states like Syria and Lebanon
Re-evaluate relations with Saudi Arabia: demand that it withdraw from Yemen, end its brutal war there; promote human rights and women’s rights in the kingdom; and discourage it from pursuing a nuclear weapons program.
Spearhead a regional nuclear-free zone in which Israel would sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, join the IAEA, and pledge not to use its nuclear weapons; and all other states (Saudi Arabia, etc.) considering nuclear research would join IAEA and follow the same inspection protocols as Iran.
Clearly, these are far-reaching proposals some of whom do not yet enjoy consensus support which the progressive domestic agenda policies do. But the Left must not only advocate what is possible; it must advocate what is right and just and offers the greatest good for the greatest number.
Great article and analysis Richard. The ethical and moral viewpoints are undisputed. US Congress, politics and Western foreign policy is all about might, wealth and spread of capitalism around the globe as if it was a renewed exploitation of a New World with the sword of christians as cover. See the daily Bible briefings by Rumsfeld and Cheney for president Bush and the seat of religious zealots Trump was hoisted in by extreme evangelicals. The separation of state and religion has been a farce for decades now. See also Poland and extreme right, morals and Catholic hierarchy. Mankind should be deeply ashamed of the suffering by the masses in Third World nations and the inequality here at home. To be social is inherent in Jewish faith and teachings of Jesus. The voices of moderation aren’t heard in a new generation of tech giants, AI and robotical warfare destroying lives. Many nations like the Philippines, US, UK, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran are based on a culture of death. Same can be said of China and Russia.The federal executions expedited in a lame-duck presidency of Donald Trump reminds me of a Texas Governor and State AG Alberto Gonzales. A culture of gun violence leads to fear, stress and a population easily manipulated by enemies of the state.
There is only hope for US politics when honest people like Bernie Sanders and progressive voices are heard. Your article would do well as a platform for such a democratic movement. Chapeau.
Excellent Richard. Biden’s honeymoon barely begun maybe over? I was churning about his seeming allergy to progressives in his appointments and cabinet selections. He’s ignoring Sanders and Warren probably because they are senators but they hopefully would be comfortably replaced. They both deserve high or cabinet positions.Biden must feel that he owes Clyburn.Clyburn has risen! But Clyburn does not represent all blacks either though he turned the presidential race around against Sanders so the sclerotic moderates could sigh relief.
I like Biden for decency since Trump has sunk us so low, like most do but I am not liking where we seem to be going, certainly not in foreign affairs.I guess he has enough to do steadying the ship,repairing what he can from the executive office.This will be especially so if we lose Georgia.
Progressive issues are the growing tip of this country. They get demagogued and fear-mongered, defined,not only by Republicans,but by so-called moderate Democrats. Socialism! That commenting that now blames progressives for the Democratic losses in this election irks me no end.
Progressive issues tend to get accepted, if they are, by the party after too long a slog. Some issues are long overdo: climate change, healthcare (as a right).
The sooner the American left realises that it will never prosper inside an openy capitalist and imperialist party the better. The trade unions need to set up a party of labour not support a corporate capitalist party
@ Tony Greenstein: I think our trade unions, with a few exceptions, may be ever more dire circumstances than in the UK. Membership is way, way down. Many unions are either corrupt or run by cliques. There are a few truly progressive unions. But they would not be enough to populate an entire movement. And most are supporting Bernie who, while independent, is essentially a Democrat.
Ethics, morals and a progressive vision won’t help Biden defeat ‘Trumpism’.
Donald Trump is not going quietly into the night.
Trump and his Republican running dogs are going to fight Biden day in and day out for the next four years. Biden simply doesn’t have the luxury to include Progressives in his Cabinet.
He has to stay in the middle of the road, or get shoved in a ditch by Trump first chance he gets.
Sepp– that is the very problem: Democrats capitulating, moderating, compromising before the fight, before going the the people and making the case. Middle of the road is nowhere when people are suffering, angry, want change.
@ Sepp: Yours is the very tired, hoary thinking I’m fighting against in this post. Betraying progressive values inspires no one. Had this been 2016, Biden would have done far worse than Hillary did. And in four years, if he runs again, he probably won’t have Trump as a powerful foil driving voters to him. He will die on the vine in 2024 if he runs because he stands for nothing. He’s an older, kindlier version of Keir Starmer. Who’s inspired by that?
Democratic voters want a vision, a program, a set of values. Both Obama (as a candidate) and Bernie offered that. Biden offers none of that.
@Potter
What you fail to see, is that many Americans are “suffering, angry, want change”, and that they’ve chosen Trump!
Progressives have tried, and failed, to convince White, rural Americans, that Socialism is their natural ally.
@Richard
Four years of Trump has sickened and weakened America, and America doesn’t need the ‘kill or cure’ treatment demanded by Progressives.
America needs quiet, routine, and moderation, as if she’s a recovering trauma patient.
@ Sepp: No more comments in this thread. And do not repeat yourself when you post in a comment thread. This comment is a repeat of exactly what you posted earlier. Do not do that.
America needs vision and leadership. Biden offers somnolence. That inspires no one. It leads to a suffocating status quo. It may satisfy people for a few months or a year. But in time, they will recognize Biden’s offering nothing new, nothing of substance. He will try for one or two signature achievements and try to coast on the backs of those (if he succeeds in enacting them). It won’t work.
I reject your claim about the progressive agenda. It is offensive. You are skating on thin ice.
Even as a candidate Obama’s vision was purple America and we loved it as if saying so made it so. Biden now too.Then Obama went hat in hand with compromises to the scorched earth GOP. Biden seems (so far) as though he’s going to lock progressives in the back room like people used to do with their mentally ill. I hope not. Democratic moderates help the GOP by comparing their “far radical left” to the Trump embraced far right. Actually progressives are a centralizing force to the rightward moving Democratic Party. “Centrist”/moderate Democrats seem to have a hard time tolerating their visionary, growing, energizing tip; the vitality. They are frightened of it because the GOP knows how to characterize this. Biden of necessity, because of their support, held talks with progressives prior to the election. This gave hope of real change.
Biden won largely because of his decency in comparison to Trump. He was the anti-Trump. I don’t believe he responded to Trump’s most egregious attacks; he kept it positive. Enough voters, including the progressively minded put side all else and it worked. Yet now we have the internal blame game about down ballot losses; it’s the fault of the progressives…parroting Trumpists, it’s “open borders” “defund the police” and “the Green New Deal” that “would put a $600,000 tax burden on every household.” “Socialism!”
You haven’t voted for Biden, or have you?
Why do you feel like you can tell a guy you didn’t vote for what to do?
@ Ariel: He’s my future president. I pay his salary. I sure can tell him what to do. Or at least what I want him to do. Do you mean to say Republicans who didn’t vote for him have no right to tell him what they think he should do?
How long does it take you to come up with these foolish notions? I sure hope it’s not too long. Because they come across as shallow and ill-considered. Tell Hasbara Central we were hoping for something a bit more challenging than what you offer.
You also paid Trump’s salary and all the US army/navy/marines/air-force “murderers” around the globe.
Keep that in mind next time you go all out and write about how every Israeli is to blame for Bibi’s actions.
The hypocrisy of you and many of the left is so obvious. The excuses and hair-splitting explanations for how and why it is different show why you lads are irrelevant, which is exactly why Biden doesn’t give this part of the party more than the minimal attention required.
@ Ariel: The problem with Gotcha hasbara of your sort is that it’s old and someone has already tried it. So the attempt at whataboutism in which you say “but what about the terrible things your own government does?” fails because your hasbara troll pals have not only tried it once here, but scores of times. It’s so old. So here’s the response which I’ve offered countless times before: I have nothing to answer for…because unlike you I’ve denounced the criminality of my own government. And I’ve done it not just during Republican administration’s, but Democratic ones as well.
And as for Biden ignoring progressives: he does so at his peril. Progressives brought him victory. They can snatch it away too. Though he has abandoned progressives for his national security and foreign policy nominations, he is being sensitive to progressive concerns on domestic affairs. He just abandoned a nominee for EPA because she has offended the environmental justice movement.
The only way in which “every Israeli is guilty of Bibi’s actions” is when Israelis as a whole vote for right-wing governments. Then, as is proper in democratic societies, citizens take responsibility for the actions of their government. Either they remain silent and are culpable or they support the policies outright or they oppose them. The current protests against Netanyahu mainly focus on his corruption. They deliberately avoid talking about his policies toward Arab states or Palestinians. So this opposition doesn’t get Israelis off the hook, I’m afraid.
Whataboutism is just a cheap way to discard an argument of the opponent.
The argument doesn’t simply say “If others are doing it then why can’t I?” but “The fact that others are doing it means it is actually sensible and moral b/c the world is not as black and white.”
For example, you warn some commenters about breaking the comment rules while others go unearned. So when you warn someone and he replies “But Oui did the same”, it isn’t whataboutism but questioning the comment rules and whether they were put in place to enhance the conversation or as a restriction tool to suppress voices on the comment thread.
@ Ariel: I have absolutely no interest in explaining, justifying or defending my editorial decisions. That was your last comment in this thread.
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