The.Ink

Share this post

🚨Welcome to the new progressive era

the.ink

🚨Welcome to the new progressive era

My new reporting in The Atlantic from inside Biden’s big tent

Anand Giridharadas
Apr 14, 2021
46
22
Share this post

🚨Welcome to the new progressive era

the.ink

I have been waiting to share this one with you for a while.

Some weeks ago, I took on a mission to interview inside players across the disparate factions of President Biden’s big, Bernie-to-Manchin tent.

Here’s what I wanted to understand: how had a historically moderate president turned out, in the early days at least, to be something rather different? Could Biden, of all people, turn out to the president who breaks the spell of Reagan?

I talked to senators and representatives and union leaders and activists and moderates and progressives and one of the president’s longest-serving advisers, and came away with this portrait of a coalition and of “an improbable coming-together of people and forces: a moderate president, with an ascendant progressive movement at his back and at his throat, facing a once-in-a-generation window of opportunity.”

I hope you enjoy the below excerpt of the larger 4,000-word report (link to The Atlantic below), and, as always, if you enjoy my reporting and want to support my work, subscribe to The Ink.


Welcome to the New Progressive Era

Progressives thought they knew what a Biden presidency would look like. How did they get him so wrong?

By Anand Giridharadas

Washington in the first days of the Biden administration is a place for double takes: A president associated with the politics of austerity is spending money with focused gusto, a crisis isn’t going to waste, and Senator Bernie Sanders is happy.

People like to tell you they saw things coming. But as I talked to many of the campers in Joe Biden’s big tent, particularly those who, like me, were skeptical of Biden, I found that the overwhelming sentiment was surprise. Few of us expected that this president—given his record, a knife’s-edge Congress, and a crisis that makes it hard to look an inch beyond one’s nose—would begin to be talked about as, potentially, transformational.

Biden, after all, was a conservative Democrat who has exuded personal decency more than he has pushed for structural decency. One conservative publication labeled him “the senator from MBNA”for his friendliness to credit-card companies. He conducted the Clarence Thomas–Anita Hill hearings in a way that hurt Hill, for which he later expressed regret. He voted for the Iraq War and eulogized the segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond. He began his 2020 campaign telling wealthy donors that, in his vision, “nobody has to be punished. No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change.”

But then Biden sold the country on a massive rescue package that his erstwhile rival Sanders has called“the single most significant piece of legislation for working-class people that has been passed since the 1960s.” He quickly followed that with an infrastructure proposal that includes everything from roads to a strengthened safety net for caregivers, and focuses on redressing the harms of climate change and the racist urban planning of the past. Biden plans to finance it partially through a tax increase on the corporations he was once better known for protecting. There have been a slew of executive orders, many of real import, as well as gestures like standing up for Amazon workers seeking to unionize.

The conversations I’ve had in recent weeks have painted a portrait of an improbable coming-together of people and forces: a moderate president, with an ascendant progressive movement at his back and at his throat, facing a once-in-a-generation window of opportunity. It’s still early. It remains to be seen if this momentum will continue, if the infrastructure plan musters the votes, if the ungainly Sanders-to-Manchin coalition holds. But for now, a capital that has been defined in recent years by the absence of useful action bubbles with generative possibility. And many of us who thought we knew what a Biden presidency would look like, and didn’t expect much from it, are suddenly asking ourselves: How did we get him so wrong?

Read the rest of the article at The Atlantic.


22
Share this post

🚨Welcome to the new progressive era

the.ink
22 Comments
Christopher Johnson (Ohio)
Apr 15, 2021Liked by Anand Giridharadas

All your hard work paid off, it's a great article. I'll soon be 68 and have seen a lot of Presidents come and go and political party changes. I respect knowledge in a politician, but it's not everything. We've seen plenty of smart Presidents have lackluster administrations because they lacked experience. My equation for a good politician is:

knowledge + experience = wisdom

but even wisdom won't guarantee success. Your new article, better than any other I've read, explains how and why Biden got to where he now is.

I'm feeling good, thanks for bringing it all together.

Expand full comment
ReplyGift a subscriptionCollapse
GLORIA DESALVO
Apr 14, 2021

The article validates many of my thoughts Re: my expectations about a Biden presidency. What I have seen has surprised me. It was a reminder to

Me to stay humble- recognizing that despite history not to underestimate the power of experiences that increase our humanity. Biden has been through enormous loss & his empathy shows it. The stark contrast between him & the former president is being felt across the country to anyone who has not dug themselves into their respective corners. We have Sanders & Warren in leadership positions. Biden has clearly stated position that come from his heart. It is seen from the memorial of the over 1/2 million fellow countrymen who have lost their lives to this pandemic & all the wives, husbands, sons & daughters that had not been given the space to heal. Biden’s priority of #1 getting the Pandemic under control was both the humanitarian, life saving action & only way to make us economically whole- again a stark contrast from the previous president. His absolute position not to turn away unaccompanied minors is again humanity being priorities despite getting all the politics criticisms all the Republicans have brought. My personal relief comes from hearing Biden accept that our Climate Crisis Emergency must be prioritized to protect us, the planet, our economy & National Security. I wanted Bernie Sanders but Biden has shown great wisdom & leadership for the good of the country & is not showing fear when he is following his heart. The bottom line is that people change, they grow & expand their world views when they get themselves out of the way.

Expand full comment
ReplyGift a subscriptionCollapse
20 more comments…
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

Š 2023 Anand Giridharadas
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing