A portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt has hung above the Oval Office fireplace since the beginning of Joe Biden’s presidency, breaking with a long-standing tradition of giving the prized spot to George Washington.
It’s a tribute to a president Biden evoked during the campaign, one he has praised for prioritizing the working class, and one for a presidency that wants to use government to protect the vulnerable. It looked like the North Star.
Some of his allies say he lived up to that ambition, at least to some degree.
“President Biden said when he took office that he would be the most progressive president since FDR, and I think he kept his promise when it came to domestic issues, not foreign policy,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (Independent), Vermont. He spoke immediately after Biden’s loss in the state.
Comparing a one-term president to FDR may be a little like comparing me, a humble newsletter writer, to Shakespeare or Robert Caro. But this is an example of the kind of lofty praise for Biden coming from a corner of his party, a left wing that would have been unimaginable for most of his career.
“When it comes to domestic policy, President Biden will probably go down as one of the most effective working-class presidents we’ve ever had,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told me this afternoon. said, but added that she does not think she is deeply involved with him on foreign policy issues such as the war in Gaza.
“I was struck by the generosity shown, especially during the early years of this administration,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
what the president leaves behind
For much of his political career, Biden has been seen as the embodiment of political moderation. But in the spring of 2020, when he was running against Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination, he promised in an interview that if elected, his administration would “go down as one of the most progressive administrations” in U.S. history. .
Biden allies say his administration has poured trillions of dollars into recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, rebuilding infrastructure and combating climate change, and is reindustrializing the country with measures like the CHIPs bill. It points out that the government has promoted the
He was the first sitting president to join workers on the picket line. He canceled the student loan debt of 5 million borrowers. And his administration took aggressive steps to rein in corporate power.
“It was clear that he understood the full scope of the coalition that helped him win the presidency,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “and he was willing to translate that into his governance.” “I did it,” he said.
Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University, said Biden’s accomplishments place him in the tradition of FDR and other Democrats who believed government could expand social equality.
But what made Roosevelt successful was not only the policies he instituted, but also the fact that he was reelected three times. “Part of it is what you leave behind,” Zelizer said. “Part of that is building a really durable coalition that will not only continue to grow these programs, but will fight to the end after you’re gone. In this case, that’s exactly what happened. there is no.”
My colleague David Leonhardt wrote this morning that Biden’s thinking about the economy and the government’s role in it could last beyond his presidential term.
That’s what his advisers believe will happen.
“The seeds the Biden administration has planted through industrial policy could be transformative for the economy if allowed to flourish,” said Jared Bernstein, the Biden administration’s chief economist.
He added: “I don’t care what color your politics are – even if they’re deep red – I’m not going to take a wrecking ball to a manufacturing facility that’s being built in my backyard.” .
fight for credit
Shortly after Biden took office in 2021, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat and longtime member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, visited Biden’s office with other House Democratic leaders. She looked at a portrait of Roosevelt and told Biden that FDR lifted seniors out of poverty by creating Social Security. He said Biden could do the same for children by creating a child tax credit, which he did the same year.
“He stood by the working men and women of this country, and that’s where you can see where he’s coming from,” DeLauro said.
The problem, of course, was that the credit expired because Congress failed to extend it.
Mr. Biden failed to accomplish many progressive priorities, including a proposal to raise the minimum wage and significantly expand government child care assistance. Even though he ruled as an economic progressive in many ways, he struggled to reward voters for even his most popular accomplishments, such as using the government’s bargaining power to lower drug prices.
“When you look at progressive actions, progressive policies, they really make a difference for working people, right?” said Vermont Rep. Becca Balint, another progressive Democrat. He said he praised Biden’s work on infrastructure. “But people have to be able to say the name off the top of their head,” she continued, “and that didn’t happen.”
Progressives argue that Mr. Biden recognized the rise of Sanders, who finished second to Mr. Biden in the 2020 Democratic nomination race, as a harbinger of change within the party. And they praise Biden for handling it.
“He understood better than any of his colleagues that the party had changed,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. “We were collaborative partners in shaping the agenda in a way that progressives had not been before.”
Ocasio-Cortez argued that the economic progressivism that animated parts of Biden’s presidency will survive, at least somewhat, through Democrats, who won close races in tough races last year.
“Many of them have embraced populist trends and I hope that continues for a long time,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
What does Gretchen Whitmer think about Trump II?
Some Democrats have already announced their opposition to President Trump. But others are approaching his incoming administration in a more subtle way. My colleague Katie Glueck spoke with Governor Gretchen Whitmer in Detroit today, and the governor offered new insight into her stance on the incoming administration. We asked Katie to find out more.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a leading Democrat in one of the nation’s most important battleground states, outlined her approach to President Trump in a speech at the Detroit Auto Show on Wednesday.
Key points: While drawing a line at the idea that President Trump would threaten Canada with tariffs, the two sides will seek common ground on issues such as cutting costs and creating manufacturing jobs.
Whitmer, who, like Trump, has twice won statewide in Michigan, summed it up in an interview before her speech.
“We’re probably going to be very strongly and vocally opposed to the policies that the next administration is pushing,” she said. “But at the end of the day, this is what voters across the country decided. And we want to honor the will of the voters and stay focused on making people’s lives better.”
— Katie Glueck
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