Biden to Bye, Don to Bye/Done

What strange times we Americans are living in.

We are witnessing a historic period of heightened political anxiety, distrust, and quotidian precedent-smashing. And with everyone and their mother sharing their hot takes on whatever street corner of the internet they feel most comfortable shouting at passersby, I feel a bit defeatist and cynical about adding my own mouth-breathing to the cacophony.

But as dysfunctional, loud, and oversimplified as the American political landscape is these days, I still love working in and opining on the business of politics. For me it is more fun and jaw-dropping than watching the most thrilling movie unfold before my eyes.

And to survive and thrive in the business, it forces you to become a more resilient and thoughtful person. Which I think everyone would benefit from these days.

President Biden is criminally underrated.

There, I said it. Fight me! (Not really though, I am anti-war.)

Yes, the Democrats need a new nominee after his trainwreck debate. Yes, Trump does not have an adult relationship with the truth or democratic values or most humans. Yes, it is silly to judge an entire administration, policy agenda, and arc of governing on 90 minutes of national television. Yes, there are a lot of recriminations that probably deserve to be lobbed around at and by insiders, donors, the media, and the public.

But I will remember this President as transformative for the nation, period. My view is a bit biased, having worked at the Center for American Progress during the first two years of the Biden presidency, when Democrats held a trifecta in DC. It is impossible to argue that the federal dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and CHIPS Act won’t be of massive consequence and hugely impactful for the country for many, many years to come.

Setting aside the hacky, calculated talking points that the campaign and its pollsters have about these laws, the best part about these accomplishments is that they represent a massive shift in Washington’s thinking about subsidizing both (1) industries of global importance and (2) places like the heartland, where I was born and raised.

This is a full break from the Clintonian, neoliberal, deregulatory politics of the past Democratic party that resulted in disastrous outcomes for Americans who weren’t Wall Streeters or CEOs incentivized to offshore jobs.

Sure, some of those economic benefits did trickle up to upper-middle class shareholders in their IRAs and 401Ks. I saw that up close and in real-time with my parents’ finances (there is a cost to expecting 7% annualized returns that Barron’s or Kiplinger will never address and will probably lambast as Marxist). But more importantly, if you worked in a factory that an executive decided to move to China or Mexico, or were an immigrant exploited for cheap labor by a nonsensical system, or were a senior citizen scraping by on an attenuating social safety net, you were screwed.

Trump deserves credit for moving the Overton window during his 2016 campaign to lay the groundwork for a more pro-America Biden presidency. Standing up to prevailing, antiseptic, and wrong economic theory of the Republican traditionalists and speaking instead to the values and experiences of heartland workers were important and bold stances to take. But ultimately it is tragic that his “greatest” accomplishment was passing Paul Ryan’s and Wall Street’s tax cuts. Great job on that populist heroism, guys.

Let’s hope that the Democrats double down on that economic populism, instead of letting fakers steal that jump ball. If they do, we can have Biden to thank.

Why am I bothering to write anything on my Medium account?

I primarily used this as a repository of longer form content that was not suitable for Twitter and would strategically be seen by a smaller audience (see my lazy and somewhat selfish attempt to draft Mayor Pete to replace our 2020 gubernatorial candidate, in order to lift down ballot candidates like myself).

Instead, I am trying a new thing where I journal my thoughts semi regularly, to help myself corral my wayward thoughts. In my new role, I am finding myself in greater contact and higher level discussions with political operatives, elected officials, donors, lobbyists, and the vast advocacy ecosystem, than even when I was an elected official; these conversations have been raising deeper and more complex questions for me than ever before.

My average-at-best brain would probably benefit for me to focus these swimming figments into some actual words.