Joe Biden is the leader America Needs Now
By Kathleen Kingsbury
Oct. 6,
2020
Joe Biden
has vowed to be a president for all Americans, even those who do not support
him. In previous elections, such a promise might have sounded trite or treacly.
Today, the idea that the president should have the entire nation’s interests at
heart feels almost revolutionary.
Damon
Winter/The New York Times
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Mr. Biden
has also vowed to “restore the soul of America.” It is a painful reminder that
the country is weaker, angrier, less hopeful and more divided than it was four
years ago. With this promise, Mr. Biden is assuring the public that he
recognizes the magnitude of what the next president is being called upon to do.
Thankfully, he is well suited to the challenge — perhaps particularly so.
In the
midst of unrelenting chaos, Mr. Biden is offering an anxious, exhausted nation
something beyond policy or ideology. His campaign is rooted in steadiness,
experience, compassion and decency.
A President
Biden would embrace the rule of law and restore public confidence in democratic
institutions. He would return a respect for science and expertise to the
government. He would stock his administration with competent, qualified,
principled individuals. He would stand with America’s allies and against
adversaries that seek to undermine our democracy. He would work to address
systemic injustices. He would not court foreign autocrats or give comfort to
white supremacists. His focus would be on healing divisions and rallying the
nation around shared values. He would understand that his first duty, always,
is to the American people.
But Mr.
Biden is more than simply a steady hand on the wheel. His message of unity and
pragmatism resonated with Democratic voters, who turned out in large numbers to
elevate him above a sprawling primary field.
His team
has put together a bold agenda aimed at tackling some of America’s most
pressing problems. The former vice president is committed to working toward
universal health care through measures such as adding a public option to the
Affordable Care Act — which he played a significant role in passing — lowering
the age for Medicare eligibility to 60 years old and cutting the cost of
prescription drugs. He recognizes the fateful threat of climate change and has
put forward an ambitious, $2 trillion plan to slash carbon emissions, invest in
a green economy and combat environmental racism.
Mr. Biden
will not be morphing into an ideological maximalist any time soon, but he has
acknowledged that the current trifecta of crises — a lethal pandemic, an
economic meltdown and racial unrest — calls for an expanded governing vision.
His campaign has been reaching out to a wide range of thinkers, including
former rivals, to help craft more dynamic solutions. In midsummer, he rolled
out an economic recovery plan, dubbed “Build Back Better,” with proposals to
bolster American manufacturing, spur innovation, build a “clean-energy
economy,” advance racial equity and support caregivers and educators. His plan
for fighting the coronavirus includes the creation of a public health jobs
corps. Progressives who want even more from him should not be afraid to push.
Experience is not the same as stagnation.
Mr. Biden
has a long and distinguished record of accomplishment, including, as a senator,
sponsoring the landmark Violence against Women Act of 1994 and, as vice
president, overseeing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,
passed in response to the Great Recession. In a 2012 interview on “Meet the
Press,” his remarks in support of gay marriage — which blindsided the Obama
White House and caused a public kerfuffle — proved a watershed moment for the
cause of equality. In 1996, Mr. Biden had voted as a senator in favour of the
Defence of Marriage Act, which prohibited federal recognition of same-sex
marriages, making his evolution on the issue particularly resonant.
He has an
unusually rich grasp of and experience in foreign policy, which, as
traditionally understood, has not played a central role in the presidential
race — though the pandemic, the climate crisis, a more assertive China and
disinformation wars against the American public argue strongly that it should.
The next president will face the task of repairing the enormous damage
inflicted on America’s global reputation.
Mr. Biden
has the necessary chops, having spent much of his career focused on global
concerns. He not only took on thorny diplomatic missions as vice president, he
also served more than three decades on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Aware that an “America First” approach in reality amounts to “America alone,”
he would work to revive and refurbish damaged alliances. He has the respect and
trust of America’s allies and would not be played for a fool by its
adversaries.
Certainly,
not all of Mr. Biden’s foreign policy decisions through the decades look sage
in hindsight, but he has shown foresight in key moments. He fought a rear-guard
action in the Obama White House to limit the futile surge in Afghanistan. He
was against the 2011 intervention in Libya and sceptical of committing American
troops to Syria. He opposed renewing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
in 2007 and 2008 because it gave the government too much power to spy on
Americans. He’s supported closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay. Little wonder
that he has the backing of a who’s who of the foreign policy community and
national security officials from both parties.
Mr. Biden
is not an ideological purist or a bomb-thrower. Some will see this as a
shortcoming or hopelessly naïve. Certainly, it’s unlikely that if Republicans
retain control of the Senate, their leader, Mitch McConnell, will abandon his
policy of fanatical obstructionism of any Democratic president.
That said,
as the emissary often dispatched by President Barack Obama to deal with
Republican lawmakers during tough legislative fights, Mr. Biden has intimate
experience with the partisan gridlock crippling Congress. He knows how the
levers of power work on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, and he has
longstanding relationships with members from both parties. More than any of
this cycle’s other presidential hopefuls, he offered weary voters a chance to
see whether even a modicum of bipartisanship is possible.
He is also
offering a glimpse of the Democratic Party’s future in his choice of running
mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California. Ms. Harris would become a number of
firsts — a woman, a Black person and an Asian-American — as vice president,
adding history-making excitement to the ticket. A former prosecutor, she is
tough, smart and can dismantle a faulty argument or political opponent. She is
progressive, but not radical. In her own presidential campaign, she presented
herself as a unifying leader with centre-left policy proposals in a mold similar
to Mr. Biden, albeit a generation younger. Mr. Biden is aware that he no longer
qualifies as a fresh face and has said that he considers himself a bridge to
the party’s next generation of leaders. Ms. Harris is a promising step in that
direction.
If he wins
election, Mr. Biden will need to take his governing agenda to the people — all
of the people, not just his party’s loudest or most online voices. This will
require persuading Americans that he understands their concerns and can
translate that understanding into sound policy.
Mr. Biden
has a rare gift for forging such connections. In his younger days, he, like so
many senators, could be in love with the sound of his own voice. Time and loss
have softened his edges. He speaks the language of suffering and compassion
with a raw intimacy. People respond to that, across lines of race and class —
ever more so in this time of uncertainty. The father of the police-shooting
victim Jacob Blake described his phone conversation with Mr. Biden as full of
“love, admiration, caring,” in one of many recent examples of the former vice
president’s hard-earned empathy.
Mr. Biden
knows that there are no easy answers. He has the experience, temperament and
character to guide the nation through this valley into a brighter, more hopeful
future. He has our endorsement for the presidency.
When they
go to the polls this year, voters aren’t just choosing a leader. They’re
deciding what America will be. They’re deciding whether they favor the rule of
law, how the government will help them weather the greatest economic calamity
in generations, whether they want government to enable everyone to have access
to health care, whether they consider global warming a serious threat, whether
they believe that racism should be treated as a public policy problem.
Mr. Biden
isn’t a perfect candidate and he wouldn’t be a perfect president. But politics
is not about perfection. It is about the art of the possible and about
encouraging America to embrace its better angels.
Original Headline: Elect Joe Biden,, America
Source: The New York Times
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