Biden and Obama Were More than Differences of Degree

I hesitate to write this post, not because it doesn’t have anything to do with tech and thus all the influencer-knowers would say that I am ruining my brand. I don’t have a brand, don’t or fi I do it is more about being a sarcastic little twerp. As a friend of mine said: “you can’t not write sarcastic. If they shot you, sarcasm would bleed out.” I choose to believe those are compliments. No, I hesitate because I am writing in opposition to Brian Beutler who is perhaps the keenest political observer I know, with the possible exception of Jamelle Bouie. But I do think that Beutler misses something significant in his latest post.

The gist of his newsletter (but do read the entire thing. It is more complex and wider ranging than a response can do justice.) is that the differences between the Obama and Biden presidencies are smaller than people, at least people involved in politics, want to admit. Further, many of those differences were not functions of the men involved or the political coalitions that they represented but rather the specific environment in which they took the office. And a lot of that is true — the ACA was a heavy lift, but it was more politically palpable given that we were still in the midst of a global recession than working on climate change. And it is true that Biden could focus more on climate change since the party was more open to larger stimulus given the disaster the smaller stimulus of 2008 turned out to be.

But the differences in mindset really do, I think, add up to a difference in kind that is worth exploring. One of the issues with the ACA was that it worsened our political economy. Without a public option to discipline insurance companies, the ACA made them stronger by funneling public and private monies to them. There is a reason, of course, that the public option has never come again since the ACA took effect, despite there being opportunities to pass one. It is not entirely the fault of insurance company lobbying, but that certainly contributed. Obama never cared about that because he still saw government as a problem, as something that needed assistance from the private sector to reach its full potential.

(This is not to say the ACA is bad. I remember the Before Times of preexisting conditions and lifetime limits on treatments. In a very real sense, my wife and I would likely be dead if it were not for the ACA. But better does not always mean good.)

Similarly, union friendly legislation failed in his two terms not because the ACA and stimulus had to go first but because a significant portion of the Dem leadership and Congresspeople saw labor power as, at best, inefficient and at worst as illegitimate. Decades of denigrating government work and elevating the notion of businesses as the proper channel for all activity resulted in a Democratic party that did not really believe workers should have a say in the ordering of their working lives. Compared to Biden’s infrastructure bills, which aimed to strengthen unions and keep jobs in the United States, you can see real differences in worldview.

Those differences have real consequences. One entrenches business power; one seeks to limit that power. And while Beutler is correct that the next Dem administration is going to have to focus on rebuilding civic and government capacity, those differences are going to impact that task as well. Part of the reason that Musk is able to get away with the idea that the government should be cut is that the Democrats have not defended the government as a concept, have elevated private industry above working for the public good. Not all, and Biden as better than Obama, but that, I think, shows that the differences do matter.

Even on matters of apparent agreement, the differences will have far reaching consequences. Do we rebuild government capacity by hiring back workers and making their job protections significantly stronger so that a President may not gut state capacity on the whim of his billionaire friend again? We should, but the neo-liberal mindset may see those protections as inefficient. It may even argue for building the government back up with contractors. Cheaper, perhaps, and maybe then you get more companies to resist the next wrecking ball that comes through. except, of course, companies are obeying in advance, not defending their turf, and contractors tend t cost more than public employees.

These differences, then, are not merely cosmetic. And they are not insignificant even in the face of Musks takeover of the government. The next Dem administration is going to likely be in a position to reshape the entire federal government. What that looks like and the implications for the long-term health of democracy will likely depend upon whether the Democratic president and party look more Obama or more like Biden.

I understand the emergency we face, and the desire to paper over differences in the face of that emergency. And none of the differences should keep decent citizens from voting in a Democratic trifecta. But it is short-sighted, I think, and ruinous to the long-term health of the nation, to pretend that those differences are not real and will not have an effect on how we try to restore the democratic nation.

Tomorrow, I promise, more sarcasm and fewer politics. No, that’s a lie — there will still be politics, but it will be wrapped up in writing discourse. Sorry folks, we live in interesting times, God help us, and I cannot help but discuss all the interesting stuff we are forced to endure.