It is reported that the Biden team is pushing the Congressional Democrats to strike a deal with the Republicans on an aid package, even if it is far from the package the Democrats want.
The idea would seem to be that something is better than nothing, because “nothing” will be a recipe for recession and “something” will be at least of some use in lifting the economy.
To hold out for a really good package (which might be achieved later) would make sense only if the Republicans were likely to cave — which they aren’t — or if one’s strategy involves having an issue to beat the Republicans over the head with: “We stood up for you, the people, while the Republicans were preventing our enacting what the nation clearly needed.”
But Biden’s position seems to say that he sees the path toward building political power lies not in being able to blame the Republicans for being the truly disgraceful thing that they are, but rather in getting good results, making things better for the American people.
It’s what happens to the country from here that will make or break Democratic power in the coming years. Even if a recession is the Republicans’ fault, the American people will not see that nearly as powerfully as they will register the level of discomfort in their lives.
So: minimize the downdraft in order to maximize the chances of rising in the future in a way that earns the appreciation of the American people.
As Hoover’s failure set the stage for 20 years of Democratic rule, so also — with leadership that inspires confidence like FDR’s did — might Biden usher in a period of Democratic rule in the wake of the disastrous failures of Trump and the Trump Party.
(And where the Republicans operate as obstructionists in ways that hurt the nation — blocking Biden from moving the nation forward — as everyone expects they will, that will be a time where the man with the Bully Pulpit can make effective use of blame as a political tool.)
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We see Biden now standing at the helm, and we’re learning about his judgment. Looking at his cabinet choices — which are sterling — and seeing how he is choosing the strategy of positive achievement rather than the strategy of blaming the other side, I am encouraged in the belief that much of this is being navigated brilliantly.
(Whether the brilliance is Biden’s, or whether — as I suspect — he has the good judgment to draw upon the brilliance of others — like Ron Klain — doesn’t matter. The result is the same expert course of navigation.)
(The big unanswered question about Biden, in my mind, remains how effectively — in terms of achieving his purposes — he will deal with the Republicans when they try to cripple him with wholesale obstructionism as they did Obama.)