What This Historical Moment Requires of a President
The one thing that Americans most want in their President is an image of strength.
That priority has always made some sense: the Leader is the people’s main protector in a dangerous world.
(It is probably especially true in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency—a President who did nothing good for the nation, but dominated the national stage to an unprecedented degree.)
As is all-too-widely noted, Joe Biden’s standing with the public has fallen. (And with that fall, Biden has lost some of his ability to shape events.) And while various factors contribute to that fall, I propose that the main reason for the decline in Biden’s “approval” numbers is that a large proportion of the American people now see him as weak.
In a way, that judgment is unfair: Biden has been working in a disciplined and often effective way to accomplish for America much that the nation and its people desperately need—from dealing with the pandemic to keeping American families and business afloat to rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure to climate change.
But in another, important way, that judgment makes sense: for the central and most urgent political battle in America today is over whether American democracy will survive, or whether a fascistic force that has taken over the Republican Party will end our centuries-long effort to operate a society in which the government serves the people and replace it with one where the people are compelled to serve a self-maintaining authoritarian government.
(While Biden is being Mr. Nice Guy to get us to act responsibly to the climate change crisis (“the greatest challenge ever faced by humankind”), and the Republicans meanwhile
- Are trying to cover up the Trump coup d’etat attempt, in which a large part of their party were complicit, as they reinforced Trump’s Big Lie in the time leading up to the Insurrection whose goal was to overturn a legitimate election;
- Are visibly preparing to pull off a coup d’etat in 2024 if they need it to gain power, replacing the kind of brave public servants who refused to help with the coup d’etat by corrupting the election with partisans who will do whatever their Republican/Trumpian bosses tell them to do, acting as partisans to overthrow the will of the people.
- Are going around the nation suppressing the votes of blocks of legitimate citizens who mostly vote for the Republicans’ opponents.
That battle to preserve our Democracy is what needs most urgently to be addressed.)
And in that battle – whose centrality and urgency is now increasingly widely recognized – President Biden has largely been MIA. He has chosen – for some understandable if ultimately unwise reasons – to remain “above the fray.”
And when the enemies of this President, and of American democracy, are engaged in a relentless, intense, all-out attack – against that President, and against the Constitution he took an oath to protect – that President’s remaining “above the fray” looks like weakness.
Fortunately, there is a single solution to both challenges:
- the challenge to restore Biden’s own political standing and power and to
- the challenge to preserve our democracy against the fascistic force that’s openly assaulting its foundations.
Anyone familiar with American culture knows: America’s heroes are generally men who fight and defeat the bad guys.
That’s not Biden’s natural role. That is not how is considerable strength and political competency require of him. But that’s what this historical moment requires of the President of the United States.
(It’s a shame that Biden’s sticking with his greatest virtues as a human being – so resolutely decent, kind, caring and cooperative – should be a means of his undoing, but there’s no escaping the realities of the times when he has assumed the Presidency.)
A Wartime Leader
Biden needs to transition into being a wartime leader, because this central political drama is truly a war. That it is fought – still, at this stage at least – with ballots and not with bullets does not change its essential nature: that the fascistic force is determined to dominate, and is not interested in compromise or cooperation, means that one side or another must prevail.
Biden must fight this war in a way tailored to its political nature, but the task is at its essence the same as that which FDR performed so well in World War II: it is the same kind of fascistic force as FDR led America to defeat, but this time the fascism has arisen as a force within America’s domestic power system.
As the wartime leader for this political war, President Biden’s task is to defeat fascism in the arena of public opinion. And the means to do this is clear: he must get as large a proportion of the American electorate to recognize – and to reject – the disgraceful and dangerous nature of his enemies.
Biden must not only join the battle, he must press the battle against this fascistic force.
Biden should press the battle by making – with optimum frequency -- well-fashioned denunciations of well-chosen instances of Republican disgraceful behavior.
And Biden can win these battles, because he has two major advantages:
- Because the Republicans are providing so many possible targets these days – from voter-suppression, to the Big Lie, to covering up a treasonous Insurrection, etc. – Biden can pick and choose those points of attack most conducive to his victory in each skirmish.
- And Biden has the advantage of having the truth on his side, and it’s a truth that is not hidden but right out in the open.
If he is seen as besting the Republicans in the confrontations he thus initiates, the American people will see him as strong. And the public support that has drained away from him in recent months will rally back to his side.
(That in itself is crucial to saving American democracy, because the President is inevitably the leader of those forces whose urgent task is to defeat this fascistic threat. Our leader’s strength is an essential requirement for winning that war.)
Biden’s exposing his enemies as threatening to rob the American people of their birthright -- as heirs to the kind of society our founders bequeathed to us – would also be essential to winning that battle which is the most urgent political challenge of our times.
People serve power, or power serves people.
That’s the fundamental issue. Biden should fight like our liberty, and that of our children and grandchildren, depends on it.
Because it does.
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Here are additional points supportive of Biden’s making that necessary switch:
Accomplishments Won’t Suffice
Biden has focused on accomplishing good things for the American people. And indeed, he has already accomplished a lot (two huge bills in his first year in office).
Unfortunately, such are our politics that accomplishment yields very limited political gain (for Biden, and for the pro-Democracy side): the polls show that the American people are not giving Biden (and the Democrats) credit for the considerable accomplishments he already has achieved. Instead, the people, reportedly, are kvetching about the price of milk and gasoline!
Accomplishment also fails to strengthen Biden because the central battle of this political moment lies elsewhere.
And also, mere “bettering of the world” can hardly register in a political drama that has become so visceral as America’s today.
We’ve descended out of the rational approach to politics, in which the goal is to use government to achieve beneficial results, and into a more visceral, primitive level of passion. And this passion on the other side is a snarling rage.
(This is the mood of a crowd that’s primed for war -- something like the America leading up to the Civil War, where a Senator could be beaten senseless at his desk on the Senate floor, and where John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry fanned the flames of rage on both sides of the coming terrible war. It’s not getting things done that matters, it is defeating enemies on the other side.)
Moreover, as many perceptive political observers have noted, there’s considerable danger that if – less than a year from now, i.e. in the 2022 elections -- the Republicans gain control of both Houses of Congress, it may be “game over” for American democracy.
(The Republicans may be able to so fracture the constitutional order that they will be able to seize power – and maintain themselves in power – even if a majority of legitimate American citizens want to put that power in other hands.)
One more thing: even for the cause of “accomplishment,” the preservation of our Democracy has to be the most urgent goal.
It seems clear that if the Republicans’ schemes succeed, this nation won’t be able to advance in any of the directions that Biden’s fine agenda is designed to move this nation.
It has been years since the Republicans’ efforts – on any issue -- made things better and not worse. And the Republican autocracy won’t suddenly become constructive if they manage to institute themselves as an entrenched ruling power, beyond the reach of any plausible American majority.
So there’s no real conflict here between accomplishment and pressing the battle: only if this battle is won, will America be able to move in good directions on the whole spectrum of issues in the years to come.
It may make sense for Biden to work a little longer for Build Back Better and for Voting Rights legislation. But Biden’s turn to waging battle against the fascistic force cannot be delayed long: the campaign to turn public opinion will take time to gather momentum, and it is less than a year before the Republicans must be defeated in the upcoming mid-term elections.
Waging the War in Non-Partisan Fashion
Beyond Partisanship
The Republicans doubtless will misrepresent Biden’s denunciations of their disgraceful and indefensible conduct as mere “partisan” fighting.
But this misrepresentation can itself be dodged and parried.
For starters, Biden can refrain, when suitable, from saying anything about “Republicans.” Biden can frame his denunciations in terms of the fundamental American values that he is defending against an assault (from wrong-doers who happen to be Republicans).
Not Democrat vs. Republican, but American values vs. fascistic values.
In addition, Biden can say – quite validly – that the oath of office he swore upon become President obligates him to do what he promised to do: to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against “enemies” domestic as well as foreign.
It’s beyond political choice, to the keeping of a most solemn pledge, which our founders thought so essential to the protection of American liberties and the rule of law that they put that oath right into the Constitution.
Biden and the Fight for the Soul of America
The future’s markets are saying that – on the present trajectory – it is highly probable that the Republicans will in fact win control of both Houses of Congress. Sadly, this reveals that the American people look poised to reward with more power a political party whose conduct is indefensible on multiple fronts.
The lamentable condition of the American electorate also reveals the need for leadership to bring the people back to the “better angels of their nature.” For the American people are still capable of being inspired to better things, by a good “wartime leader.”
For this task, Joe Biden has both weaknesses and strengths. Biden may not be the most compelling combatant, fortified by charisma and rhetorical gifts. But with his evident goodness, even if he doesn’t bring crowds to their feet, Biden’s call to the people will be fortified by his conveying his honesty, and decency, and general goodness.
Even without great oratory, such a man can effectively denounce evil, if he chooses the right words and tone to deliver his message.
And with his bully pulpit, he has the means to assure that the spotlight he shines on the disgraces of his enemies – on an ongoing basis – will dominate the national conversation.
And with every point he scores in those exchanges, he will grow in power and the survival of our democracy will be correspondingly more likely.