Life With Biden

Blog#52- 12/6/20

LIFE WITH BIDEN
By Richard Davis

The four year American nightmare will be over soon. The mainstream media have already moved on and are giving Biden the attention of a sitting president. They really have no choice because Trump is still acting like a three year old in a sandbox who had his toy truck taken from him by a stronger kid.

The mainstream media will be able to move away from being the PR tool of a would-be dictator-pathological liar to reporting on the administration of a new president who has respect for others and who does not have an ego that is as needy as the plant Audrey in The Little Shop of Horrors movie that constantly says, “Feed me.”

What will life under Biden look like for Americans who are hoping for a better future for this country and for themselves? No one knows for sure but, on the surface, there will be a lot of changes. A new cabinet and more collaborative relations with the rest of the world will be a good start.

A First Lady who is an educator and a new Secretary of Education will most likely help to move away from the elitist charter school philosophy of Betsy DeVos. A new Attorney General will be a breath of fresh air when Bill Barr and Rudy Guiliani try to fight their way out of the lowest rung of hell that lawyers can descend to.

The biggest impediment to Biden as he tries to change the course of a ship of state sinking in the harbor will be to fight Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell if the Senate retains its Republican majority. The January runoff in Georgia will determine the balance in the Senate and it will also determine how hard a Biden administration will have to work to implement its policies.

Those of us who have more liberal political leanings will not see a Biden administration adopt policies in health care and other areas that we would like to see. The fact that Bernie Sanders was never in consideration for a cabinet post tells a lot about Biden’s focus. Telling Bernie he can do more good in the Senate is similar to the situation when a person is fired from a job and publicly says they want to spend more time with their family.

Biden seems to be using the Obama administration work as the foundation for his plans. That is not a completely bad thing but it means that this country will not be adopting bold, new progressive agendas anytime soon. There will be no Medicare for All push. Biden said he wants to work for an extension of the Affordable Care Act that offers a Medicare type plan for all who want it. It is a good start, but if McConnell stays in power it will never happen.

Then there is the elephant in the room- the pandemic. Biden has already done more than Trump to work to create a plan to fight the pandemic. Since he has been unhobbled from working with existing government entities he has forged ahead with a working pandemic taskforce and he should be ready to implement a nationwide pandemic response as soon as inauguration festivities are over and the Trump family jets off to a country without an extradition agreement with the U.S.

Biden has presented a $2 trillion environmental plan that is far short of the Green New Deal proposed by more liberal politicians but it is a start and it is a move in a direction we have not seen for four years.

While there will be many disappointing aspects to a Biden administration for more politically progressive Americans, we can be thankful that the nightmare will be over soon and that more even-tempered adults will be running this country.