"Let's Give Biden a Year."

Hard no. There will be no honeymoon.

“The way the Democratic Party is run now—for quite a number of presidential cycles—is they pick a nominee in a kind of half-ass process that doesn’t really represent much of anybody. Then they tell everybody to just shut up. Don’t bring up anything that will complicate life for your nominee. You know he’s not for you on this. Why badger him? He’s not gonna be for you, for reasons that you don’t understand but are good reasons. Shut up. Turn off your brains.”

— Journalist William Greider, in 2006

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“Don’t push Biden now. We’re trying to win an election. Do you want Trump to win?”

“Don’t push Biden now. He’s not even in office yet.”

I’m already hearing suggestions that the new president should be given at least a year of impunity before we dare suggest that his actions, planned actions, and timelines are insufficient to the multiple crises at hand. Apparently we skipped past “Don’t push Biden now, it hasn’t even been a hundred days yet.”

Joe Biden has been a public figure for what, 50 years? Do we not have enough data to make an assessment yet? He got a pass in November because Trump. But Trump’s out, so now what?

What makes anyone think we’re about to get the immediate, sustained New Deal-level spending needed to materially improve American lives as a whole? Biden loved dropping FDR’s initials on the campaign trail, but Democrats don’t even remember how the New Deal happened.

Biden’s infrastructure and climate plan is supposed to be “orders of magnitude” larger than anything before. But will it truly deliver climate justice? Too many “recovery” packages have been bailouts for corporations and inequitable trickle-downs for everyone else. It’s angry-making.

Senator Warnock’s “Want a $2,000 Check?” ad.

Sending the $2K checks with alacrity would help, as would a $15/hr. minimum wage, UBI, and medicare for all. The CARES Act happened like a Thanos snap. That's the urgency and pace required. If the administration doesn’t deliver change we can all feel soon, it’s going to be a long hot summer. As David Sirota put it recently, “the anger is gonna go somewhere.” *

The measures above are just band-aids. We’ll also need to fix the big structural problems that demagogues use to divide us. Because if Trump doesn’t run again in 2024, a competent fascist will. And if Dems don’t deliver, and there’s not a viable new option, that’s who will be in the White House in January 2025.

If anyone can push the Biden administration, now is definitely the time. There will be no honeymoon.

*Warning: This YouTube video’s ad placement is annoying af.