So much has already been written about Biden’s victory. I just have a few points to emphasize:
- Stop talking about this like it was a close election. Just because it took several days to be officially declared doesn’t mean this was a squeaker: it wasn’t. In the final analysis, Biden will have won both the popular and the electoral vote overwhelmingly. This was a rare defeat of an incumbent president and the biggest margin of victory in decades.
- Victory for Biden but not the Democratic Party. Like his hero Obama, Biden had lousy coattails. Down ballot the Democratic party lost House seats and failed to turn the Senate.
- Not a victory for centrism. Although Biden won the presidency and down ballot House members failed to defend in some swing districts, the candidates who did best in swing districts were for Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. Campaigning on Covid-19 and the economy wasn’t enough to overcome the massive Republican turnout.
- Celebration is in order. There is much to celebrate in the defeat of the ultra right white nationalist party in the US presidency. It is great that the center right, the liberals and progressives could come together to defeat the most dangerous president in my lifetime.
- Immediate Progressive Action is also in order. Those who caution that because Democrats lost the Senate we can’t accomplish anything worthwhile so we should lay off Biden miss the boat. At the same time as Florida re-reelected Trump, it passed a raise in the minimum wage to $15 an hour, which means Trump voters voted for it. Biden should work with Pelosi to send a Living Wage law to the the Senate immediately and put them in a tight squeeze with their working class constituency. There is no reason on earth that those voters should belong to the ultra right.
- If we don’t address the conditions that elected Trump, Trump 2.0 is not far behind. For the good of the country, we cannot let Biden return to the failed policies he has embraced in the past. 70% of Fox News viewers favor government guaranteed health care like Medicare for All. 70% favor a raise in the minimum wage. 65% favor a phase out of fossil fuels. If Biden cozies up to his old corporate buddies to continue the policies that led to the huge gap between rich and poor and the devastating climate emergency, he paves the way for the next Trump or Trumpist president.
