Biden’s Mandate: Govern from the Center

Biden’s Mandate: Govern from the Center

– By Howard Sierer –

In last fall’s first presidential debate when rebutting President Trump’s claim that he had been captured by the Democratic Party’s extreme left-wing, President-elect Joe Biden said, “I am the Democratic Party.” After his election, Biden told CBS’ Stephen Colbert, “I think I can work with Republican leadership in the House and the Senate. I think we can get things done.”

Even after Democrats won effective control of the Senate, Biden said, “I’m also just as determined today as I was yesterday to try to work with people in both parties.” Indeed, he demonstrated an ability to work with Republicans during his 36 years in the Senate.

Biden says he takes “some sense of solace” from the number of “senior Republican senators” who have called him since the election to discuss areas for possible cooperation. He’s off on the right foot in naming Merrick Garland to head the Justice Department: most Republicans laud the choice.

Even with effective control of both houses of Congress, Democrats will need to tread lightly. It’s clear that Biden was elected primarily because he wasn’t Donald Trump and even then, by a slim margin.

While it’s true that Biden topped Trump by 7 million votes, they came from a 5 million vote plurality in California and another 1.6 million vote plurality in New York City. The rest of the country was almost evenly split.

Biden lacked the “coattails” needed to drag “down-ballot” Democratic candidates into office. The House of Representatives’ Democratic majority actually shrunk from 37 seats to 11, defying pre-election party expectations.

As for their control of the Senate, Democrats can thank Trump: his vituperative attacks on Georgia’s Republican governor and Republican secretary of state disgusted just enough previously-Republican voters to tip both seats into the Democratic column.

State elections around the country resulted in more Republican gains, giving Democrats who have an eye on 2022 Congressional elections even more reason for moderation.

The GOP flipped both legislative houses in New Hampshire even while Trump won only 45 percent of the popular vote. Elections in Texas, Pennsylvania and North Carolina gave Republicans control of both houses of their state legislatures and control of mapping 2022 Congressional House district boundaries. Republicans gained a governor in Montana.

Narrow Democratic margins in both houses of Congress leave a number of the party’s extreme left-wing fantasies dead on arrival. Forget the overtly-socialist Green New Deal. Kiss off packing the Supreme Court with four new liberal justices. Sayonara to adding Puerto Rico and Washington DC as states with reliably-Democratic senators. The Senate filibuster is safe should Republicans choose to use it.

Conservative Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has stated his categorical opposition to all four and his single vote is enough to tip the scales in the Senate. It’s likely that only Democrats with very safe seats would champion any of the four when a large majority of voters across the country are opposed.

Republicans will likewise need to tread lightly, looking for Biden-proposed legislation they can support. Stonewall opposition to his initiatives across the board will encourage Democrats to find ways to use their slim majorities and will disgust voters tired of Congressional gridlock.

Moderate Republican Senators Romney, Collins and Murkowski are likely candidates to reach back across the aisle to find common cause with Democrats on issues they can support. Biden’s COVID-19 recovery plans and climate change policies are a likely area of compromise. Others will arise.

Biden’s centrist tendencies will face a lot of push back from the radical Democratic left, exemplified by Sens. Sanders and Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. These folks believe their preferred policies are the reason Biden won, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Nonetheless, the party’s radical wing is the most strident and vocal, giving it lots of television sound bites and making it hard to ignore.

Both parties have a significant block of “hell no” voters and elected representatives that are a major roadblock to bipartisanship. The fanatics continuing to demonstrate for Trump make that all too clear.

Politicians from both sides of the aisle who are willing to support compromise legislation have found themselves challenged in the next party primary by candidates with more extreme views. A number of incumbents have lost in those primary challenges. Bob Bennett’s loss to now-Sen. Mike Lee in Utah is an example close to home.

I’ll be surprised if Utah’s Mitt Romney doesn’t get a serious challenge in 2024. He’ll be called a RINO – “Republican in name only” – but he’ll have my support.

I wish Pres. Biden well in his stated quest to revive the political center: even the left-center would be a tolerable change from divisive confrontation and gridlock. And I hope against hope that the best parts of the last four years of Republican ascendancy will be preserved for the good they’ve done.

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