All identity and zero substance is an apt characterisation of the Biden administration’s humorous pledge to help working-class Americans.
Earlier this year, the Democrats won both of Georgia’s congressional runoff elections, uniting the House and the White House under Democratic control. This was due to massive support among black voters and a swing away from the Republicans in Atalanta’s middle-class suburbs. For both of these key demographics, the Biden administration’s outspoken commitment to $2000 stimulus cheques was a deciding argument. Both Ossoff and Warnock — the democratic candidates — made closing arguments akin to, ‘vote for me and get 2000 dollars’.
Biden’s Betrayal
It really was that simple. Almost 80 per cent of Americans want the stimulus cheques, including a majority of Republicans. What is more, support for the stimulus cheques is significantly higher than support for bipartisan approval of the cheques. In other words, people want the cheques yesterday, and they don’t care how they get them.
For a while, it appeared that the Biden administration had a sure thing: a universally popular policy that they could get through budget reconciliation, rather than trying to get it passed the Senate Republicans, who — conveniently for the Democrats — looked like out-of-touch misers for opposing it. Not so. As has always been the case with Biden, the President has proved far more interested in civility in the halls of Congress than the lives of ordinary Americans. First, the cheques were cut down to $1400. Now, 15 million people have been barred from receiving it, on the grounds that they make too much money. Never mind the fact that the census data being used to make this decision predates the pandemic, and therefore does not take into account those that have lost their jobs in the past six months. This is a clear betrayal of the middle-class voters who helped to swing Georgia for the Democrats.
But the betrayal doesn’t stop there. Biden has already reneged on fighting for a 15-dollar minimum wage — one of the few clear campaign pledges that didn’t concern vague and vapid concepts about ‘restoring the soul of America’. On matters that impact working Americans, the Democrats have all the backbone of a biscuit dipped in tea. Yet this is not to say they don’t care about anything. On the contrary, the administration spent a great deal of political capital trying to get Neera Tanden appointed Budget Director. When it comes to getting Washington insiders and Clintonite hatchet women anointed to their rightful positions, the gloves come off. According to the White House, the real reason why Tanden, (who would have been the first Asian woman to hold the position) was being opposed was, you guessed it; sexism. Naturally, the Democratic establishment’s allies in mainstream media followed suit, with the Washington Post pilling on.
‘Working-class’ only in name
Meanwhile, the Biden administration remained muted on the Amazon workers’ strike in Alabama. The President has now addressed the right of the strikers to unionize but stopped short of throwing his full weight behind them. Whilst the Washington Post continued to cry foul about sexism, derailing the appointment of a terrible appointee, they themselves have been silent on the strike. Could it be, that this is because the newspaper is owned by Amazon CEO and leatherback turtle, Jeff Bezos? This goes to the heart of the problem with the Biden administration. Biden has proclaimed himself a union man, ‘from belt buckle to shoe sole’. And that’s the problem; the President’s working-class caricature is nothing more than an outfit. Within the corporeal lies an entirely corporate man.
The same is true for the administration at large, and its ‘record-breaking’ diversity. Whilst establishment media continues to faun over the gender and ethnic heritage of Vice President, Kamala Harris (a woman who wanted to arrest the parents of truanting children and laughed at marijuana legalisation), the administration has snuck Tom Vilsack back as Agriculture Secretary. This is a man who foreclosed on black farmers and whitewashed his department’s appalling record on civil rights. I’m sure the black families who had their livelihoods destroyed by Vilsack will be delighted to hear that he now operates in, ‘the most diverse cabinet in history’. What a relief.
I’m sure Afghans will also be delighted to hear that Biden is likely to overturn Trump’s peace agreement with the Taliban; the Iranians that Biden is now demanding Iran take steps before the US re-enters the nuclear deal; and the family of Jamal Khashoggi, that no measures have been taken against his murderer, Mohamed Bin Salman, despite Biden’s campaign promise to make Saudi Arabia ‘a pariah state’. What I am not sure of is whether any administration in history has reneged on so many of its promises, so early in its tenure.
All this leaves the Democrats vulnerable. Some progressives might have been sucked in with the administration’s model of slightly-less-white business-as-usual, but leading voters on with false promises about desperately needed support is unlikely to be forgiven by ordinary Americans. We now know that Biden won the electoral college by fewer votes than Trump; 45,050 votes across Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin, compared to Trump’s 77,000. This is despite the Trump administration’s staggering incompetence and fatal disregard for science. Without a pandemic, we can be certain that the Democrat’s brand of vapid identity politics would have been stomped by Trump and the Republicans. At the current rate of betrayal on substantive issues, the Democrats are walking chin first into mid-term annihilation, and then it’s all eyes on 2024.
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Adam Robertson Charlton
Adam Robertson Charlton is a freelance journalist specialising in Middle Eastern affairs.
His work has been featured in Scottish Left Review and Juan Cole’s Informed Comment.
