Man on a Wire
"The guy people once joked couldn’t open a PDF is now being mentioned in the same breath as FDR, which is a BFD."
Jessie Daniels asks if we appreciate that Joe Biden is pulling off: being boring while going big. “The guy people once joked couldn’t open a PDF is now being mentioned in the same breath as FDR, which is a BFD,” she writes.
by Jessie Daniels
Shortly after President Biden was inaugurated, the New York Times, reflecting on how little drama the new First Family was generating, asked, “Did Washington Just Have an Actual Weekend?” It was as though everyone in the nation’s capital felt they’d just lived through four years of the worst episode of Fear Thy Neighbor. Finally, that tenant’s been evicted, replaced by a nice couple who everyone knows because the husband has been admiring the house for the better part of fifty years. They're pretty quiet, they even head back to Delaware most weekends. Sure, sometimes the dog bites, but by and large, nothin’ to see here.
Then come to find out the husband’s taken up tightrope walking.
C’mon, man! Are you kiddin’ me?
That’s right. The balancing act of being mundane while going big is the President’s biggest achievement of his first 100 days. The guy people once joked couldn’t open a PDF is now being mentioned in the same breath as FDR, which is a BFD.
The 100-day mark was first coined as a way to take stock of FDR's bold, ambitious legislative actions to stem the Great Depression upon coming into office. Like Roosevelt, Biden came into office needing to convey confidence to a nation reeling from crisis. The symbolism of 100 days of Biden, though, is his adeptness at managing a disaster while succeeding one. You don't have to think about him all the time – you’re not spending every second worrying about one of his tweets resulting in the end of the world – but he’ll also get you the shot in your arm, put the check in your bank, and actually give you Infrastructure Week. So basically, he remains ubiquitous, even though it’s about you.
Underpinning it all, like the pole that a wire walker uses to keep his balance, is the premise that government works. This has the GOP back on its heels because it’s hard to be the folks standing in the way of those shots and those checks. Some have fallen back on lamenting the lack of bipartisanship. But bipartisanship is now in the eye of the beholder. There was bipartisan support for the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, which passed without a single Republican vote, because it was backed by a majority of Americans. In an environment where government within the Beltway functions, bipartisanship becomes more of a concept that stretches well beyond it.
In tightrope walking vernacular, you could say Biden has hit the three-foot area where there’s optimal sag on the rope, which makes balancing the easiest. He has found his focus on tackling COVID-19 and reinvigorating the economy.So with some big wins and some historic firsts sitting behind him, he declared to a joint session of Congress that “America is on the move again.” It was an aspirational address that laid out another round of bold, ambitious initiatives designed to win the future. But he acknowledged the challenge ahead, too: “We have to prove democracy still works – that our government still works and we can deliver for our people.”
What makes tightrope walking so difficult is that the rope not only sways on its own, but also in response to the person trying to walk on it. The wire walker has to adjust, and there’s little room for error. Even the smallest misstep can result in a significant fall, especially if there’s no harness or safety net.
The next 100 days and beyond will surely present different balancing acts for Biden. Limited attendance in the House Chamber reminds us that we have not yet converted enough vaccine hesitancy concerns into herd immunity. The forever war in Afghanistan may be slated to end, but we will still need to reckon with what it means to a generation – here and there – whose lives it has shaped. Other issues – like comprehensive immigration reform –will require bipartisan support from Congress to end a cycle of elusiveness. All this as his overall approval rating hovers just above 50 percent, a sign of the ongoing polarization in the country.
And, as Biden well knows, there’s often the unanticipated issue that threatens to knock you off your feet the hardest. Sometimes your presidency even hinges on it. If he needs a reminder, he can always ask the neighbors about that time with the former tenant and the pandemic.
Jessie Daniels is a policy professional and writer based in New York. Daniels previously worked in the U.S. Senate as a national security legislative aide to Majority Leader Harry Reid. Daniels writes frequently on foreign policy and political issues. Her writing has been published in outlets including The Guardian, The Orlando Sentinel, and The San Francisco Chronicle. This is her third piece for The Experiment. Her previous contributions are last August’s “Roll Call Bracketology,” “What it Takes Now,” and “Dolley's Mandarinquat.”
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