Joe Biden Is Turning Out to Be Exactly Who He Told Us He Was
Joe Biden's rise has been a clarifying moment for the Left, showing its relative powerlessness within the Democratic Party. But the Left's ideas are popular in the country at large. The priority now must be advancing those ideas outside the framework of Democratic Party politics.
jlhervas / Flickr
Following two fruitful but ultimately unsuccessful forays into presidential politics in 2016 and 2020, the Left now finds itself back in a familiar place: on the outside looking in as a Democratic president assembles an administration heavy on corporate operatives and light on genuine progressives. The current moment presents several strategic questions in the short-term: how should the Left orient itself toward a Democratic administration over which it has little to no direct influence? Where and to what end should we be directing our time, energy, and resources? Is protesting Joe Biden’s awful cabinet picks a waste of time? In the longer-term, how should we think about electoral politics now that the window opened by Bernie Sanders has closed?
Jacobin‘s Luke Savage spoke with the New Republic’s Osita Nwanevu about these questions and others raised by his recent essay, “Joe Biden’s Cabinet Is a Lost Cause for the Left.”
Luke Savage
Let’s begin with Joe Biden’s transition and his cabinet choices. In your piece, you write bluntly that: “Overall, Democratic policy professionals of all identities and stripes have been given plenty of reasons to rejoice at Biden’s choices so far. Civilians in Yemen have not.” What’s your overall sense of Biden’s transition so far and how would you characterize the administration that’s taking shape?
Osita Nwanevu
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