Part 1: If Biden isn’t progressive enough, then how was Obama?
I have seen a multitude of “Settle for Biden” posts on Instagram and Twitter. I think this movement is sincere, but inconsistent.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is running on the most progressive Democratic Party platform yet. The platform is even more progressive than that of former President Barack Obama in 2012. Yet young people cannot get enough of Obama, even as they claim that supporting Biden is settling.
I understand why young people prefer Obama to Biden. Obama is a superior orator and has a natural charisma Biden lacks. Obama is also the younger of the two, so it is more natural for him to relate to young people.
You probably wouldn’t hear Obama talking about having “the record player on at night.” I doubt Biden was hopping on the vinyl trend when he blurted that gaffe.
But if you care about a candidate’s policies, you must recognize a simple truth: if supporting Biden is settling, then supporting Obama was caving.
The difference between the 2012 Democratic Party platform and the 2020 Democratic Party platform is sizable on criminal justice.
On policing, the 2012 Democratic National Platform stated, “Democrats are fighting for new funding that will help keep cops on the street and support our police.”
That statement sounds pretty tough on crime to me. The Democratic Party struck a different chord this year.
Their 2020 platform stated, “Our system has criminalized poverty, overpoliced and underserved Black and Latino communities … Democrats believe we need to overhaul the criminal justice system from top to bottom.”
The language above indicates that Obama’s Democratic Party in 2012 was much closer to former President Bill Clinton’s Democratic Party than it is the current, leftist wing. But the differences in language are tonal. Demonstrable policy differences regarding criminal justice were also evident in the platforms.
This year, Democrats finally came to a moral conclusion on the death penalty. In 2012, they fell on a line much closer to the timorous position Democrats have “supported” for years because they did not enjoy spending their political capital on saving people’s lives.
The 2012 platform stated that “the death penalty must not be arbitrary.” I agree with every word of that quote, except the last one. The platform bloviated about “effective assistance of counsel” and other nonsense arguments that cover the central idea: there is a just way for the state to execute its citizens.
The 2020 platform stated, “Democrats continue to support abolishing the death penalty.” My cynicism tells me that Democrats can afford to take this stance because capital punishment is not at the front of people’s minds right now.
With the Supreme Court being a hot issue right now, the federal judiciary has been brought into greater focus. Unlike Republicans, Democrats are good at picking justices who write decisions that please them.
I find no reason to suspect that Biden will pick someone who is anything but liberal should he get a chance to nominate a justice to the Court. Biden already showed a commitment to a more diverse Court by promising to choose a Black woman if he gets a nomination.
Obama’s two appointments to the Court, Sonia Sotomayor — the first ever Latinx judge — and Elena Kagan, were steps in the right direction for diversity. Biden choosing a Black woman to serve on the Court would be another positive step for the federal judiciary’s highest level.
Another prominent issue is criminal justice, specifically regarding the police state.
If you support the defunding or abolition of the police, it is your right to do so. You will not find support for “defunding” or “abolishing” the police in the 2020 Democratic Party platform or on Biden’s campaign website. And if that means Biden is not far enough left on criminal justice, I can accept that as long as you are consistent in your beliefs.
If you examine the Party’s platforms on criminal justice between this year and 2012, I do not know how you can come to any other conclusion than this: Obama was more conservative on criminal justice. Or at the very least, the Democratic Party in 2020, which Biden will lead, is more progressive than the Democratic Party that Obama led to victory.
If you believe supporting Biden is settling, you should also believe that supporting Obama in 2012 was a Machiavellian calculation.
