It seems inevitable to me that that will happen to some degree. For me, the question is: When that shifting mood gets processed through legislative politics, how much really comes out the other side in real policy? I guess I worry in particular about the limitations imposed by the filibuster but also, in general, a lot of the old habits of politicians across the board to worry about deficits, for instance.
David, I do think that, not only among the American people but some of my colleagues here in the Senate, there is now a willingness to look at our institutions and what has to be done in a very different light. And the role that I could play — that I think and what I hope will be the role the progressive community will play — is say to Joe Biden, say to Chuck Schumer, say to Nancy Pelosi, “You know what? You are going to have an extremely progressive first 100 days. We have to keep faith with the American people in their time of pain.”
Do you think that can be done with the filibuster still in place?
I think we can take care of the filibuster. Without divulging any great secrets here, I think I can say, on the major issues facing this country, the majority will rule.
When I look at Biden, I see a lot of evolution in his positioning over the last few months. I see him talking about an FDR-size presidency and really engaging with all of the crises that you’ve been laying out in a serious way. On most issues, he’s not going as far as President Bernie Sanders would have, but he’s going a lot farther than I would’ve thought Biden was capable of going just six months ago. Do you see that same movement?
I do. I do for a couple of reasons, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I don’t think Joe Biden is the world’s most ideological guy. I think that he is a smart guy who is looking out at the world that he sees, the country that he sees, the country that he loves. And he has considered himself his entire life to be a friend of working people. And he is seeing what’s going on. I can tell you, in talking to me, he said, “I want to be the most progressive president since FDR.”
And I think Barack Obama said it, too. If you called up Barack Obama, and if you asked Obama, “Should we just continue what you did?” Obama would probably tell you, “No, you’ve got to go further.” The world has changed. He’s proud of what he accomplished, but he will tell you that we’ve to go further.
And I was very pleased that Biden agreed to set up a series of task forces dealing with the major issues facing our country. The economy, health care, education, climate change, criminal justice, immigration reform. And we talked about the nature of the task force and who would be on them. The Biden team said we could add anybody you want other than people who are going to be personally attacking Biden. They didn’t want that.
Still, that’s extremely accommodating, to impose no ideological test at all.
And if you look at the people we had on our task forces, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Pramila Jayapal, they were there and negotiating with the Biden people. We didn’t get everything we wanted, on some things we had to move. But they had to move, too, and they did move — they didn’t get what they wanted. And at the end of the day, if the reports of the task force are implemented, Biden will in fact be the most progressive president since FDR.
The FDR comparison is really interesting to me because FDR was not a lifelong radical; he was a child of the aristocratic Establishment.
That’s why they hated him. They called him a traitor to his class!
Right. And Biden similarly finds themselves in a place in history that demands he somewhat change his politics. I’m curious how you see that dynamic, because you’ve always been in certain ways a coalitional politician but also, of course, an ideological advocate. And I wonder if your view of American politics has changed at all by the experience of the last few months — to now be able to imagine that we may indeed have this incredibly progressive presidency, but put forward by a leader who is not himself temperamentally, or by inclination, very radical at all.
Well, I think of the similarities of the two moments. Roosevelt became president in the worst economic crisis in the history of the country. Biden, if he becomes president, will take office in a horrible time, too. We don’t know what the economy will look like then, exactly, but it could be the worst economic crisis since the Depression and the worst public-health crisis since the Spanish flu. And a good politician, and I think Biden is one, is somebody who looks around them and says, “You know what, we have millions of people in America who are hungry, good people, hard-working people who work every day in their life and they can’t feed their families. And they’re being evicted from their homes. And they have no health care. Unacceptable. Unacceptable! It doesn’t matter what I said a year ago. This is the reality of today.” I think Biden is that kind of politician.
My personal experience with him is that he’s a very compassionate guy, he’s a very special kind of guy. He responds to the pain of others, and he has lots of pain in his own life. And I think he feels that pain. And I think he as president wants to respond in any and every way that he can. And if we can provide him with some Democratic Senate and a Democratic House, and if we can rally the American people to take on very powerful and special interests who will want to move into different directions, I think we can do that.
"Illegal"? Wtf is illegal about trending topics?
i wonder what this disgusting slug has to say for himself
that's as good of an endorsement as you're gonna get