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If the times we live in require the leadership to meet them, those of us who observe and interpret the events that shape our lives may have misread the leadership style of Joe Biden, the 46th President. Some felt initially he was the timely antidote to his mercurial, bombastic predecessor. Others suggested he was a temporary bridge over a troubled and divided country. And some of us felt strongly that this norm-abiding, institutionalist Joe Biden was temperamentally better suited to be Senate Majority Leader, not the chief executive of a country in crisis. One observer recently suggested Biden is either hiding behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office–or under it. In either instance, his brand of leadership brings to mind several adjectives: unenthusiastic, grudging, resistant, even disinclined. To this list, I would even add passive. That’s not harsh; polls increasingly reflect this judgment.
The issues that roil our daily lives, threaten our democracy and its institutions, lay waste to our environment, and deepen the economic, political, and social chasm between groups in this country, demand an imaginative, focused, and purposeful leadership style that seems to elude our 46th President. Biden’s voice is tired, weak, and uninspiring. He looks exhausted and, frankly, old. Moreover, he is a man distinctly out of sync with the times. A recent poll revealed that 47 percent of Democratic respondents are angry and want Democrats in Congress and other party leaders to stand up to the President in the face of the relentless assault from the GOP.
In the run up to the midterms and the 2024 elections, we need leadership that is bold, aggressive, and unafraid to wade into the deep end of the political pool. Rather, Biden seems to prefer hesitancy, for example, when confronting the Russians for fear he will antagonize them. He advised the Speaker of the House to postpone her trip to Taiwan for fear it would incur the ire of the Chinese. Yet, Biden claims American leadership is back. The image of walking softly while leaving the stick at home comes to my mind.
At home, Biden advises the progressives in his party to be careful how they speak to Joe Manchin. Don’t press him. He operates in good faith. Really? I don’t recall Manchin’s name being on the ballot as a presidential candidate in 2020. Yet the wealthy conservative senator from West Virginia has consistently held Biden’s legislative agenda hostage, including his signature Build Back Better, since it was proposed. Manchin is also a Democrat who will not say publicly that he is in favor of a Democratic majority in the Senate.
Oh! And the current Senate Minority Leader states publicly and proudly that his only goal, and the only item on his agenda, is to prevent the passage of consequential legislation by this President and this Administration. Biden’s response, when asked about McConnell’s comments, was: “I like Mitch McConnell; he is my friend.” And Biden fiddles while his friend holds his signature legislation hostage – and the country, I might add.
I can understand the reluctance of the leaders of Biden’s Party to confront him on his unwillingness to use the most effective weapon in his toolbox: the Bully Pulpit. But if this President won’t come out swinging in support of his legislative agenda, why should the rest of us carry his water to the ballot box? With a razor-slim majority in the House and an even split in the Senate, Biden would have us believe he is powerless to affect outcomes. The Speaker of the House keeps her caucus in check while the Senate misses the opportunity to govern, to deliver for working people, to protect its reluctant leadership. Is it true that leaders of the Democrats fear the same change as their conservative opposition? It’s a fair question.
Meanwhile, the loud, ugly, and extremist opposition runs rampant through the land, hellbent on recreating the world of the 1920’s, including voting against anti-lynching legislation. They’re out of touch philosophically with most of the country and wear their opposition as a badge of honor. The opposition in 2022 includes an activist, right-wing Supreme Court with a 25 percent approval rating according to a recent Gallup poll.
Women’s rights? Hell, they’re not enumerated in the Constitution, so what is there to respect? Biden’s response was to exhort his supporters to elect more Democrats. “This fall, Roe is on the ballot,” Biden said at the White House. “Personal freedoms are on the ballot. The right to privacy, liberty, equality–they’re all on the ballot.” That’s it.
Ending the Senate filibuster? Democrats pushed to end it in order to advance Biden’s Build Back Better legislation. Biden agreed with Manchin not to end it for fear of how the GOP might use it in the future. How do you govern for tomorrow and ignore the needs of the moment?
Voting Rights? Biden knows he needs the votes of African Americans, but to make their rights a priority, e.g. to speak out against voter suppression laws and gerrymandering, might alienate Manchin and many of his conservative friends. His approach is to encourage African Americans and Democrats to organize, turn out, overcome those determined to deny them their franchise or overturn elections. I thought they already voted for him.
Climate change, yes, global warming threatens to destroy life as we know it, but take executive action? Caution is Biden’s watchword.
The economy? Biden is pitiful. It’s not me, folks. It’s Putin [more on that later], it’s the oil majors, it’s factors beyond my control. But I can’t call out corporate profiteering and price gouging. Just don’t blame me, okay!
Gun safety? Conservatives maintain that slaughtering innocents is a small price to pay for maintaining the flow of campaign contributions from the NRA and the gun manufacturers. They also claim that the scourge of mass gun violence is a mental health issue, but then fail to fund mental health legislation. Apart from his role as consoler-in-chief after a mass shooting, where is Biden?
History often rewards the bold, decisive leader: FDR during World War II, and his British counterpart Winston Churchill’s willingness to confront Nazism and Fascism, for instance. Truman’s decision to employ the atom bomb hastened the end of the Second World War. President Kennedy stared down his Soviet counterpart and blocked Russian naval vessels from the South Atlantic to end the Cuban Missile Crisis. President Johnson committed political suicide and stood by his decision to champion the passage of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act.
These are just a few examples of Presidents who accepted the mantle of leadership and led from the front. FDR incurred the hatred of his social class. And his response was classic when he said, “I welcome their hatred!” Imagine that example today!
Weaker leadership might include President Obama’s reluctance to hold Wall Street accountable for the financial collapse of 2008. And then there was our 20-year bipartisan failure to end the longest war in American history: the War in Afghanistan.
I would offer the initial Biden response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a classic example of a superpower leading from behind. Biden demanded economic sanctions while Ukrainians–men, women, and children–died. How many would have to perish under shelling, missile strikes, and aerial bombardment before the American-led western alliance decided sanctions would not, as forewarned, deter Russian behavior? Ukrainians’ defiance and vow to win the war against their aggressors unnerved Biden. He chided his own Secretary of State for employing a similar language when describing Ukrainian resolve. His message was, Let’s not talk of winning. That might embolden the aggressor. Why would Ukrainians want anything less when someone invades your country unprovoked?! Biden told our alliance partners not to provide offensive weapons, only those for defense, while over a quarter of Ukraine’s population fled for their lives during the first four months.
The leader of the world’s superpower feared the threat of a nuclear response from his Russian counterpart. This was despite the fact that the U.S. joined the UK and the Russian Federation as signatories to the December 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assistance, prohibiting them from threatening or using military force or economic sanctions against Ukraine. In exchange, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons. Were we not capable of instilling a comparable level of caution in Putin? Was Biden under the desk or behind it? Could we have forced Putin to the negotiating table earlier? We’ll never know. Putin and his team read American political tea leaves just as assiduously as this country’s partners. Biden says American leadership is back. Our partners ask for how long.
No first-term President is entitled to a second term. That privilege is earned through performance, courage, and a willingness to assume risks on behalf of the governed. He has to become the best and preferred choice. We know that, looking forward to the 2024 elections, among Democrats that currently is not Joe Biden.
To some pundits, it may appear that Democrats demand perfection of their leaders, unlike the GOP. Since when have Democratic leaders been perfect? What Democrats expect is that those they elect to accept the challenges of presidential leadership, including the risks of crisis management, and that the President does not seek cover from legal challenges mounted by the opposition or pushback from the courts.
Democrats rightly remind this President that we live in delicate and dangerous times that demand more responsive, intuitive presidential leadership, especially when Republicans routinely break the rules, set aside norms, undermine the foundations of American democracy, and get away with it!
It is perhaps true that the challenges of presidential leadership today are unique in modern political history. But today, Democrats’ principal critique is that Biden’s comfort zone is in remaining on the sidelines. The battle, however, is on the field.
