I've been seeing an awful lot of this lately:
There’s been a lot written about the parallels between Biden and FDR. But there’s one less-covered parallel that sticks out to me: Like FDR, Biden is trying to enact a big agenda to revitalize faith in American democracy. https://t.co/0rvSCeGvab
— German Lopez (@germanrlopez) April 30, 2021
I suppose it's reasonable to say that Biden would like to be the next FDR—what Democrat wouldn't?—but there's a big difference between the two: FDR passed lots of permanent social programs that changed the country forever while Biden hasn't. Other than that, they're nearly the same!
Honestly, I really don't get the Biden-FDR comparisons. So far Biden has proposed a bunch of stuff, and if he passes it all he will certainly go down as a pretty influential president. But so far he hasn't passed any of it and there are some serious doubts about whether he can. For starters, he's limited to whatever he can pass via reconciliation, and beyond that he can only pass programs that are supported by every single Democrat in the Senate. This is . . . difficult.
I'll be rooting for him, but the FDR comparisons really ought to wait until he's accomplished a few big things. Permanent things. That's going to be some tough sledding.
FDR also had a sizeable majority in some of his Congresses to get his legislation through, and in an era when the filibuster wasn't used as much. And he's helped by the fact that the New Deal programs were expanded by the LBJ's Great Society (also with sizable Congressional majorities.)
Right now Biden just doesn't have much of a majority to work with. I don't think he can get anything close to that level passed unless Democrats make huge gains in Congress.
I think most of the similarities are mostly aesthetic/rhetorical, with some wishful thinking thrown in. On the plus side, I think he's done a good job so far given what he's working with.
The issue is not size of Congress or whatever. It's that the sorts of people who report on day to day news are the LAST people you want providing you with analyses of "how this fits into the grand historical structure"...
Maybe Biden will go down as a 2nd FDR. Maybe he'll go down as a 2nd Carter (an essentially irrelevant blip who mainly showed that, no matter what the Republicans do, Democrats will overreach and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory).
Either way Vox is not the vehicle, or the set of people, that will give you ANY insight into this.
This sort of understanding and analysis takes time. Hell, even LBJ is only just being correctly conceptualized (IMHO) in the grand historical sweep, 50 or so years later. We have Rick Perlstein giving (sorta) the pro-Democrat argument with a hefty side of "here's why the Republicans were, even so, popular". Against that we have Christopher Caldwell (The Age of Entitlement) giving (sorta) the pro-Republican argument, with a hefty side of "here's why both the Democrats and Republicans were completely wrong and more than a little craven".
[If you're any sort of ideologue, you will hate both authors...]
But the larger point is that you understand after 50 years. Pretending you understand today, when you could even get understanding of Brexit or Trump correct, shows a pathological degree of hubris.
Kevin your arguments seem a little disingenuous since absolutely no one is comparing Biden's accomplishments to FDR's, what they are comparing is the the approach in both for really pushing and expecting big things from government.
The tweet and vox article used as an example even points this out:
"Like FDR, Biden is trying to enact a big agenda to revitalize faith in American democracy."
He is trying to be like him, he hasn't been afraid to propose big things like him, and of course would like to leave a long lasting legacy that helps Americans just like him, but the key word there is "trying". Whether he accomplishes it or not its left to be seen, but the comparisons so far are about some of the national challenges they faced, and the approach and focus they took to tackle those challenges.
Also there's the little matter of his having been in office for barely 100 days.
Most of FDR's major accomplishments took years. Look at Social Security, which even when it finally got passed (against serious opposition) didn't have nearly the scope it has today.
Plus of course FDR's baseline was far lower.
I'm impressed as hell with what Biden has managed so far, and with what he has proposed in addition. I'm willing to forgive a little hyperbole, especially when it is phrased as carefully as most of it seems to be.
(Of course, he will never come close to the greatest president of all time, really, like no one ever thought would even be possible, certainly the best, better than Lincoln, maybe even Washington some people are saying.)
The similarity is that Biden, like FDR but almost no one in between, understands that politics is not only "the art of the possible" but also the art of the necessary. If the markers of what is necessary have not first been laid down, then the discussion of what is possible cannot even make sense, as it has no context.
Briahna Joy Gray agrees with you 100%.
Oh, I think it would be nice // if I could touch you Bernie //
I know not everybody // has a Bernie like you //
But I gotta think twice // before I give my heart away //
& I know all the games you play // cause I played them too
My heart went out to Howard Dean first!
I still wonder if the Marquette student who had a Dean for America sign in their Straz Tower dorm window in Fall 2003 ended up growing into a MAGA.
Filed to: Collegiate Leftism Ends Abruptly Mid-Junior Year.
I didn't, socialist here and not the Bernie kind. But Howard Dean was the first person who taught me how to be proud I was a leftist.
The obvious point is that his policy goals are comparable to FDR's. Yes, of course we all get that he hasn't accomplished them all and he faces obstacles to doing so.
I get the FDR stuff. It's spin. Classic political spin.
WHATEVER a Democratic President does, partisans will say it's just like FDR. Same way Karl Rove's operation compared W Bush to Reagan all the time.
I can't say I knew FDR, though I was born when he was still president.
But I'm tempted to paraphrase Bentsen's takedown of Quayle to say Joe's no FDR.
The problems we faced on Jan 20, 2021 were no where near as serious as the ones we faced on Mar 3, 1933. And we're forgetting the serious ambitions Bill and Barack had upon taking office.
Lol I remember that. Was reminded when Biden slapped down Ryan.
It all sounds like sports reminiscences, or perhaps WWE.
Wow, a pre-Boomer, like Biden himself.
The natural connection is that El Pepe Maximo will be our only president born during the regime of the Great Cornpolio.
They both ran for the office of Vice-President!
& both owe their political standing to the big banks.
I'd prefer not to compare him to FDR. FDR signed EO 9066.
Pretty much the big story of his presidency.
Kevin: thank you for voicing what I've been thinking (and frankly, worrying) about. Biden has passed one large bill so far. One. I fervently hope he gets his family and infrastructure proposals enacted, too, and likewise I hope he can make permanent the child credit and the Obamacare bump up. But they're all just proposals at this point. And I hope Democrats make haste with respect to his legislative agenda: Biden's proposals poll well, and the public seems as broadly supportive as one could possibly expect in this age of extreme polarization. And moreover the Republicans seem to be in disarray. But none of that is guaranteed to last very long.
I somewhat disagree....all this FDR talk is important in that it is aspirational, it pushes Biden along an ambitious path...and this is, again, important.
If Biden can get just his Infrastructure Bill and HR1 enacted....Biden will enter the area of being an exceptional, maybe even great, President.
He must focus on these two with great intensity...everything else is just gravy or cherries on top.
Best Wishes, Traveller
LOL. Biden is literally between to fasces. And that's about right...his corporatism and scapegoating an ethnic group (white Americans) is pretty fascist.
jews will not replace us, right dude?
They seem to be doing a pretty good job of it.
i guess we need more tiki torch marches. sieg heil bro'
No, they must not.
They must be relocated to Israel to bring Armageddon.