{"id":18527,"date":"2021-01-14T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inthesetimes.com\/article\/protest-biden-push-left-green-new-deal-medicare-for-all"},"modified":"2021-01-14T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T13:00:00","slug":"we-should-cause-trouble-not-make-nice-with-biden-history-suggests-that-its-not-making-friends-but-making-the-administrations-life-difficult-that-gets-results-for-the-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/14\/we-should-cause-trouble-not-make-nice-with-biden-history-suggests-that-its-not-making-friends-but-making-the-administrations-life-difficult-that-gets-results-for-the-left\/","title":{"rendered":"We Should Cause Trouble, Not Make Nice With Biden – History suggests that it\u2019s not making friends, but making the administration\u2019s life difficult, that gets results for the Left."},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t\t\t\t

Once Joe Biden secured the Democratic presidential nomination, many progressives pivoted to the task of \u201cpushing him left.\u201d Some urged an \u201cinside approach\u201d to influence his campaign, exemplified by the Democratic Party\u2019s Unity Task Forces that brought Biden\u2019s backers together with those of Bernie Sanders. Yet, since becoming president-elect, Biden has shown some hostility to a progressive turn, stacking his administration with war profiteers, Wall Street bigwigs<\/a> and others pulled from the revolving door between Washington and corporate America. <\/p>\n

While Biden has made some progressive nominations such as Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) for interior secretary, there are also causes for concern in his cabinet selections. Brian Deese, global head of sustainable investing at BlackRock (the \u201cworld\u2019s largest investor in deforestation\u201d), is to head the Council of Economic Advisors. Gen. Lloyd Austin, board member at weapons manufacturer Raytheon, is Biden\u2019s pick for defense secretary. Multiple alums from Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Co. and Boston Consulting Group are on the transition team. These individuals will hold vast sway over decision making in the Biden administration. <\/p>\n

When media outlets and left-wing groups such as Justice Democrats voiced their objections<\/a>, some Democratic strategists chastised them. One told Politico<\/a>, \u201cThey can either continue to just beat the drums on the streets or they can start to leverage the relationship they have.\u201d Another warned, bluntly, \u201cWe don't negotiate with terrorists.\u201d But history suggests this deferential approach is a mistake: It\u2019s not making nice, but making the administration\u2019s life difficult, that gets results. <\/p>\n

President Barack Obama rode a swell of goodwill and public trust with scant resistance from progressives<\/a> in the early years of his administration. The right-wing Tea Party movement, however, staged 500 rallies numbering over 800,000 people on Tax Day 2009 alone, crashing public hearings on healthcare policy and demanding to address the national debt.<\/a> That popular anger (and their electoral victories) soon pushed Obama toward austerity. <\/p>\n

Where Obama did face progressive pushback, the results speak for themselves. He defended the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, then faced down years of gay rights protesters disrupting fundraisers and public events. He ended up the most progressive president in U.S. history on LGBTQ issues. Similarly, his executive orders on immigration\u2014including the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program\u2014came only after years of similar protest.<\/p>\n

The creation of Medicare and Medicaid, in 1965, was achieved in the face of opposition <\/a>from the American Medical Association and other industry groups\u2014thanks to agitation by organized labor and a host of church and civil society groups. President Lyndon B. Johnson was sympathetic to the cause, but such pressure can work regardless of the attitudes of those in leadership.<\/p>\n

An escalation of protest in 1963\u2014a whopping 758 protests and 13,000 arrests over 10 weeks in spring 1963 alone\u2014forced the reticent hand of President John F. Kennedy. \u201cMr. Kennedy got disturbed,\u201d said Martin Luther King Jr.<\/a>, who added that the world is not going to \u201crespect the United States of America if she deprives men and women of the basic rights of life because of the color of their skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden has pledged to be<\/a> \u201cthe most progressive president since FDR.\u201d But Roosevelt was himself \u201cpushed left\u201d by what he saw as political threats. Alarmed at socialist civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph\u2019s warning that he planned to lead 100,000 Black marchers to Washington, Roosevelt banned racial discrimination in federal jobs.<\/p>\n

Roosevelt took power at a time when the Communist Party was exerting noticeable influence on American politics. He brought radicals and protest leaders into the fold not out of generosity, but to control threats. The major initiatives of Roosevelt\u2019s \u201cSecond New Deal\u201d\u2014Social Security, the Works Progress Administration and the Wealth Tax Act\u2014were motivated in part by populist Louisiana Sen. Huey Long and his \u201cShare Our Wealth\u201d movement; Roosevelt wanted \u201cto steal Long\u2019s thunder.\u201d This dynamic illustrates the importance of building a left-wing opposition<\/a> in the halls of power. <\/p>\n

But Roosevelt was also pushed from the outside. Strikes more than doubled from 1932 to 1933, with the number of workers involved leaping by nearly a million. These work stoppages often ended in police violence, as did other protests by the poor, spurring action on jobs programs. The Farmers\u2019 Holiday Association, a protest movement that saw farmers use strikes and barricades<\/a> to return foreclosed farms to their owners, led to foreclosure moratoriums in 25 states, with Roosevelt fearing an \u201cagrarian revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden and the Democratic Party want to bring back \u201cnormalcy\u201d in the post-Trump era. But history suggests the normal we should return to is that of a combative Left. Whether it\u2019s climate protesters <\/a>blocking pipeline construction, racial justice advocates <\/a>flooding the streets or workers in key sectors withholding their labor<\/a>, such civil unrest and relentless advocacy may be the only way to spur the Biden administration to meet at least some progressive demands. That\u2019s where the real leverage lies.
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This post was originally published on In These Times<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tOnce Joe Biden secured the Democratic presidential nomination, many progressives pivoted to the task of \u201cpushing him left.\u201d Some urged an \u201cinside approach\u201d to influence his campaign, exemplified by the Democratic Party\u2019s Unity Task Forces that bro…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1445,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18528,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18527\/revisions\/18528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}