To start, how about that Biden knows he was elected to do nothing
I said "as little as possible", not nothing. He has vigorously pursued some very necessary measures over these first few days, and I'm glad he has. Reopening diplomatic relations with the Reservation communities, allowing the government to investigate its own racist policies, rejoining the Paris Accord. None of these are "nothing", they are necessary emergency measures under the circumstances, and I'm glad he has pursued them.
But they are
also "as little as possible". Not enacting new ideas, but rather, putting out the fires and trying to return to what, a mere four years ago, constituted the status quo. This is actually a fairly ideologically conservative project, and it is what got Biden re-elected. The idea of pursuing new, socially Progressive programs frightened the public off of candidates like Bernie and Warren, and pushed them to the Bidens, Klobuchars, and Buttigiegs of the system. They know what their job is, I think.
I have lived in California for most of my life, and am accustomed to living under Democratic rule, the good and the bad of this approach. It has always been a matter of small symbolic gestures, the minimum necessary measures to "appear liberal" without seriously challenging Republican projects or promoting a uniquely Progressive platform. The slow, gradual social progress you refer to is something that can result from that kind of approach... in good times. The question is, are we now in good times as a nation? My state, supposedly the most liberal state outside of the Northeast, is groaning under the weight of nearly unchecked capitalist expansionism, grinding poverty, racialized redlining of the urban majority into sprawling barrios, underfunded and asbestos-infested schools and civic services, and an commercial/industrial infrastructure that has seen few true improvements since the 1970's. Our politics are "too liberal for Capitol Hill", but we have not succeeded in checking Republican ambitions. What does this teach us about what is about to happen in Washington? Are we in good times?
It implies compromise and slower but lasting improvements.
Perhaps you could give us an example of the productive compromises the Biden administration is currently working on, and which Republicans are volunteering to help broker the other side of those compromises.
I don't think centrism necessarily implies "shaking hands with Nazis". But as long as the Republican Party is acting as a safe haven for white nationalists and their projects in American politics, that will be the outcome of centrist ideology in our current era. The Democrats have no power to change this, but the Republicans themselves could, if they decided to firmly repudiate white nationallist anarchism and initiate meaningful projects of compromise, reform, and mutual cooperation. If they did, moderate Democrats would obviously be overjoyed to work with them, and even if you are right that Progressives are incapable of any form of comporomise, they would be handily outvoted regardless.
But
is that what's happening in Washington right now? Or did almost half of our Senate just vote that the instigation of a violent coup and an assault on their own houses of governance doesn't even merit investigation. let alone prosecution?
