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New York Magazine - Biden Is Planning an FDR-Size Presidency

Deleted member 5666

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nymag.com

Biden Is Planning an FDR-Size Presidency

He thinks he’ll survive Tara Reade’s accusation. But he knows he can’t be an average-Joe Democrat anymore.
nymag.com nymag.com

Really great article from NY Mag today. It blows apart the fear that Biden will try to play it safe and govern as a moderate. He is planning to go all out with a government plan on policy, more so than any predecessor in decades.

Then, sometimes looking at the small lake abutting his backyard that bulges out from Little Mill Creek, the self-conscious man in the Democratic middle — mocked by the activist left throughout the primary campaign as hopelessly retrograde — considers the present calamity and plots a presidency that, by awful necessity, he believes must be more ambitious than FDR's.
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But in the space of just a few months, COVID-19 and the disastrous White House response appeared to have dramatically widened Biden's pathway to the presidency, making the matter of moderation and electability seem, at least for the time being, almost moot. They also changed his perception of what the country would need from a president in January 2021 — after not just four years of Trump but almost a full year of death and suffering. The pandemic is breaking the country much more deeply than the Great Recession did, Biden believes, and will require a much bigger response. No miraculous rebound is coming in the next six months.
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Widely seen as a cautious, tradition-bound pol and intuitive centrist within the Democratic fold, Biden stopped his economic advisers in their tracks one morning in late April.

Sure, massive gobs of federal financial help have already been approved — unlike in 2008, he pointed out — but that still won't be enough.
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GYODX

GYODX

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Oct 27, 2017
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Yup. He can't afford not to. Joe Biden's got a real chance to be an FDR-level consequential President. Especially if we can somehow win the Senate... And our chances aren't looking too bad.

What's good about Biden is that he doesn't have any strong feelings about anything. We can mold him to our benefit. In fact, it's the same reason why Republicans have stuck by Trump.
 
Polyh3dron

Polyh3dron

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Oct 25, 2017
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FDR was fighting for universal health care.

Biden is actively opposing it.
 
Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius

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Biden is not FDR. Biden couldn't even imagine walking a mile in FDR's shoes.

EDIT: This was a poor analogy. My apologies, but I was definitely not mocking FDR.
 
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bkshi

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Oct 25, 2017
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Cheebo said:
You should read the article. It outlines Biden believes corona dictates he has to change his prior moderate stances and needs to embrace a big government FDR approach to the economy and healthcare.
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I will believe it when I see it.

Also he is a consistent pathological liar so it's hard to believe anything he says
 
jeelybeans

jeelybeans

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Oct 25, 2017
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Yesss. This is what the country desperately needs at this moment. We have one shot people. November. That's it. We can't afford four years of not just stagnation but regression. Please vote.
 
jml

jml

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Mar 9, 2018
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Well I think this is the right way to go from a messaging standpoint but I'm still really skeptical that he'll actually follow through on it if elected.
 
Brinbe

Brinbe

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Oct 25, 2017
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Sigh... If they're really gonna ignore Tara and go full bore with it then I guess we have no choice. Purely, on a political/societal and historical level. He better not fuck this up.

With millions unemployed and barely scraping by, we need real leadership and a strong federal government. We can only hope Joe provides it without kowtowing to so-called 'fiscal moderates' right now.
 
Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius

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GoldenEye 007 said:
Is this saying Biden is trying to be FDR? Or a more overarching point about policy that's FDR like in the sense of larger programs, etc.? Because if it's the latter, I don't see the point in your comment.
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Cheebo said:
So he shouldn't even try to emulate FDR's big government approach to policy due to the opportunity corona presents him?
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FDR was a social democrat, Biden is not. Can you even imagine something like the New Deal coming out of Biden's head? I don't.
 
maxxpower

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Let's see if he follows through and doesn't revert to his "I can work with Republicans and heal this country" crap.
 
krazen

krazen

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Yup. This is the time to steamroll everything through; the government is in absolute chaos. If he can't leverage his old white centrist guy goodwill into making substantial changes, the Republic is doomed
 
makonero

makonero

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Oct 27, 2017
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If he follows through, great. But by January, Americans will be desperate and even "bigger than FDR" plans might not be enough. We will see.
 
GYODX

GYODX

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Fully expecting most people to react to the title and not read even a paragraph or two of the article.
 
MonoStable

MonoStable

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He better not assume that because Trump is fucking up that he's a shoe in for the election... He's been almost ghost as far as campaigning goes and I know it's going to be tough to campaign with the current pandemic but he's been slow to adopt a lot of strategies to connect with voters that bernie and aoc and a lot of others used. Just having some article out there isn't enough we need to see it come out of your lips and you need to energize people to vote for you.
 
Big Boss

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Oct 27, 2017
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Yea I'll believe it when I see it. Even if he wanted to, he's still gotta contend With Congress.
 
GoldenEye 007

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Marcus Aurelius said:
FDR was a social democrat, Biden is not. Can you even imagine something like the New Deal coming out of Biden's head? I don't.
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Ok. Isn't the point of this article to highlight that things might be changing somewhat? Ultimately we don't know because we can't predict the future. I do know that without the Senate, no Dem priorities are getting done anyway. No matter who is on the top of the ticket.
 
Equippedwithtowel

Equippedwithtowel

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They are sending the right signals at least. The tricky part is what his team think FDR style means in the context of 2020

It's very easy to say the right things, it's harder to back them up
 
metalslimer

metalslimer

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I would go into how FDR was not originally a politician that went that initially wanted everything he got done but did what he thought necessary by extreme circumstances but I dont think that nuance works for anyone
 
RailWays

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I have my doubts, given his reluctance to M4A, but obviously these times need the kind of sweeping reform that FDR brought. Hoping a theoretical Biden admin and Dem congress will be forthright with these changes.

But unlike FDR, how about we actually let minorities partake in the welfare this time around. Would be grand...
 
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Deleted member 35740

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My first question is how does he expect to have a mandate for policy of that magnitude when he himself expects to only be a 1 term president? FDR had four terms to accomplish his goals and even then there was plenty he wasn't able to do.
 
Fisty

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It all comes down to his appointees, imo. I doubt he will change much of his past stances but if he puts good people in the right places that push for the changes we need... I guess it's something.
 
OP
OP

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GoldenEye 007 said:
Ok. Isn't the point of this article to highlight that things might be changing somewhat? Ultimately we don't know because we can't predict the future. I do know that without the Senate, no Dem priorities are getting done anyway. No matter who is on the top of the ticket.
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Yep. Which is why responding angrily is so odd to me.

Before it was:
Biden proposes moderation - "we need to move more to the left."

Now:
Biden says corona has changed his plans and is now for pushing much further to the left - "don't care, I don't believe you."

I mean, he is doing now what a lot on the left asked him to do. To use corona to try to push for bigger economic policy changes.
 
GoldenEye 007

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Caturro said:
My first question is how does he expect to have a mandate for policy of that magnitude when he himself expects to only be a 1 term president? FDR had four terms to accomplish his goals and even then there was plenty he wasn't able to do.
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My thought would be to groom these policies for 3 terms. While he would be out after 1, I think his VP pick will be identified specifically to carry on many policies that would align. Obviously easier said than done, but that's my assumption.
 
GYODX

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Think about it from Biden's perspective. You're almost 80 years old, you've been a public servant for the past 30+ years. Is power for power's sake really that important to you still, or do you want to leave a legacy?
 
Reverse Giraffe

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GoldenEye 007 said:
Ok. Isn't the point of this article to highlight that things might be changing somewhat? Ultimately we don't know because we can't predict the future. I do know that without the Senate, no Dem priorities are getting done anyway. No matter who is on the top of the ticket.
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Fortunately, we're doing pretty well in Senate races at the moment.

Peters +10 in Michigan
Cunningham +7 in NC
Kelly +9 in AZ
Gideon +4 in ME
I haven't seen a recent Colorado or Montana poll but I suspect Hickenlooper and Bullock are doing well there as well.
 
Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius

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GYODX said:
Think about it from Biden's perspective. You're almost 80 years old, you've been a public servant for the past 30+ years. Is power for power's sake really that important to you still, or do you want to leave a legacy?
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Sorry but this reeks of wishful thinking to me. Biden is not going to flip on his ideological stances just because the left demand that he do so.
 
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