Joe Biden’s America

2020 certainly has been a year and it’s not over yet.

I spent most of last week glued to CNN. Mostly watching John King at The Magic Wall talk about the last 5 or 10 votes coming in from Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia or Nevada. Yes, there were probably better ways to spend my time but, let’s face it, when you are staring four more years of Donald Trump in the face there’s a lot on the line. I couldn’t focus on much else.

I think I somehow hit a subconscious switch in my brain to tell myself that if and when Biden got the most electoral votes, that would be that and I could then begin the deep therapeutic work to stick Trump in my rear-view mirror. 

Silly me. That would have involved Trump thinking about the country, instead of himself, and the press thinking about reporting reality rather than going after ratings. I officially apologize for my delusional thinking. 

Last Tuesday another switch went off in my brain, though, when I listened to Joe Biden respond to the questions from the press, seeking the next chapter in the American soap opera, since Trump refuses to concede or cooperate. I was struck by Biden’s calm and poise and grace, as he explained none of this was that big of deal, that we could only have one President at a time, and that he would in fact be showing up for work on January 20^th. The press of course immediately launched in to a review of how Biden was doing at sound bites and positioning. 

I’d like to suggest another possibility. Which is that Joe Biden is being completely genuine when he expresses confidence that we are going to all get through this. I know that we aren’t used to a politician actually telling us exactly what they think, but that’s my take on what Biden is doing here. He believes that we need to work together and unify the country, or else we are doomed to keep cycling through the same existential challenges and make no progress. And in his long life, he’s gone through more than most of us- the tragic deaths of a spouse and two children – and a health crisis of his own where he was given last rites. Maybe a little post-election skirmish with a failed reality TV host doesn’t look like a big deal to him. 

The switch in my brain twitched slightly towards an almost unrecognizable feeling. Optimism. 

I’m starting to believe that Joe Biden has been underestimated for quite some time. 

How Biden Won

The Democrats had a couple rooms full of presidential candidates earlier this year during their primary, and if it’s been such a long year that if you don’t remember who they were I don’t blame you for that. They were a very talented and accomplished bunch. Joe Biden didn’t really stand out that much, and he had a hard time attacking fellow Democrats. Julian Castro attacked Biden for the sin of being old. Then Biden finished 4^th or 5^thin the early “must win” primaries. He looked like toast until Jim Clyburn said the magic words in South Carolina, “We know Joe but, more importantly, Joe knows us.”

Biden won South Carolina handily and, then, when people took a second look they liked that they saw. Many of the other candidates could string together better sound bites than Biden, but Joe understood something they didn’t. The rest of them were running high-powered campaigns that they would have run against any old Republican. But Donald Trump was never any old Republican. Biden got the fact that the 2020 campaign was going to be a referendum on Donald Trump, period. Trump is hands-down the most polarizing political figure in my lifetime. People either love him or can’t stand him. 

As I write this, there are over 72 million votes for Trump but, then again, over 78 million for Biden/ against Trump. The highest turnout in total vote count ever by a long shot. The pundits tell us that this means we have an engaged citizenry, but I think it’s equally likely that Trump evokes such emotion on both sides that people will put on masks and put up with all sorts of craziness just to vote for or against the guy. 

So, Biden was right, the election was about Trump all along.

Once he framed that properly, he could draw a contrast with Trump. Mostly, he did that in two ways. First, he became the candidate of Unity not Division. Which he appropriately called a battle for the soul of America. Then, as the still-horribly-unfolding tragedy of COVID-19 arrived, Biden contrasted his low-key competence with Trump’s “miracle-cure-a-day/ herd mentality/ why are we talking about COVID so much?” banter. It was no contest. And it turned out enough people over 65 cared about not dying more than they cared about their stock portfolios. Who would have thunk it? 

Biden, who had a reputation for stepping on his own message, ran a campaign of consistency and extraordinarily disciplined messaging. Because he framed the campaign around the right issues. And, when you set aside the drama resulting from the sequence in which the votes were counted (a consequence of crazy election laws in some states) Biden won the election handily. They’re saying the biggest win over an incumbent President since FDR managed to beat Herbert Hoover in the middle of the Great Depression. Not bad. 

Good Progress 

So, where do we go from here? And, is there any reason/ excuse to actually feel hope and optimism?

I’ve come to believe that “good progress”- in other words, progress that actually moves us forward, in American politics- is going to be more incremental than transformational. I would have guessed that if Biden got almost 80 million popular votes and 306 electoral college votes, the Democrats would have gotten control of the Senate too. But that didn’t happen, at least not yet. And the Democrats lost seats in the House.

The people have spoken and, at least for now, they seem to want divided government. 

Biden just might be the perfect person to lead us through this challenge. Here’s why:

He’s Graduated from the School of Hard Knocks

The American people have become highly skeptical of academic credentials, perhaps for good reason. Unfortunately, this has led to de-valuing science and expertise which, when combined with the pandemic, has put many of us at great peril. But there’s another kind of expertise, the kind that you get from your lived experience. From making decisions, being honest about whether or not they work out, and learning as you go. Joe Biden went to the University of Delaware, not Harvard or Stanford. He doesn’t need to be the smartest person in the room.

We need to learn to value lived experience, and stop looking for political leaders who have no political experience. That’s like demanding a pilot who hasn’t ever flown a plane before on your next flight. Biden has a PhD from the School of Hard Knocks, which is invaluable experience when you are in a job where so much of what happens to you is driven by unforeseen events. 

He understands the Power of Influence without Authority

We commonly think of power as something that comes with great decision-making authority. But formal organizational authority is transient; even when you have it, it’s hard to keep. And not everyone does what you want just because you have the authority to hire and fire them. There’s another, very important form of power, which is called influence without authority. How do you convince others to do something that is in our broader interests, but might cost them something personally? That’s called influence, and it’s a skill. You acquire influence in organizations by making good on your commitments, and by building relationships of goodwill with others. 

Biden is going to need influence very early in his presidency, assuming the Republicans continue to control the Senate with the dreaded Mitch McConnell at the helm. He’s going to need to meet with McConnell and convince him to do big things that the country desperately needs. Obama tried to emphasize his authority with the message “elections have consequences”; we all that didn’t go well. But Biden has spent a lifetime understanding and acquiring influence skills. He understands that reminding people of your power is the last thing you do, not the first thing you do. I wouldn’t bet against him. 

He is about Unity not Division

If political progress was really about stating your position as vehemently as possible, we would be in a much better place right now than we are. Because we’ve had plenty of that from both the right and the left. Mostly what we’ve gotten from political polarization is gridlock. 

Biden ran from the beginning as a unity candidate, starting with framing unity as restoring the soul of America. There’s plenty of cynicism and skepticism about this unity message, as a casual side-trip to either Facebook or Twitter will confirm.  Yet, it seems that nearly 80 million people have voted for the unity guy, and I find Biden’s emphatic suggestion that cooperation is a choice compelling. 

Many Americans- not everyone but many Americans- are going to give this guy a chance to heal us, because they know we need healing. 

He values Equality of Opportunity

Joe Biden talks a lot about his father losing his job in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which caused his family to have to move to Delaware. His working-class roots ooze out of his being. It’s no accident that he got many more votes from those without college degrees than Hillary Clinton did. 

Biden understands that in a capitalist society, you cannot expect equality of outcomes – and in fact he’s made it clear that he’s not about attacking the rich (although he will raise their tax rates.) But he also understands the corrosive effects of the erosion of the American middle class that began in the early 1980s. Since then, income inequality has grown much worse and labor participation rates have declined significantly (1). It’s much harder for lower-income Americans to break into the middle class now than it was before 1980. 

Biden’s economic plans are going to be all about equality of opportunity, about the revival of the American dream. He won’t solve this problem in 4 years, which after all we spent 40 years creating. But starting us down this path will be good progress, and can make a difference in changing our country for the better. 

Progress Favors the Optimist

Cynics are less likely to be surprised on the downside, which can be a valuable defense mechanism. Yet, my experience is that optimists get more done. They learn to persevere through setbacks and they stay resilient over time. They keep a vision of a better future in their head. Biden is an unapologetic optimist. 

We’ve got a lot of work to do, there is no doubt about that. If the last four years, and especially this one, prove anything it’s that leadership matters. The work will require all of us to figure out how to step up in our own ways. When it comes to leadership, right now, Joe is saying that he’s got this. 

A great first step for the rest of us just might be to believe him. 

(1) The unemployment rate that is widely reported in the press excludes from its denominator those who are no longer looking for work. But the labor force participation rate has been declining in the United States over the last ten years, from the high 60s to around 62% today. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Data from various sources, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED), reveal several trends. Over the past 20 years, participation and employment rates have declined at a higher rate in the United States than they have in any other OCED country, particularly for “prime-age” individuals (25–54 years old).”

(1) The unemployment rate that is widely reported in the press excludes from its denominator those who are no longer looking for work. But the labor force participation rate has been declining in the United States over the last ten years, from the high 60s to around 62% today. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Data from various sources, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED), reveal several trends. Over the past 20 years, participation and employment rates have declined at a higher rate in the United States than they have in any other OCED country, particularly for “prime-age” individuals (25–54 years old).”The unemployment rate that is widely reported in the press excludes from its denominator those who are no longer looking for work. But the labor force participation rate has been declining in the United States over the last ten years, from the high 60s to around 62% today. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Data from various sources, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED), reveal several trends. Over the past 20 years, participation and employment rates have declined at a higher rate in the United States than they have in any other OCED country, particularly for “prime-age” individuals (25–54 years old).”