A friend of ours has been working for Dustin Reidy who is a candidate to represent us in the Assembly, so the four of us sat down for coffee and a lovely chat which turned into lunch after Dustin had to leave for another appointment. Our conversation stimulated some thoughts about the job Biden is doing. I don’t want to put words in Dustin’s mouth so, though this was stimulated by our conversation, I speak only for myself.
Lots of people are way to Biden’s left on some issues. So am I. But I don’t want Biden to be Gottlieb. There’s no way I could get Congress or the courts to do what I want them to do. I don’t want Biden to declare all he’d really like to do. That would just make him a target. I want him to pull our national politics as far to the left as he can, preferably with as little destructive backlash as possible. But politics is a negotiation and sometimes you have to keep your policies close to your chest. So I think Biden has done a masterful job dealing with the economy. He hasn’t done everything I’d like our government to do. It won’t and he can’t but he’s done a lot. But he’s got my appreciation and respect for what he’s done.
The same is true about the Middle East and international politics. I’ve had a lot to say about Palestine both before and after Hamas’ October 7 attack. Again, Joe Biden has not done everything I asked for. But Biden is the first president since Israel declared its independence to put significant conditions on our support. I kept wanting Obama to do that. The notion that Trump would do better is laughable – he reversed long-standing American policy when he moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, leading the Netanyahu government to believe it could do anything it wanted. Similarly, Republicans in Congress ignored President Obama’s foreign policy authority when they invited Netanyahu to speak to Congress over Obama’s objections, similarly encouraging the Israeli government to believe it didn’t have to worry about Democratic presidents. President Biden has turned against that tide. I don’t know everything President Biden is doing or saying behind the scenes but there are limits to how far he should expose his hand when negotiating both with Congress and Netanyahu. I could wish that Putin, Netanyahu and whoever leads Hamas would simply evaporate. But finally, we have an American President who is pushing in the direction I want.
And for American Jews, Biden is not the president who encouraged armed antisemites in Charlottesville and elsewhere and he is not confusing American policy toward Israel with treatment of Jews in America.
Politics is complicated. We all want different things. There’s nothing illegitimate about our seeing the world differently. Certainly, some of us are just plain wrong. But to get anything done, a president has to deal with all of us, the people who’ll support what he wants to do, and the people who’ll do their best to block him or her from doing what needs to be done. There are no switches to flip, no fingers to snap. So I say thank heavens for Joe Biden.
— If you think I’m on target, please pass it on. For the podcast, please click here. This commentary was scheduled for broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, on April 30, 2024.
Constitutionalism and Democracy 