Boring is Good: The Moral Case for Joe Biden
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If you’re a little bit bored by Tuesday’s announcement that Joe Biden is running for re-election, I sympathize. The guy and his re-election campaign are not that exciting. Ageism aside, he’s 80 and showing it. He’s basically an establishment liberal, not pushing for the kinds of systemic changes that many of us — younger people in particular — are pushing for. He’s just not that exciting.
Which is good.
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Really good.
In fact, let me offer five reasons why boring old Dark Brandon is, in a weird way, the right presidential candidate for 2024.
1. “Interesting” is Overrated
You know that not-real-but-still-on-point ancient curse, “May you live in interesting times?” Well, 2016-2020 were interesting AF. By which I mean, horrifying. And whether it’s Trump or Trump Lite as the Republican nominee next year, things are going to get a lot more “interesting” as America seriously ponders whether to put an election-denying, democracy-mocking, immigrant-bashing, pussy-grabbing, authoritarian-loving menace to society (back) into the White House.
Interesting is overrated. Boring is good.
Biden is a steady hand and a reliable leader. And we are still in dangerous times, still divided by Trumpism and by the flailing, late-stage desperation of American White Supremacy. The degree of outright authoritarianism that has captivated around 20% of the US population should be terrifying. Trump has promised to bring back firing squads and “investigate” law enforcement professionals antagonistic to his interests — For God’s sake, he has openly disparaged democracy.
2. Turning Down the Heat
Relatedly, one thing that the Biden Administration has done really well is just… tone things down. I bet you can’t even name half of the Biden Cabinet — and I want to suggest this is good. I don’t wake up every morning fearing what dreadful tweet the president has sent out today.
And frankly, while Biden’s moderation often leads to some pretty dubious policy choices (“Amtrak Joe” siding against railroad workers, for example), it also has the potential, at least, to be a voice of moderation and reason in the face of profound, screeching unreason. Of course, other candidates could offer this too, but Biden is already doing it.
This isn’t a political point so much as a moral one.
3. Reality Check
Let’s also remember that the Biden administration has done some amazing things. On climate change, the badly named “Inflation Reduction Act” is the most ambitious and significant environmental initiative in American history, even after the compromises necessary to get it past the fossil fuel industry’s toadies in the Senate (Senators Machin and Sinema in particular). This is precisely why Republicans are risking debt-ceiling economic chaos to undo it: it is a massive accomplishment that hasn’t gotten the press it deserves.
But also with reproductive justice, transgender rights, and racial justice — basically, everything the Republican Party is trying to destroy, the Biden administration has fought to protect. And they’ve been a lot smarter than the administration’s social media haters might suggest.
Meanwhile, not content with disenfranchising majority-nonwhite communities across the country, leading Republicans are now trying to make it harder for young people to vote, restricting voting on college campuses and even floating the idea of raising the voting age from 18 to 21.
For everything that progressives care about, this is not a close election. Which leads me to my next point:
4. Privilege Check
Yep, that other “check.”
There is a lot at stake in this coming set of elections, and it does affect everyone, but let’s admit it: It affects some of us a lot more than others. When Republicans ram through work requirements for food stamps, that doesn’t affect me a lot. But it sure as hell affects a single mom trying to make ends meet. When Republicans block any attempt to regulate assault weapons; when they take away women’s rights to control their own bodies; when they throw legal asylum-seekers into detention centers; when they slander Black Lives Matter and ban any teaching of systemic racism; again, as a fortunate, white, upper-quartile-income cis dude, I’m not directly impacted.
But if there’s one thing that the religion of which I am a rabbi teaches, it’s that precisely when we’re not directly impacted is when we most need to step up. Protect the widow and the orphan, the Bible demands — not because you’re a widow or an orphan, but precisely because you have power and status that they do not. Don’t oppress foreigners. Don’t favor the powerful. Feed the hungry and clothe the naked.
So, in 2023 and 2024, if you’re lucky enough to not be primarily targeted by the American Nationalist Right’s xenophobia and ignorance, that’s your moral imperative to get involved on behalf of those who are.
5. Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom
Finally, while Joe Biden may not be the candidate of choice of younger, more progressive voters, there’s a way in which this is actually a good thing. Because progressive leadership needs time and resources to develop. Congressional races, state races, and local races are often critically important, which is why the Right has worked so hard to take over school boards and gerrymander state legislatures.
The conventional wisdom is that a strong standard-bearer at the top has “coattails” that benefit races down the ballot. But it’s also true that a meh standard-bearer enables activists to focus on those down-ballot races and make meaningful change, particularly in progressive parts of the country.
For Democrats, 2024 is not going to be a personality-driven election. It’s going to be a save-the-country-driven election. So what to do? Start with things that benefit the top, middle, and bottom of the political ladder. Register young people to vote, and help them vote. Step up and counter the lies being told about trans people, Black people, progressives, socialists, and anyone else the Right wants to demonize. Give your time and money to POC-led organizations working to both empower voting in the short term and dismantle systemic racism in the long term.
And in place of the Right’s bizarre and idolatrous cult of personality, let’s replace the vision of a Strong Patriarch Guiding Our Movement with a more pluralistic one of thousands of progressive leaders, grounded in local communities around the country, united not by fealty to the dear leader but by a commitment to core American values — even when America itself hasn’t lived up to them.
Tina Turner was right: we don’t need another hero. We need someone who isn’t insane to be at the helm while a new generation builds progressive leadership for the future. I’ll take two helpings of Boring, please.
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