Underestimated: Biden and Democrats

By Deauwand Myers

Old dogs can learn new tricks, or maybe for this particular old dog, he already had new tricks. For all the second-guessing of President Biden by both allies and enemies, he has accomplished more transformative legislation in his first term since at least President Johnson, who ushered in the Civil and Voting Rights Acts, Fair Housing Act, Medicaid, Medicare, and a bevy of other anti-poverty measures. Had President Johnson's massive ego, indeed his Greek tragedy-like hubris, propelled him to keep America mired in the bloody, unwinnable crucible of the Vietnam War, sapping resources that could have otherwise been used to aid in his ambitious War on Poverty agenda, the gross wealth and income gaps glaringly apparent in today's American society may not exist as they do.

Here are a few of Biden's massive achievements, in no particular order:
Biden helped pass a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, investing in America's crumbling national network of bridges and roads, airports, the internet, rail, ports and utility infrastructure.

The Biden-Harris Administration oversaw the program giving more than 500 million life-saving COVID-19 vaccinations to Americans through the American Rescue Plan.

Biden passed the first bit of gun reform in over 30 years and passed a $369 billion investment in climate change, the only one of its kind since Nixon's creation of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).

Particularly for the poor, working, and middle classes, the Biden-Harris Administration has done a great deal to alleviate the pains and stresses of COVID-19 and the havoc it brought to the American and global economy.

The Administration forgave $10,000 to $20,000 ― in the form of college debt relief ― for Americans of modest means (this has been blocked by a Trump-appointed federal judge and is being appealed by the Justice Department), cut child poverty in half through the American Rescue Plan, capped prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year for seniors on Medicare, and even more amazingly, capped insulin to $35 a month since drug companies in recent years have increased the price of this life-saving medication to nearly ten times $35 a month.

Speaking of medical coverage, Biden bestowed to Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act, a power that every other advanced democracy has given its public healthcare programs for generations. Better late than ever.

The Biden-Harris Administration distributed $1,400 to many struggling Americans, while giving a reprieve to student debt borrowers and renters during the worst of COVID, meanwhile maintaining historically low unemployment rates, and under Biden, America created more jobs than ever before in American history.

The Administration imposed a 15 percent minimum corporate tax, long overdue. Often overlooked, yet should be much appreciated, the Biden-Harris administration has given more funding to HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) than any other administration in American history, including former President Obama. Vice President Harris had a lot to do with this funding, as she graduated from an HBCU (the famed Howard University). How much funding? Nearly $6 billion in total funding was allocated in 2021.

Which leads us to ask, how did Biden, with approval ratings in the low fortieth percentile, historically high inflation, an uptick in crime, and insufficient wage increases manage to not only fend off a red wave, but actually increase Democratic dominance in state legislatures and gubernatorial mansions, maintain a US Senate majority, and perhaps even maintain the House? (At the time of the writing of this article, nearly a dozen House races are still undecided).

The historical magnitude of this accomplishment by the Democrats, with Biden and Harris overseeing it, cannot be overstated. Only three times has the party of the President maintained or gained seats during midterms. And if Senator Warnock wins his reelection bid, it will be the first time in American history that the President's party lost no Senate seats. By any stretch, all this is breathtaking.

Trump and his election deniers were too extreme for moderate Republicans and independents. Young people and racial minorities broke heavily for Democrats, as did young college-educated women, aghast and galvanized at the draconian anti-abortion laws passed and proposed by the GOP since the shocking overturning of Roe vs. Wade; ostensibly, the conservative Supreme Court argued that once a woman is impregnated, her body becomes property of the state, if said state chooses to mandate it as such.

People are simply tired of the xenophobic, Christo-fascist, anti-Semitic, white supremacist and overtly anti-democratic shenanigans of Republicans and MAGA cultists, ones who wink and nod at political violence, or who even make fun of political violence, as in the hammer attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, an assault demonstrably motivated by far-right wing ideology.

When it's cruelty for cruelty's sake, and being overtly racist is the point, whilst bereft of any real policy initiatives, the Republicans repulsed a majority of Americans, deservedly so.

Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside of Seoul.