Two weeks ago, in its magazine section of January 17, the Washington Post invited a group of randomly selected "experts," and seven "artists" (?), of many of whom I've never heard, to write essays about "one surprising thing" the incoming administration should do. Some were breathtakingly broad and not at all surprising (e.g., Address Climate Change, or Tackle Gun Reform). Others seemed naïve and very boring, like "Convene a Racial Truth, Justice [sic] and Reconciliation Commission" (a big fat report of learned soles' verbose prescriptions for changing human behavior is sure to be a best seller) or "Learn From the Rest of the World" (hey, we can't even learn from ourselves!).
If they had asked me, I might have proposed "Start a Race to Space for the Discovery and Settlement of Other Planets." Personally, I would really enjoy moving to a planet with intelligent life.
None of this was much help to our new President, I'm afraid. Fortunately, in the past two weeks, Biden seems to have set a fairly clear list of priorities, and is acting on them.
All these recommendations propose legislative and government action. That's fair enough - after all we do have a government and it's supposed to "do things" for the common good. But surely we all recognize the reality that progress in a landscape fraught with political antipathies will be hard to effect.
So, I nominate as the surprising thing Biden must do early: To broaden the "big tent" of the party by bringing new voters to it. Success there will bear even more fruit, two or four years hence, than any programs he gets passed. But it's a different track from steps he has taken to date. It will mean talking about issues and drafting legislation in ways that reflect he truly means he intends to be the President of all Americans (Trump said it, but never meant it). In effect this means drawing away voters from the Republicans - those who voted for Trump for no better reason than an inchoate sense of "what have I got to lose?" The GOP is already a minority party. Pulling away as little as 5 percent of their voters, may shake them awake to reform, or kill them off, leaving room for a new party. Now THAT would be an interesting development!
Breaking news: As this "goes to press" Matthew Dallek writes in the Washington Post today about the possibility that "the Republicans still living with us in the real world" can force the fringe voters out and reclaim the Republican Party as their own. Dallek's argument is worth a read (he suggests there is a parallel in the way the party dealt with the Goldwater fringe in the 1960s). In a way Dallek and Morning Fog are making the same point: The Republican Party needs to deal with its fringe groups and get them shoved back in the closet. But I'm not at all convinced that the party's current leaders could make that happen. They'll need to be much more scared than they are now. If Biden can make good his case that he is a President for all, he can be an agent of positive change, no matter which way events break.
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