Biden Was the Right Choice in 2020

Sen. Bernie Sanders with President Joe Biden

At this point Twitter is the equivalent of a shopping mall in a town with 15,000 people: it exists, sure, but it's mostly just "closed" signs in the window.  But it does occasionally give me a good idea, and recently we've gotten yet another tired retread of the 2020 primaries, with people stating, in their apathy toward President Biden, that they wish Bernie Sanders had been the nominee in 2020.  I even saw a poll where they asked (seemingly in earnest) whether or not you wish you'd have gotten President Sanders with a 50/50 Senate in 2020, or whether or not you'd prefer President Biden and a 55 Democratic senator Senate in 2020.  Thankfully people seemed to get the message that the correct answer for the Democrats was the latter, but the combined conversation online about Biden, and what he accomplished (and how no one else could) made me want to write an article about this.

For starters, Joe Biden is the most progressive president in pretty much all of our lifetimes.  You could argue Lyndon B. Johnson got more done or that FDR was more progressive, but that's about it-no one else holds a candle to him in terms of his accomplishments, and he's done them with one of the slimmest congressional majorities in recent memory-just a 50/50 Senate and a 5-seat majority in his first term.  His cabinet has made solid, sustained change on a variety of issues from climate change to gun violence to gay marriage to transportation.  He also is arguably being kinder to Palestine in the current war in Israel than virtually any president of the past half-century would've been (certainly an improvement on Donald Trump).  The fact that people don't understand this either means they don't care about progressive issues & just want to complain, or they're stupid.  If you're a Democrat, Joe Biden has exceeded pretty much everyone's expectations.

So let's take a look at Bernie Sanders.  Sanders, it has to be said, would probably have a more pacifist worldview on foreign policy than Biden, and would indisputably have pushed for a ceasefire in Israel earlier than Biden, and with greater fervor.  It's worth noting that Benjamin Netanyahu likely wouldn't have listened to him, causing tension and making pretty much everyone involved angry, but the progressives have a point that in word (though not necessarily deed), Sanders would've been more liberal than Biden.

But it's also worth noting that a President Sanders would've struggled in ways Joe Biden didn't in 2021-23.  Sanders publicly lambasted Joe Manchin in 2022, to the point where if he had done that as president, he simply wouldn't have gotten the Inflation Reduction Act passed.  So the most important piece of climate change legislation in the history of the world goes out the window with a President Sanders and a 50/50 Senate.  Sanders ability to craft legislation in general, quite frankly, has been a struggle, and he doesn't have a major piece of legislation that he can claim he pushed through the Senate despite decades in Congress. Joe Biden, on the other hand, has strong working relationships with a number of Republicans (most importantly, Mitch McConnell), and has gotten legislation such as the Violence Against Women Act and Federal Assaults Weapon Ban ushered through Congress.  Sanders is more liberal, yes, but Biden is more effective, and so it's hard to say which pieces of legislation Sanders could've gotten through in a 50/50 Senate.  Sanders could've issued more executive orders, true, but those would've been tied up in Courts in a way that the Biden congressional victories won't be.  Biden's victories are more lasting.

So, quite frankly, I think Biden is a better choice than Bernie Sanders even if we give both of these men a 50/50 Senate because he's a more effective negotiator (something is better than nothing-I'm a hardcore progressive, but even more so I'm a pragmatist).  But the question assumed that Biden would get 55 Senators, not 50.  In 2020, that would mean that Cal Cunningham, Theresa Greenfield, Sara Gideon, MJ Hegar, & Mike Espy all won as they were the five closest Senate elections that the Republicans won.

Turning this down would be madness.  For starters, the filibuster would be out the door.  Cunningham & Gideon were on record as wanting to get rid of the filibuster, and Greenfield would've been an easy lift given she was open to changes in procedural motions in the Senate; that's over 52 senators, so the filibuster dies.  With the filibuster gone, we suddenly have a completely different Congress.  Abortion laws are reinstated quickly after Dobbs, and the John Lewis Act would pass, giving the nation sweeping changes to voting rights, and possibly ending federal gerrymandering in time for the 2022 midterms.  It's probable that the Dream Act would've been passed in some capacity, and the Inflation Reduction Act would've included even more teeth for the environment, maybe expansions of the Clean Air & Clean Water Acts.  Medicare reforms would've been on the table, either lowering the age to 60 or adding Dental/Hearing/Vision, as well as nationwide limits on insulin costs.  The Equality Act would've certainly passed, as would the Child Tax Credit, and we'd see a major progressive education reform (Universal Pre-K) back on the table.  Even pipe dream projects like Childcare & Family Sick Leave, Minimum Wage Increases, DC Statehood, and the national legalization of marijuana would've been options.  Not to mention that, with the exception of Gideon, none of these states have Democratic senators without the 55-seat win, so the blue slip process (assuming it survived at all) would've been a lot easier in four more states.

You just can't compete with that.  If you don't understand this is the simplest question in the world...again, you're an idiot.  In politics, frequently people get too attached to one person's vision without seeing what it takes to make that vision a reality.  I don't begrudge people who are fans of Bernie Sanders-I like his vision of America too.  But the reality is that Sanders didn't win for a reason in 2020, and his greatest legacy is that he pulled a politician like Joe Biden, someone who could actually beat Donald Trump, far enough to the left during the primaries that he gave us some of the biggest progressive wins in decades.  Even Bernie would know Biden + 55 Dems would get more done than him with just 50 senators.  To quote Sarah Paulson in Carol, if you can't see that that's the better option "I can't help you with that."