Your vote matters. Elections have consequences. For proof we need only contrast what happened on March 6, 2020 with what happened on March 6, 2021.
One year ago yesterday, when Americans were being assured that the virus was no big deal, a bloviating buffoon who’d somehow latched onto the presidency boasted aloud that he was a health whiz, because, of course, it was all about him: “I like this stuff. You know, my uncle was a great person. He was at MIT. He taught at MIT for, I think, like, a record number of years. He was a great super genius. Dr. John Trump. I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability.”
Blessedly, a record 81 million voters did away with that drivel. By contrast, here’s what happened on this March 6:
A president determined to deliver massive relief in the spirit of FDR saw his ambitious plan – the most sweeping progressive legislation in modern memory – virtually come to fruition. The Senate passed it yesterday, the House will formally vet it, Joe Biden will sign it, and tens of millions of suffering Americans will benefit from it. That’s how governance is supposed to work. The will of the people – 70 percent of Americans support Biden’s handling of the pandemic – will prevail.
Oh, another thing: Whereas on March 6, 2020 we were mired in denial and ignorance, March 6, 2021 marked the administration of a record 2.9 million vaccine doses – 20 percent higher than the previous one-day record.
President Biden had promised to go big, to treat pandemic relief as akin to a wartime mobilization, and he’s doing it. Biden also promised to govern as a bipartisan president, and he’s doing that too. But let’s be clear about how he defines bipartisan: It’s about enacting policies that are broadly popular with the public (the American Rescue Plan is broadly popular). It is not about seeking permission from the Republicans on Capitol Hill, who persist in defying the will of the people.
And it just so happens that the 50 Democratic senators who voted Yes for relief represent 41.5 million more Americans than the obstructionist Republican senators. Biden’s rescue plan – which (among other things) will skew stimulus checks to low- and middle-income households; extend unemployment benefits; hike subsidies for health coverage; expand tax credits to working parents; deliver major relief to small businesses, state and local governments, and struggling red-state rural hospitals; boost funds for vaccine development and distribution – sends this stark message to the MAGA GOP:
If you want to get on board with helping your suffering fellow Americans, fine. But if you refuse to help (and not a single House or Senate Republican voted for the relief), then we’ll forge ahead and treat you like roadkill.
Biden by reputation may be the epitome of old Washington, but he’s clearheaded about the new one. This is no time to feed the Republicans’ bottomless appetite for obstruction. If they want to fume that the relief law is a budget buster (these are the same folks who indulged Trump’s record deepening of the deficit), then let them. If they want to stew in opposition to what 70 percent of Americans want, then let them. If they want to essentially cede all credit to Biden and the Democrats, let them. And if they prefer to go sulk about trivia, like the books of Dr. Seuss, let them.
For Republicans, this Dr. Seuss thing – the decision by the late author’s estate to pull a handful of his books because of racist and offensive imagery – is the perfect bright shiny object. Just as the Senate was poised to vote on Biden’s historic delivery of pandemic relief, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (who’d voted No on relief) decided to release a video that showed him reading from Green Eggs and Ham (a Seuss book that has not been pulled). If Republicans want to go off and play with toys, fine.
Heck, if only a fresh “cancel culture” “issue” could land in their laps each week, to occupy their time while the grown-ups do the hard work of governance…but a boy can always dream.
In this time of crisis, Biden’s attitude toward the naysaying GOP is straight out of Dr. Seuss: I would not like them here or there, I would not like them anywhere.
Granted, there are absolutely no guarantees that the historic triumph of the American Rescue Plan – passed via a parliamentary maneuver that skirted the 60-vote filibuster threshold – foretells a string of wins for the Biden agenda. Major battles, over everything from the minimum wage to climate change, will need to be fought and there will be defeats. But the sweeping package soon destined for Biden’s signature will propel us toward the light at the end of the tunnel. Which is why this March 6 was so much better than the last.