Biden and the woke hornet’s nest
Byron York
BIDEN AND THE WOKE HORNET’S NEST. In the 2020 Democratic primaries, there was a lot of discussion about something called the “centrist lane.” That referred to the small number of candidates thought to be a little less to the left, a little less progressive, than contenders such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Joe Biden was in the center of the centrist lane. The former vice president was widely viewed as the most centrist serious candidate for the Democratic nomination, and his fortunes rose after the party primary in South Carolina, the most centrist of the Democrats’ early-voting states. Biden went on to win the nomination and the presidency.
The Republicans’ worry about Biden was not that he was an extremist. He wasn’t. The worry was that, as president, Biden would empower extremists who would take over federal agencies. Republicans had nightmares about a Biden administration. What if millions of illegal immigrants poured over the U.S.-Mexico border, aided by Biden appointees who saw their job as more to accommodate them than turn them back? What if members of the administration’s healthcare bureaucracy took radical positions on transgender surgery and hormone treatments, putting them together under the Orwellian name “gender-affirming care”? What if Democrats, with Biden’s help, were able to push much of the so-called Green New Deal through Congress with a tie vote in the Senate, broken by Vice President Kamala Harris?
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What if, in other words, the Biden administration proved much more extremist than the Joe Biden of the 2020 campaign? What about the centrist lane?
Now, the very existence of a centrist lane in Democratic politics, and Joe Biden’s place in it, is coming to a test — actually, three tests. The first was the subject of a newsletter last week, about the House blocking a new law by the District of Columbia’s local government reducing penalties for carjacking and many gun crimes. Amid high crime rates, the move was seen by many — and not just Republicans — as reckless and dangerous, yet the D.C. City Council insisted on going forward. The GOP-controlled House then stepped in to block it, using the power the Constitution gives to Congress. If the Senate goes along, and it appears at the moment that it will, the bill blocking the new D.C. law will go to the president for his signature. If that happens, Biden will face a choice: veto the bill, which would mean siding with the Democrats who support D.C.’s extreme new law, or let Congress’s choice stand, which would mean siding with centrist Democrats and Republicans.
Many Democrats assumed Biden would stick with the progressive team and veto the bill, even though it would put him on the side of lower sentences for carjackers and gangbangers. How do we know Democrats assumed that? Because they exploded in rage when Biden did the opposite, announcing Thursday that he will not veto the bill, that he will let it stand if the Senate passes it. “I support DC Statehood and home rule,” Biden tweeted. “But I don’t support some of the changes DC Council put forward over the Mayor’s objections — such as lowering penalties for carjackings. If the Senate votes to overturn what DC Council did — I’ll sign it.”
Democratic anger overflowed. “The White House f***ed this up royally,” one House Democrat told the Hill. The Democrat noted, according to the report, that “the White House issued a State of Administration Policy opposing the resolution and backing D.C., and that House Democratic leadership told lawmakers that Biden was prepared to veto the measure.” And then Biden turned around and said he will not give Democrats the veto they wanted.
Soon, Biden will have another test of his place in the centrist lane. This week, the Senate voted 50-46 to overturn a new Labor Department rule that would allow retirement fund managers to consider issues such as climate change and social factors, sometimes referred to together as ESG, or environmental, social, and corporate governance considerations, when investing money for big pension funds.
Republicans refer to the rule as “woke,” and two Democratic senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana — voted with Republicans to overturn it. Quoted in the Washington Post, Manchin called the measure “an example of how our administration prioritizes a liberal policy agenda over protecting and growing the retirement accounts of 150 million Americans” and accused the White House of the “politicization of Americans’ 401(k)s.” Since the House has earlier voted to knock down the rule, the issue will now go to Biden’s desk.
What will Biden do? The White House says he will veto the bill. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the bill would “jeopardize the retirement and life savings for police officers, firefighters, teachers, and tens of millions of retirees all across the country. This is unacceptable to the president, and that is why he will veto this bill if it does come to his desk.” The rhetoric was completely unfounded — the measure will not jeopardize the life savings of police officers, etc. — but Biden has already angered the Left with his D.C. crime decision. So now, it appears he will stand up for woke investing.
Finally, there is a third test looming for Biden. Like the crime issue, it will come from the Washington, D.C., City Council. In addition to reducing sentences for carjacking and gun crimes, the council also voted to allow noncitizens to vote in local D.C. elections. The House has voted to disapprove of that measure, too, and in that vote, 42 Democrats joined unanimous Republicans in opposing the council’s action. If that measure makes it through the Senate, it, too, will go to Biden’s desk. What will the president — Mr. Centrist — do? Already under fire for the mess he has created on the U.S.-Mexico border, will he now stand up for noncitizen voting? We’ll see.
None of these issues — the D.C. crime bill, the “woke” investment bill, or the noncitizen voting bill — would have come to Biden’s desk had Republicans not won the House last November. Now, there is one house of Congress, the Republican-controlled House, that can challenge the excesses of Democratic governance. That is what checks and balances are all about. And President Joe Biden, who ran for the White House portraying himself as a centrist, will have to choose.
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