The results exposed a divided Party. Moderates and progressives exchanged barbs in the past couple of weeks about the reasons for the absence of “blue wave.”
US President-elect Joe Biden named a few cabinet-level officials on Monday, announcing that Antony Blinken would serve as secretary of state and Alejandro Mayorkas would be the next secretary of homeland security, among others.
And while Biden is moving quickly to roll up his future cabinet, one question that remains open for now is the influence of the progressive part of the Democratic Party in a future Biden administration.
For Democrats, the elections were a success on the presidential level but a disappointment on the Congressional level. In the House, they maintained control but lost seven seats. On the Senate level, they hoped to flip multiple states and gain a majority at the chamber but failed to do so.
The results exposed a divided Party. Moderates and progressives exchanged barbs in the past couple of weeks about the reasons for the absence of “blue wave.”
“They’re both right,” William Galston, the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program, told The Jerusalem Post.
“There’s no contradiction between those two positions because [Congresswoman Abigil] Spanberger is saying ‘we lost seats in moderate districts because of your demands,’ and that’s probably true. AOC is saying ‘we brought millions of voters who would otherwise wouldn’t vote into the system. That’s true, too,” Galston added. “Unfortunately, the voters who came into the system didn’t live in the jurisdictions that were most closely contested. So there’s no contradiction between those statements.”
“President-elect Biden has a very complex and broad coalition to manage,” he continued. “Clearly, [the progressives] want to be included. They want a number of high-level appointees who reflect their views. They have submitted a detailed list of potential candidates for all the senior positions in the government. And I think there’s there’s no doubt that some of the positions will go to people individually supported by Progressives.”
Galson explained that Biden would need to balance between the different factions within the Party, both in appointments and executive actions. He noted that because Biden was brought to power on the shoulders of a broad coalition, his cabinet and other senior appointments are going to have to reflect the complexity and diversity of that coalition. “I can’t tell you which positions will go to which people, but I would be very surprised if his cabinet selections were all moderates and no progressives,” he said.
However, speaking about the impact of the progressives on legislation, Galson predicted “it will probably not be very great” in the next two years, unless Democrats pull an upset in the Georgia runoff elections coming in January. “If they do, they would control the US Senate by the narrowest possible margin, and might be in a position to incorporate some progressive demands into legislation if all 50 Democratic senators agree, which is by no means inevitable.”
Halie Soifer, Executive Director for the Jewish Democratic Council of America told the Post that as President-elect Biden develops his legislative agenda, he will “continue to bridge policy differences within the Democratic Caucus and ensure that all voices are heard.”
“Progressive Democrats were a part of the largest political coalition in American history that elected Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States, but no one segment of this coalition will change Joe Biden’s views,” she noted.
According to Soifer, Joe Biden made his policy positions clear throughout his career, in his campaign, and in the Democratic Party Platform, “which was unanimously adopted this summer and underscores Democrats’ strong support of Israel.” She said that Biden will continue to surround himself “with leaders who share his values, including on Israel, as demonstrated by his national security appointments.”
Some media reports indicated that Biden could name US Senators Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren for a cabinet position such as secretary of labor or head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Sanders did not hide his desire to get the job, and told the Associated Press that he would like “to focus on the many crises facing working families in this country.” Sanders added that it would be “enormously insulting “ if Biden “ignored the progressive community.”
However, some Democratic insiders speculated that given that the two represent Vermont and Massachusetts, it is unlikely that the President-elect would appoint them. The reason is that both states have a Republican governor, and when a sitting Senator is leaving his seat, the governor is the one who appoints an interim successor.
Sanders told AP that Vermont Governor Phil Scott has promised to fill the seat with an independent who caucuses Democrats like Sanders.
Mark Mellman is the President and CEO of Democratic Majority for Israel. “I think the administration will be like the campaign,” he told the Post. “There were some issues where Joe Biden had very different views than the far left—like Israel and healthcare—and he took them on and beat them. He beat them to the nomination and beat them on the platform,” Mellman said.
“There are other issues like climate change and Covid where there was more common ground and Biden incorporated their ideas and made compromises, he continued. “And I think that’s what we will see in the administration. Biden will work with the far left of the party where he can and follow his own north star where he has to.”
As reported by The Jerusalem Post