Supporting Biden’s Agenda Feels Like Déjà Vu

Support of President Biden’s agenda among Democrats in 2021 feels like déjà vu [Opinion]

Support of President Biden’s agenda among Democrats in 2021 feels like déjà vu when you compare it to support of President Obama’s agenda in 2009. Critics and supporters of Obama among Democrats were perhaps just as divided as Democrats are now for Biden. Supporters of Obama felt his agenda wasn’t liberal leaning enough, while critics claimed his agenda was too conservative. The same could be said now of President Biden’s agenda now even as we’re in the middle of a deadly pandemic, a staggering recession and deep post-election division across the country.

President Obama was highly criticized by Democrats in 2008 for not being black enough, not liberal enough or that he lacked experience, where in 2020, Biden was criticized for being too old, too out of step with the current political culture and not progressive enough for the Sanders, Warren and AOC supporters.

My sense of déjà vu goes even deeper when I look back at how angry I was when no time was wasted after Obama was elected than did Leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid layout the path for their agendas, not his. Now 12 years I see Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer laying the path for an agenda out of sync with the voters that put President Biden in office. Back then just as now, I voted for the candidate on the ticket, not the house leaders.

Lastly, what both Obama and Biden share in common is the urgency of crises on several fronts while Democrats remain divided on their political priorities.

Speaking as a Moderate Democrat, I have to say to my progressive brothers and sisters on the far left whom I largely share common ground with, that we all have to look far beyond our own personal thinking on matters that are larger than all of us. We have to unite behind President Biden and Republican Leaders if we are to defeat this deadly COVID virus as lives are at stake and 417,000 Americans have died. We have to unite behind President Biden and Republican Leaders if we are to restore the strength of our economy and provide financial relief to families hardest hit, and support to small business owners faced with closing their doors.

Lastly we have to unite behind President Biden and Republican Leaders if we are to heal a divided nation because the only path to success is if we take on these challenges together. Sacrifice will come from both the Left and the Right, but the stakes could not be higher.

Going back to 2016, I firmly believe the reason why Hilary Clinton lost is that we all turned our backs on Rural Americans whom Candidate Clinton referred to as a “basket of deplorables”. We Democrats all must rise above our own issues with “Trumpers,” not because it fits in somewhere with political correctness, but because we, them, all of us are God’s children and if not then we as Democrats are undeserving of our own moral standing as progressives.

I often talk about the necessity of working with those you disagree with because if you’re willing to really listen, you’ll find that good solutions are not exclusive to any one side. Some might say, “You’re full of yourself John Rivera, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” To that I say that I’m an Architect working in my profession for forty-two years and with every project I never get the luxury of picking my clients by their political or social views, nor do I get to choose my associates solely by their ethnic or social standing, nor do I ever get to choose whom in government jurisdictions will have the final say in the approval of my projects. I have to work with all of them and I always have done so even when I have disagreement with them. I do this to get the job done and after all these many years I have come to respect even those whom I disagree with.

Having made mention of the COVID 19 death toll being in excess of 417,000, I leave this final thought for residents of the Coachella Valley, roughly 417,000 deaths would be comparable to the loss of life of every man, woman and child for the combined cities and communities of Cathedral City (55,007), Palm Springs (48,518), Desert Hot Springs (28,878), Rancho Mirage (18,528), Palm Desert (53,275), Thousand Palms (7,814), Bermuda Dunes (6,817), Indian Wells (5,470), Mecca (7,174), Indio (91,765), La Quinta (41,748), Coachella (45,743), Sky Valley (2,430).