The End of the Old Order
Biden’s American Rescue will not only end the pandemic, but prove to Americans that government can once again work for them
It was not long ago, on a January day in 1981, that the newly inaugurated President Ronald Reagan boldly and defiantly declared that “in this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.” Reagan’s words came on the heels of decades of a new form of activist American governance, one that began with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal during the midst of the Great Depression and lasted through the post war era, peaking during the 1960s. Roosevelt’s revolutionary federal programs, although flawed in some areas, brought the three R’s to life during the worst economic crisis America had ever faced. Relief, recovery, and reform were central, Roosevelt said, to getting America out of the Depression and ensuring something like it never happened again. His legislative packages and executive orders tackled Wall Street corruption, created a host of new government agencies, and offered immediate assistance to workers and farmers that desperately needed it. Never before in U.S history had the government mobilized so quickly and efficiently to come to the aid of hurting Americans. FDR not only fundamentally changed how government functions, but changed how Americans, notoriously skeptical of a “large” government, viewed their political system. The federal government was now no longer a tool only of the ultra elite, called upon only to crush unions and turn the other cheek to the predatory practices of industrialists, but a real force for good in the lives of everyday citizens.
In the years that followed, the awesome power of the federal government was utilized and unleashed. Roosevelt signed the original GI Bill into law in 1944, and it served as a shining example of the American version of the “postwar consensus.” Harry Truman, FDR’s vice president, assumed office after Roosevelt died in April 1945, and followed suit with massive federal programs included in his proposed “Fair Deal” legislative agenda and the 13.3 billion (135 billion in today’s worth) dollar “Marshall Plan” to rebuild the economy and worn torn landscape of Europe following the Second World War, in one of the earliest modern foreign aid programs. Although the Fair Deal mostly stalled in Congress, Truman did preside over the expansion of Social Security, an increase in the federal minimum wage, and the integration of the U.S military. Following Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, and John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, both used the power of their office to enforce Civil Rights rulings, with both men sending in federal troops to protect African Americans and Kennedy calling for an outright end to segregation on national television just months before his death. But, it was Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society,” the Civil and Voting Rights Acts along with the War on Poverty that most greatly expanded government in a positive way that most Americans still feel today. Johnson’s idea for a Great Society, one free of economic and racial inequality, stemmed from Roosevelt and Truman’s New Deal era programs as well as Jack Kennedy’s vision of a “New Frontier,” which promised to create a more inclusive, caring, and driven country. Many of Kennedy and Johnson’s domestic programs were implemented, making a lasting impact on American domestic policy.
Flash forward to 1980. Americans, exhausted and angry after years of Vietnam, marred by the Watergate scandal, and disillusioned after a global economic recession in 1979, turned their backs on the activist governing philosophy that had dominated the latter part of the 20th century. A deep distrust of the federal government, which many people saw by then as too big, swept California governor and former movie star Ronald Reagan into the nation’s highest office. Reagan’s “Revolution” was in full swing in November of 1980. He won 489 electoral votes and 44 states, thumping sitting President Jimmy Carter in the popular vote margin by around 9 million raw votes. Reagan railed against government spending and the anti poverty initiatives of the New Deal era. He proposed and passed massive tax cuts in his first year in office. He worked to cut back on welfare and truly limit the size of the federal government for the first time since the days of the Presidency of Herbert Hoover, the man who presided over and (fairly or unfairly) was blamed for the Great Depression. Reagan’s win would not only alter the American electorate, but his personal outlook on government also dominated the next 40 years of political thought in our country. That is, until right now.
Now, in our present crisis, it has been made abundantly clear that the long dreaded big, bad government is, indeed, the solution to a good amount of our problems. With millions of jobs and hundreds of thousands of lives lost, the federal government largely stood by with its head in the sand during not only the first crucial weeks and months of the pandemic response, but also throughout the summer and into the fall, when America experienced new surges of the virus. The failed pandemic response of 2020 is of course, in part due to the personal shortcomings of former President Donald Trump. Trump was perhaps the most wholly selfish man who ever occupied the office and made a (clearly poor) political calculation early on in the pandemic that if we all just collectively ignored COVID-19, it would “just go away” and ensure him an easy second term. He politicized mask wearing and seemed to be more concerned with what he viewed as media attacks on his presidency than with expressing sympathy for a mourning nation. But it runs deeper than just the arrogance of one man. The federal government never had a coherent national strategy to combat the pandemic. Months passed and states battled each other for PPE and aid, as the federal government did the absolute bare minimum. Republicans, ever increasingly the “party of no,” continued to speak out against what they deemed to be unnecessary spending and advocated that leaving our national health and security crisis to the states would somehow be better. The resistance to CDC and federal guidelines on the pandemic by states and localities most certainly needlessly killed many of our fellow citizens, all in the name of some anti government principles that work a lot better in theory than in practice.
Our new President, Joe Biden, has come into office at one of the most tumultuous times in the history of the country and has taken a bold new approach to governing. On March 11, 2021, on his fiftieth day in office, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law. The 1.9 trillion dollar bill is one of the largest in U.S history and provides $1,400 in direct payments to Americans making up to $75,000 as well as a child tax credit of up to $3,600. Biden’s plan also includes $350 billion in aid for state and local governments, $14 billion for vaccine distribution and $130 billion to assist schools with reopening as well as significant chunks carved out for small businesses. A new national vaccine program will be created to simply, as the President said, “put shots in people’s arms.” Many estimates say that the bill will cut child poverty in half. This massive piece of legislation will not only serve to get citizens and states the direct help they need, safely open schools, jumpstart the economy, and end the pandemic sooner rather than later, but it will also prove a much larger point.
Biden is the first President in a very long time to unapologetically fully embrace the power of the federal government for the common good. The President himself is fully aware of this. In his address to the nation last Thursday, Biden said “it’s critical to demonstrate that the government can function — can function and deliver prosperity, security, and opportunity for the people in this country.” Therein lies the cornerstone of the last 75 years of political debate in the United States. The 78 year old Biden has watched for most of his adult life as government anti poverty programs have become not only distrusted by large portions of the country, but as government institutions themselves have come under attack (literally), fueled by the rhetoric of elected officials looking for short term political gain. He watched his old boss Barack Obama carefully attempt to navigate a hostile Congress that opposed his agenda at every turn and a media that asserted the former President was some kind of socialist plant. Obama, like Biden, rarely sought to sling mud like the man who served in between them, but unlike Obama, Biden knows he must be constantly reminding people what good government looks like. Biden watched helplessly as Obama was never given a fair chance at governing by McConnell and Republicans in Congress that stood opposed to his every move. He knows that nothing is a given anymore and that his credit is still being earned. He’s made clear that “now is the time to go bold.”
Four years of the unprecedented presidency of Donald Trump left our nation divided, sick, and weary. Lack of government initiative and messaging to control the pandemic has had catastrophic results. It’s hard to blame people for giving up on civic engagement when it feels like their government has given up on them. Biden’s American Rescue Plan is about so much more than just the pandemic, which is saying a lot. He stands at a fundamental turning point in American history and his big bet is that he can prove to America that government can once again work for and with the people of our country. We’ve all experienced firsthand what it looks like to have a government that takes the backseat in crisis. Biden now has the grand opportunity to change how America thinks of its political system and recommit to a style of governance that protects workers and immigrants, upholds civil rights, expands the middle class, and comes to the aid of the poor and needy. As the President has said, it won’t be easy, but this crisis may be the best wake up call yet. It’s a tall task, but if Biden can pull it off successfully (as it seems he will), he may very well usher in a new era of American political thought and go down among Roosevelt and Reagan as a truly consequential President. Biden’s vision of an activist government that works for the benefit of all Americans can become the go to once again, and the old order of “every man for himself” governing will come tumbling down.
