A New York-based columnist for the Guardian swooned over how much President Joe Biden’s policies have “impressed” her after having backed Bernie Sanders‘s rival campaign for the Democratic nomination.
Arwa Mahdawi published a column on Tuesday titled “Maybe I was wrong about Joe Biden—is he actually the progressive president I was waiting for?”
Despite her initial concerns with Biden’s views—often mischaracterized as ‘centrist’ by the lapdog media during his campaign—Mahdawi’s argued that “Biden has been pushing forward undeniably progressive policies.”
Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package and proposed tax increases for the wealthy are “a big shift in the right direction,” she claimed—even though the $1,400 individual payments fell short of the $2,000 that former president Donald Trump had called on Congress to deliver.
Mahdawi’s column did not hold back her ongoing criticisms of the current president. She decried Biden’s bombing in the Middle East, for example. Her concern also touched on the 31 new drilling permits approved during his early days in office.
Yet, her greatest worry centered not on Biden’s more questionable policies, but rather on Republican plans to block his ambitious agenda.
She concluded that to be truly effective Democrats must end the Senate filibuster—thereby eliminating the need to compromise in the evenly divided chamber. (In the event of an impasse, Vice President Kamala Harris serves as the tiebreaker.)
The proposal would allow a simple majority of 51 votes to pass legislation, rather than the 60-vote supermajority currently required for many votes—excluding budgetary “reconciliation” measures and Cabinet/judicial confirmations.
Opponents warn that it would grant the radical Left a carte blanche to approve power-grabs such as court-packing and the passage of the controversial HR1 election overhaul, which would help Democrat to secure permanent majorities.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., warned on Tuesday of a “scorched earth” landscape it were to move forward.
However, Democrats’ current attempts have made little progress due to opposition from members of their own party, including Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
That has led to more recent discussion of implementing a “talking filibuster,” which would require opponents to actually run out the clock during the debate period rather than just threatening to do so.
