The case for Joe Biden and the future liberals want

"This is the future that liberals want" has circulated for years as an Internet joke that liberals embraced. What is the future liberals want or that we can hope for in the best case of a Biden presidency? 

Think that it is late 2021: COVID-19 is under control, President Trump's harmful executive actions (particularly on immigration) have been reversed, and a range of progressive legislation has been signed into law. That is the future we can envision with a Joe Biden administration and a Democratic Congress.

Imagine the bill-signing ceremonies where a President Biden is signing into law: the HEROES Act and  giving the pens to essential workers, a $15 minimum wage (indexed to inflation with an end to the tipped minimum wage) and giving the pens to Fight for 15 activists, the PRO Act and giving the pens to labor organizers, the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights and giving the pens to domestic workers and their allies in the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and giving the pens to voting rights advocates, the Justice in Policing Act and giving the pens to Black Lives Matter leaders, the DREAM Act and giving the pens to immigration activists, the Equality Act and giving the pens to LGBTQ rights activists, universal background checks and an assault weapons ban and other gun safety provisions while giving the pens to the Parkland kids and Gabby Giffords and Sandy Hook families, expansion of health insurance through a public option and lowering the Medicare age to 60 and giving the pens to patient advocates and other reformers, 12 weeks of paid family leave and giving the pens to family leave activists, a massive infrastructure package and giving the pens to public transportation advocates, and a $2 trillion clean energy plan and giving the pens to Sunrise Movement leaders.

Before Biden does any of these things, he will hopefully do as promised on two key emergency fronts: 1) call Dr. Fauci, implement his recommendations, and institute a national mask mandate to the extent possible and 2) immediately pass legislation that either institutes a nominal $1 penalty for lack of insurance under the Affordable Care Act or fully repeals the technically-still-in-place individual mandate so that the current suit against the ACA becomes moot.

Think of it all as LBJ 2.0 (without a Vietnam War-like quagmire); I'm hardly the first person to make the comparison. Biden could very well likely emerge, like Lyndon B. Johnson, as an unlikely face and vessel through which major change happens. Dr. King and John Lewis helped convince LBJ to get the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act done despite Johnson's past record on civil rights after all. Since the summer, Vice President Biden has increasingly met the moment in taking on a more listening-based, somber, serious approach to our nation's various inequities. We saw such leadership on display in his criminal justice reform speech in Philadelphia, in his COVID-19 roundtables, and in his defense in the last debate of higher wages and spending to boost social services and the economy.

If you are doubtful that Biden will follow through on these promises, consider that presidents often carry out or try to carry out policies that they campaign on in their elections. We can expect activists to hold his feet to the fire as well. 

That is what happened under Biden's former running mate, Barack Obama, who delivered on economic stimulus, health care, financial regulation, LGBTQ rights, relief for the Dreamers, and diplomacy with Cuba and Iran -- but not until after activists prodded him to do so on many fronts. We can and should expect such a relationship between activists and a Biden administration because we've already seen such a dynamic in Biden's own general election campaign. His policies on items like climate action have already been shaped by activists; there is no reason to expect this will not also be the case in a Biden presidency.

The point of all of this focus on activists is that, as Biden himself has said, it is not about Joe Biden. There are negative aspects of his career and personal behavior that are troubling. I should note too at the same time there are uniquely positive aspects of his career that speak well to how he'll handle this particular moment.

Ultimately, it is not Biden's past that is most important here. It is the future liberals want, that we should all want, that is at stake. With Joe Biden in the White House (and let's be real, this is a binary choice between either Biden or Trump) and Democrats in control of Congress, the future can be written by progressive activists, by civil rights advocates, by frontline workers, and by all of us. 

**So how do you get involved and what do you need to know?**  (Updated 10/29/20)

IN PENNSYLVANIA: You had until (up to and including) Tuesday, October 27 to either apply for a mail ballot (here) or go to an early in person voting site (such as your county elections office) to vote on a mail ballot right there and then.

But: if you have applied for but haven't received your mail ballot yet and you're nervous it won't arrive by or before Election Day, you may be able to cancel your existing mail ballot that is technically on its way and instead go in and vote on a replacement ballot at your county elections office or, at least in Philadelphia, at a satellite office up to and including Monday, November 2.

If you have your mail ballot in hand already, please return it promptly to an official county election drop box or at your county elections office on or before Election Day, November 3. 

Make sure your ballot is filled out in blue or black ink consistently throughout, that it is sealed in the "official election ballot" secrecy envelope, and that that envelope is then sealed in the larger declaration envelope and that you sign and date (with the date you signed it!) the back of the declaration envelope before you return it!

Your mail ballot must be postmarked on or before Election Day! Ideally, it also should be received by then by your county elections office though the U.S. Supreme Court so far has let stand a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that stated that your mail ballot will count if it's postmarked by Election Day so long as it is received by 5 PM on Friday, November 6. For now though, please just get it done ASAP.

If you wish to forfeit your mail ballot and vote in person instead, please bring your mail ballot package with you on Election Day to your polling place and ask that they spoil your mail ballot and you can vote in person on a traditional machine. 

If you do not get your mail ballot by Election Day (or you lose or forget it for whatever reason before November 3), you can go to your polling place (check where it will be here!) and vote on a provisional ballot. There is no reason it will not count. 

Of course, if you just wish to vote in person on Election Day regardless of all of this, you can do so on November 3 between 7 am and 8 pm. You have the right to vote if you are in line at 8 PM. You do not need to show ID unless it's your first time voting in that election district (your voter card or photo ID or driver's license are among acceptable forms of ID). Make sure to check where your polling place is here as it may have changed.

If you live anywhere else, please go to iwillvote.com to find out how and where you can vote!

HOW TO GET INVOLVED: Go to https://joebiden.com/take-action/ to find out how you can volunteer in these final days to help get the Biden/Harris ticket over the finish line. In Pennsylvania specifically, if you want to join me in phone banking in what is arguably the most important state in the whole election, you can sign up to phone bank during the week here or during the final weekend here.

Creating a narrative when one doesn't exist

Earlier today, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell baselessly stated that the Biden campaign has "to be worried about the violence in Kenosha playing into the larger message of the RNC." She warned that the "law and order message is taking" and can "resonate with voters." The Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman breathlessly declared that "Trump is far better off talking about [Kenosha imagery]...than COVID" and "Biden is going to need to confront it head on." 

Meanwhile, The New York Times, in classic Times fashion, rushed this week to run a story on how the Kenosha protests are supposedly changing swing voter attitudes as the article quoted various voters but provided no empirical evidence. Axios also recently ran a mostly data-free article that warned Trump could win again with no new polling trend or other detailed warning sign. 

It's possible the pundits will be right. It's possible President Trump will see some political benefit, including in Wisconsin, from this week's developments in Kenosha. But until we see any hard data in presidential race polling in Wisconsin that reflects that, we really don't know. All of these aforementioned assertions are based not on facts or real evidence but rather in amorphous feeling, concern-trolling, and vague caricatures these pundits have of average voters.

In 2016, many of these DC media voices underrated the President's chances but now they're falling over themselves trying to overcompensate for that by constantly searching for any narrative that might show Trump in a more competitive position than reality shows. 

So far, the average of public opinion polling in Wisconsin shows former Vice President Joe Biden with a 5.9% lead as he stands at 49.2% share of the vote. In the other most critical swing states -- Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona -- Biden enjoys leads of 5.3%, 7.6%, and 3.7%, respectively, and he is at 48-50% in all three states. 

While swing state polling underestimated Trump support in 2016, those same polls also showed an unusually large number of undecided voters, Hillary Clinton was in the low-to-mid 40s, and well-known third-party candidates were on the ballot. Today, none of those items are true. 

As has been relentlessly noted by experts at FiveThirtyEight and elsewhere, Biden also has far better favorability ratings than Clinton and his national lead has been more robust and more stable. There are also far more 2016-non-voter/2020-Biden and 2016-Trump/2020-Biden voters than there are non-voter/Trump + Clinton/Trump voters despite Axios' discussion of Trump possibly attracting rural, white working-class voters who didn't vote for Trump in 2016.

None of these statistics are presented here to encourage complacency. The stakes of this election are obviously enormous. We know all too well the feeling of certainty that a Democratic presidential nominee seemed to have it in the bag against Donald Trump only to then unexpectedly lose to him. 

Rather, these statistics and these facts are presented to cut against the media-created narrative that Trump has suddenly found an opening. Voters overwhelmingly prefer Biden to Trump on handling of race relations. It's clear too that Trump's words and actions on this front have only hurt his campaign so far this year.

Reporters like Mitchell create their own narratives (that the Trump message "is taking") and then declare that a narrative has been formed (political scientists have written about this phenomenon). They then construct a whole arc and a booming perception that was not there before; the media did exactly this successfully with the Clinton email story in fact. They take Trump's bait on issues like this so easily that it makes you worry more that the media constructing these false narratives will do more to help Trump than the actual events on the ground. 

It is this same media-driven fear-mongering, based in their flawed perception of the average Wisconsin voter, that dominated the Democratic primary campaign. In CNN and MSNBC analyses of the primary debates throughout 2019 into early 2020, pundits warned that Democratic candidates lest not move too far left at risk of offending the sensibilities of The Wisconsin Voter (TM). Meanwhile, there apparently, in their view, is no consequence to Trump spewing absolute vile that does actually offend voters he is actively losing. 

So as these pundits sounded the alarm on proposals like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, they created narratives about the supposed unpopularity and political risks of these ideas. They claimed The Wisconsin Voter would be turned off by such radicalism. 

As such, these same media-created narratives helped drive down support for those proposals. As support for these ideas declined, so too did support for progressive candidates in the primary. Subsequently, Democratic primary voters concerned about "electability" (and worried about The Wisconsin Voter) backed Joe Biden. 

Fast forward now to the general election and we're seeing the same media bed-wetting, "Dems in disarray" coverage applied unfortunately to Black Lives Matter protests. Never mind the outrageous injustice Jacob Blake was subjected to and how that should be at the forefront of our attention. Instead, media figures aim for provocation and for focus on what The Wisconsin Voter will think (but not Black Wisconsin voters concerned about their lives, mind you, whose turnout will be critical this fall). 

So far, the data does not back them up here. However, by creating narratives that didn't exist before and then declaring them emerging narratives, the media may succeed in bringing about that very electoral result of which they warn. Let's hope not. The best case scenario, as a friend noted to me this week, is that it does not lull us into complacency about the election.

With 100 days left until the 2020 election, it's clearer than ever that Pennsylvania's voting laws need to improve

All views expressed here are my own and made entirely on my own behalf.

Register to vote in PA here (deadline is 10/19): https://www.votespa.com/Register-to-Vote/Pages/How-to-Register-to-Vote.aspx

Apply for a mail ballot in PA here (deadline is 10/27): https://www.votespa.com/Voting-in-PA/Pages/Mail-and-Absentee-Ballot.aspx

Sign up to do voter protection or poll watching work in PA here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfnTCfu_qnh4kJhWQyXKC-8pzSDXAWyTXYAXniem0JpSGBEsg/viewform


With 100 days left until Election Day 2020, many states and localities are scrambling to figure out how to handle voting in a pandemic. The necessity and surge of mail-in voting in many communities has overwhelmed some municipalities that have never administered an election like this in the past. At the same time, what has also become clear is just how inaccessible voting is for many Americans.

We mourned civil rights icon and U.S. Congressman John Lewis' passing last week as a country. But we have never fully lived up to his vision of fair, just, and equitable voting laws for all Americans. Of course, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 represented massive progress in this struggle. As Lewis himself continually implored though, the work did not end there.

The U.S. Supreme Court's dangerously anti-democratic Shelby County v. Holder decision in 2013 opened the door for states, where disenfranchisement historically undermined democratic elections, to enact sweeping, restrictive voting laws. That Congress, in response to this ruling, has yet to pass any restoration of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (including a new map to establish which states should get pre-approval from the Justice Department) is a shameful reflection on our democracy.

Sometimes though, the barriers to voting can be more pernicious and mundane than the kinds of restrictions that the Shelby County decision allowed to happen. Here in Pennsylvania, though we never saw our voter ID law enacted, we still suffer from inequities that give us election results that do not always reflect the true intent of the people.

For instance, Pennsylvania has no in-person early voting. In many other states, even traditionally red states, voters can actually go to their polling place weeks before Election Day and cast a ballot and avoid the long lines of Election Day itself. Not only are long lines a concern that can be avoided possibly with early voting but also many citizens may have important personal, professional, or medical obligations on the day of the election that would make it hard for them to vote on the day itself.

Pennsylvania also lacks same-day voter registration, another feature that some red states even enjoy. The benefit of same-day registration is that it can ease access to voting and increase turnout. Pennsylvanians who often work time-consuming, demanding jobs to make ends meet as they work to meet their individual and family obligations may overlook the need to initially register or change their registration if they move. Same-day registration can help ease those burdens so that more citizens have a greater ability to exercise their rights.

In Pennsylvania, generally speaking, if you vote by mail, your ballot must be received by the county bureau of elections by the close of polls on Election Day -- a difficult task if your ballot was not even delivered until the day before, as happened to many voters in the primary. Election Day itself is also not a state holiday so many workers may find it impractical to vote in the 7 am to 8 pm hours.

Unlike a handful of states that moved in the right direction, Pennsylvania also lacks automatic voter registration. Thus, citizens have yet another barrier to being able to exercise their right to vote as they must go through the registration process.

It is true that Pennsylvania very recently has made great strides in improving voting access. Act 77, passed in 2019, makes it such that any Pennsylvania voter, no excuse needed, can apply for a mail ballot.  You can also now apply for mail ballots online. Governor Wolf, during the primary, extended the deadline for some counties for mail ballots to be received after Election Day itself.

You can also now, thanks to the Wolf administration, register to vote online. Under Act 77, counties also have set up drop-off locations for mail ballots that are set up for several days before the election; they also can have mechanisms in place at their elections offices to allow people to walk in and vote via mail ballot right there and then at the county elections office.

However, these reforms are insufficient. If we want to honor John Lewis' legacy and protect the integrity of our democratic process, we can do more to make voting fairer and more accessible. That way, we can have a more representative government that is truly reflective of its people. The core principle of consent of the governed is at the heart of the American democratic experiment.

John Lewis understood this and his commitment to equality for all people underpinned his activism. We must embody that same activism in pushing our state legislature in Pennsylvania to enact greater reforms. One way we can see to it that that happens is by electing progressive candidates on November 3 who will advance such policies. With 100 days out, our work is cut out for us but the possibilities are as exciting as ever.

If you had to relive any holiday every single day of the year, which holiday would it be?

Today is Groundhog Day, an annual uniquely Pennsylvania tradition. For what it's worth, Punxsutawney Phil has predicted early spring. The holiday is also the subject of the beloved 1993 film Groundhog Day. In the film, weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is forced to relive the same exact Groundhog Day every single day. That got me thinking: if you had to relive a holiday (any holiday) every single day of the year, which holiday would you choose?

Personally, I would choose the Fourth of July. It is my second favorite holiday (after Christmas) after all. The weather is usually sunny and warm, the food is delicious (BBQ, burgers, hot dogs, etc.), there is freedom to spend the day with family or friends, there is not as much heightened expectation of happiness as there is with other major holidays, and it is a beautiful celebration of our country. If I had to pick a second choice, it would probably be Christmas Eve, which I have previously described here as the best day of the year.

When I have asked this question to friends, Fourth of July has been a frequent response. Thanksgiving understandably has been a popular response as well given the amazing food and the universality of the holiday. Friends have also noted that they would at least pick a holiday where they do not have classes or work. So I pose the question now to my readers: which holiday would you choose to relieve every day of the year if you had to pick one?