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Joe Biden promised voters they wouldn’t have to keep thinking about politics all the time. That hasn’t worked out for them, or him.
But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.
Plus: Scroll down to read Imani Perry’s picks from the newly launched Atlantic archive.
Hardly Reassuring
Political strategists and pundits sometimes talk about the quest to win the news cycle. These days, the question is less whether Joe Biden will win a news cycle than what kind of defeat he’ll suffer. The president’s struggles stem from a range of causes—inflation, foreign war, the lingering effects of COVID, a conservative judiciary, and sloppy messaging—but one way I’ve been thinking about them is this: Biden hasn’t managed to deliver the boring America he promised when he ran for president.
Biden’s pitch in 2020 was that he would bring a return to normalcy. To him, Donald Trump’s presidency was an aberration, a view that set him apart from his Democratic rivals who saw Trump as the culmination of long-running currents in American society and Republican politics. But for an electorate exhausted by the roller coaster of the Trump years and then COVID, Biden’s reassurance that politics could be boring again was pretty appealing.
As hard as it can be to be interesting, delivering dull is even harder. Former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan supposedly quipped that the most challenging part of his job was “events.” Biden can surely sympathize. Last month’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade stripped Americans of what many consider a basic right. It is also, for the White House, a political migraine. The decision was the product of a Court stocked with conservative justices before Biden was elected. The White House couldn’t prevent the ruling, nor does the president have many (if any) good options to push back.
And yet Biden seems to have made the worst of a bad situation. His top lawyer was somehow taken by surprise by the timing of the decision, according to CNN—a claim that might seem difficult to believe if it weren’t for the lack of any unified response from the White House. The administration seems entirely reactive, announcing, for example, that declaring a health emergency is not a “great option,” before suddenly reconsidering it.
Over the weekend, Biden’s departing communications director slammed “activists who have been consistently out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party,” a peculiar place to train her fire. Maybe she’s trying to recapture the magic of the 2020 campaign, when Biden was at odds with progressive “Defund the police” activists but in step with voters. In this case, however, voter sentiment is clearly in favor of some access to abortion, and not just among Democrats.
This shiftlessness has taken a toll. As Ed Kilgore writes for Intelligencer, Biden is now polling lower than Trump was at the same point in his presidency. The New York Times seems to run a big step-back story about Biden being old on roughly a monthly basis. Today brought a poll finding that almost two-thirds of Democratic voterswould like to see someone else as the party’s nominee in 2024.
Perhaps this negative reaction to Biden is unfair. Even with narrow control of Congress, Democrats have passed blockbuster legislation, such as the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and a major COVID relief package, though they made the mistake of promising a Build Back Better plan that they have been unable to pass. Experts have widely praised Biden’s handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Last week’s unemployment report beat expectations. Gas prices are falling. Some of the other problems, including inflation and COVID, are largely out of his control.
That’s not what voters want to hear, though. They voted for Biden because he offered reassurance, and now he’s flailing because he … can’t offer reassurance. Writing in this newsletter almost a month ago, my colleague Tom Nichols pleaded for voters to leave Joe Biden alone. The problem is that they want to be left alone, too, without having to worry about the cost of filling up their tank or whether they’ll be able to get basic health care if they’re pregnant. And yet politics, or reality, keeps barging in.
Related:
Today’s News
After defying a congressional subpoena, Steve Bannon claimed that he is now willing to testify before the House January 6 committee.
The death toll from Russia’s Saturday strike on a Ukrainian apartment block in the Donetsk town of Chasiv Yar rose to 31.
When I was a teenager living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I often walked by the home of the abolitionist and Union officer Thomas Wentworth Higginson. I remembered that Ida B. Wells may have visited Higginson there, and romantically imagined myself in her footsteps, walking up Buckingham Street. So it has been particularly exciting to find Higginson’s abolitionist writings in the Atlantic archive.
In this essay from the June 1861 issue, he recounts the insurrection led by Denmark Vesey in South Carolina about 40 years prior. He isn’t as brutally honest about racism as Wells, but Higginson’s recognition of the nobility of self-emancipation is meaningful, especially at the dawn of the Civil War.
Two other writings from the archive that aroused my interest both come from the September 1859 issue. The first is a description of a trio’s visit to Martha’s Vineyard, long before the island became associated with the elite resort glamour that characterizes it today. The displacement of the Gay Head tribe, the whaling industry’s impact on the island’s ecology, and the local language and culture of New England are rendered vividly. If you are familiar with the landscape, the description of the Vineyard’s geography and beauty will be wholly familiar. But this story tells something about the root of the place and how it became the treasured enclave it is today.
The other article from that issue is another account set in what is now a popular tourist destination: Savannah, Georgia. Specifically, it is a laudatory review of a pamphlet by the American Anti-Slavery Society about an event known historically as “the weeping time,” the largest slave auction in United States history. As the pamphlet reveals, it was a Philadelphian who held the auction—a potent reminder that although antebellum slavery was centered in the South, its beneficiaries were elites all over the country.
Finally, this 1954 article, published two months after the Brown v. Boardof Education decision, gives a potent, if brief, history of school segregation. But what strikes me about it is the author Arthur E. Sutherland’s hopefulness regarding desegregation—a hope that was soon dashed by massive resistance and the anemic “all deliberate speed” mandate of the second Brown opinion. Now, of course, though Brown doesn’t appear to be immediately under threat, the ideology of white supremacy that undergirded legal segregation is on the rise. Nearly 60 years later, hope feels harder to come by.
— Imani Perry
More From The Atlantic
Culture Break
(The Atlantic)
Read. “Lucky,” a new poem by Carl Dennis: “No way to explain to a car, which always waits / Just where you leave it, the human capacity / To drift in thought away from the body / Just when the body is in need of guidance.”
Watch. Already seen Top Gun and in the mood for more explosive action? Watch DéjàVu (available on Disney+ and to rent on Amazon Prime),a 2006 Tony Scott–directed thriller with Denzel Washington that turns into a “sort of high-tech Vertigo.”
Or try something else from our writer’s list of 26 brilliant movies that critics were wrong about.
Drink. It’s Free Slurpee Day at 7-Eleven. What the hell is a slushie, anyway? Find out here.
It’s a pleasure to be filling in here this week, especially because it gives me a chance to celebrate the hottest team in baseball. I routinely search for consolation in Tom Scocca’s paean to the 2011 Baltimore Orioles, who finished last in the AL East but spoiled the playoff hopes of the hated Red Sox on the final day of the season. Scocca notes how small (even petty) victories can make rooting for a bad team feel worthwhile. The O’s will almost certainly finish in the basement again this year, but they’ve just won eight games in a row, and they’re guaranteed not to lose tonight, because it’s an off day. Here’s to small victories—or even better, eight of them.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government has released a code of conduct for municipal politicians across the province.
The code includes 40 guidelines under 14 categories, covering topics from gifts and benefits, to how officials should handle confidential information.
Municipal Affairs Minister John Lohr says a code ensuring elected municipal officials have clear guidance on conduct and behaviour is long overdue.
The code was originally requested by the provinces’ municipalities and villages, and it was developed based on recommendations of a working group established in January 2022.
The working group recommended a code that applied across the province, with processes for investigating complaints and imposing sanctions.
The provincial government says councils and village commissions must adopt the code of conduct by Dec. 19.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
OTTAWA – The House of Commons returns today from a week-long break, but it’s unlikely to be business as usual.
Members of Parliament are slated to resume debating a Conservative demand for documents about federal spending on green technology projects.
The matter of privilege has all but paralyzed House business as the Liberals try to maintain a grip on an increasingly fractious minority Parliament.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to face the most serious challenge to his leadership to date.
Several media reports have detailed the plans of a group of Liberal MPs to confront Trudeau at the party’s Wednesday caucus meeting over sagging poll numbers and gloomy electoral prospects.
The precise strategy and breadth of the attempt to push Trudeau to resign remain unclear, though some MPs who spoke to The Canadian Press on background said the number of members involved is significant.
Trudeau could sidestep both problems by taking the controversial step of proroguing Parliament, which would end the session and set the stage for a fresh throne speech.
Some political watchers have mused the move would allow time for a Liberal leadership race if Trudeau were to step down.
The prime minister also plans to soon shuffle his cabinet to replace four ministers who don’t plan to run again in the next election.
A general election is scheduled to be held in October next year, but could come sooner if the Liberals lose the confidence of the House.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
STONECREST, Ga. (AP) — Kamala Harris told the congregation of a large Black church in suburban Atlanta on Sunday that people must show compassion and respect in their daily lives and do more than just “preach the values.”
The Democratic presidential nominee’s visit to New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest on her 60th birthday, marked by a song by the congregation, was part of a broad, nationwide campaign, known as “Souls to the Polls,” that encourages Black churchgoers to vote.
Pastor Jamal Bryant said the vice president was “an American hero, the voice of the future” and “our fearless leader.” He also used his sermon to welcome the idea of America electing a woman for the first time as president. “It takes a real man to support a real woman,” Bryant said.
“When Black women roll up their sleeves, then society has got to change,” the pastor said.
Harris told the parable of the Good Samaritan from the Gospel of Luke, about a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and was attacked by robbers. The traveler was beaten and left bloodied, but helped by a stranger.
All faiths promote the idea of loving thy neighbor, Harris said, but far harder to achieve is truly loving a stranger as if that person were a neighbor.
“In this moment, across our nation, what we do see are some who try to deepen division among us, spread hate, sow fear and cause chaos,” Harris told the congregation. “The true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.”
She was more somber than during her political rallies, stressing that real faith means defending humanity. She said the Samaritan parable reminds people that “it is not enough to preach the values of compassion and respect. We must live them.”
Harris ended by saying, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” as attendees applauded her.
Many in attendance wore pink to promote breast cancer awareness. Also on hand was Opal Lee, an activist in the movement to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday. Harris hugged her.
The vice president also has a midday stop at Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro with singer Stevie Wonder, before taping an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton that will air later Sunday on MSNBC. The schedule reflects her campaign’s push to treat every voting group like a swing state voter, trying to appeal to them all in a tightly contested election with early voting in progress.
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, headed to church in Saginaw, Michigan, and his wife, Gwen, was going to a service in Las Vegas.
The “Souls to the Polls” effort launched last week and is led by the National Advisory Board of Black Faith Leaders, which is sending representatives across battleground states as early voting begins in the Nov. 5 election.
“My father used to say, a ‘voteless people is a powerless people’ and one of the most important steps we can take is that short step to the ballot box,” Martin Luther King III said Friday. “When Black voters are organized and engaged, we have the power to shift the trajectory of this nation.”
On Saturday, the vice president rallied supporters in Detroit with singer Lizzo before traveling to Atlanta to focus on abortion rights, highlighting the death of a Georgia mother amid the state’s restrictive abortion laws that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court, with three justices nominated by Donald Trump, overturned Roe v. Wade.
“Donald Trump still refuses to take accountability, to take any accountability, for the pain and the suffering he has caused,” Harris said.
Harris is a Baptist whose husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish. She has said she’s inspired by the work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and influenced by the religious traditions of her mother’s native India as well as the Black Church. Harris sang in the choir as a child at Twenty Third Avenue Church of God in Oakland.
“Souls to the Polls” as an idea traces back to the Civil Rights Movement. The Rev. George Lee, a Black entrepreneur from Mississippi, was killed by white supremacists in 1955 after he helped nearly 100 Black residents register to vote in the town of Belzoni. The cemetery where Lee is buried has served as a polling place.
Black church congregations across the country have undertaken get-out-the-vote campaigns for years. In part to counteract voter suppression tactics that date back to the Jim Crow era, early voting in the Black community is stressed from pulpits nearly as much as it is by candidates.
In Georgia, early voting began on Tuesday, and more than 310,000 people voted on that day, more than doubling the first-day total in 2020. A record 5 million people voted in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that the mobilization effort launched last week, not Oct. 20.
