One thing that makes writing a daily blog daunting, especially when I comment on politics, is finding something to say that hasn’t already been said by half-a-dozen professional columnists. I often find myself thinking, after reading an opinion piece in the paper, “What a great point. I wish I’d thought of that.”
So it’s gratifying when, once in a great while, I say something on this blog and only later see the same point made elsewhere. In a post four months ago I wrote that should Biden be elected president, “even if the only policies he ended up enacting were those that the majority of Americans agree on, that would represent a huge step in the right direction for the country.”
This week New York Times columnist Bryce Covert made a similar point and used results from last month’s election to support it. She noted that both Republican and Democratic voters supported state ballot initiatives to enact progressive policies. Her examples included initiatives to increase the minimum wage to $15, guarantee paid family leave, and raise taxes on the wealthy to fund early childhood education.
And those are just the policies that were on the ballot this year. According to Eric Levits in an article last year in New York magazine, polls show that a majority of Americans support a range of other progressive policy proposals even if they wouldn’t vote for the politicians that endorse them. These include requiring that workers be represented on corporate boards, preventing government officials from owning stocks or becoming lobbyists right after leaving office, and capping credit-card interest rates.
So I continue to believe that, in addition to his number-one priority of addressing the coronavirus pandemic, Joe Biden should prioritize legislation that a majority of Americans support — and ensure that voters know he’s doing so.