Joe Biden’s “Here’s the Deal” podcasts surprised me. I expected the decency and the optimism. I expected the folksy and courteous grandpa who stumbles over words, digresses mid-sentence, and serves up solace as effortlessly as my grandmother dished out apple pie. What I didn’t expect was his insight and his foresight. The podcasts show that Biden has thought deeply about the environmental, economic, social, and political crises facing America. More importantly, that he has a vision--rooted in America’s founding documents and broadened by his own education, experience, and faith in the American people—to shepherd us through it.
In conversation with Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Biden focused on two issues: defeating the virus and tackling climate change. Due in large measure to Inslee’s leadership on COVID 19, the state which had been the epicenter of the virus, now has it pretty well under control. The two men discussed the virus as a metaphor for climate change. In tackling existential threats, leaders need to act early and boldly. They need to make decisions based on scientific and technical information, not ideology. They have got to be able to look over the horizon and bring people with them. Inslee reminded listeners that Biden has always had foresight. In the 1980s Biden introduced the first climate change bill in the Senate. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law in 1986. The Global Climate Protection Act directed the government to research and develop a strategy to deal with global warming.
Biden turned the conversation to the future, telling Inslee that whoever wins in November is going to face big challenges, including high domestic unemployment and diminished international standing. At the same time, the 77-year old former Vice President said he saw an opportunity—a word Biden uses a lot—to rescue the economy by building a greener infrastructure, “turning it into the very thing that helps us get through this existential threat to our economy.” Biden then took us on a little tour of that future: “I think we can become a net exporter of climate change technology. I think we can become the leader in the world of electric vehicles. I think we can become the leader in the world for wind and solar energy. I think there are so many opportunities. And not just for minimum wage jobs. Good paying jobs.” Biden wants to put electric charging stations on our highways as well as expand solar, wind, and battery technology. He sees investing in new technologies as one of the ways to help rebuild the middle class.
In a completely different discussion with Senator Amy Klobuchar, Biden not only talked about the isolation people currently feel, but also the urgent need for good governance and building a national consensus on priorities. The so-called progressive wing of the party may not like it, but Biden is determined to work with political foes. Klobuchar described how she forged a relationship with the late John McCain, who had always treated her with respect. Biden said he misses McCain, and with a chuckle recalled, “He used to say to me, ‘you’ve never seen a problem you don’t think you can solve,’ and I would say, ‘you never saw a war you didn’t want to fight.’” Biden likes to fix things.
Biden asks a lot of questions in these podcasts and he listens to the answers. He asked Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmore what she needed most to battle the Coronavirus. She told him the thing that would help most was a national strategy and consistent message from the White House. She said the mixed messages from the federal government have made it more difficult for states to take action and have made it harder for citizens to know what to believe. She added that the states also need access to federal buying power, “so it’s not states bidding against each other for N95 masks.”
The conversations with Sen. Klobuchar and Gov. Whitmer show that Biden is much more concerned with how we pull our country together than he is in scoring political points. His criticisms of President Trump—refusal to take the virus seriously, ignorance about science, failure to deliver tests, and lack of coordination of desperately needed federal assistance—are slipped into the conversations but are not a feature of these conversations. Biden believes you have to be able to bring the majority of the people with if you want to solve problems and he is looking for a partner who can build relationships across the political divides and help him do that.
Biden chose to speak with Rev Barber for his Easter weekend podcast. I knew Biden was practicing Catholic, but learned in his conversation with Rev. William Barber, a prominent Protestant minister and political activist, that one of Biden’s passions is comparative theology. “Let’s talk about faith,” said Biden. Rev. Barber, who has served as pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, in Goldsboro, North Carolina and leads the Poor People’s Campaign, quoted his grandmother, “Faith without works is dead.” You can feel Biden smiling. His grandfather used to say, “Keep the faith; his grandmother said, “No, spread the faith.”
Biden summarizes his faith in one Biblical quote: “What you do unto the least of my brethren you do unto me.” For Biden that boils down to treating people with respect and dignity and taking care of each other. “All religions,” said Biden, “have at their core this notion that there is something beyond you.” He adds, “What gives me hope is when I see somebody do just the little things they didn’t have to do.” It could be carrying someone’s grocery bag, cutting a neighbor’s grass, picking up a piece of litter from the road. “Little acts of kindness,” said Biden. “a million little things. Not one big thing.”
Biden often quotes Soren Kierkegaard, the 19th century Danish theologian, who wrote that “Faith sees best in the dark.” He sees this virus—as horrible as it is—as having two saving graces: it is eliciting acts of kindness that Biden hopes will be as contagious as the virus is and it is showing Americans the essential value of low wage earners actually on the frontlines fighting this pandemic. Biden believes we have an opportunity to address systemic inequality, to provide health care for all Americans, expand access to higher education, invest in research and create new jobs. Above all, Biden wants to restore the middle class and resume our work of building that more perfect union imagined by our founding fathers.
In his discussion with historian Jon Meacham, Biden lets us know what kind of president he would want to be. He will surround himself with knowledgeable people because of the rapidly evolving technology. He’s going to repair international relations. “America First, in my view,” Biden said, “has made America last.” He will celebrate our diversity. “You can’t define an American by anything other than an idea. We are uniquely the product of an idea…that we hold these truths to be self-evident.”
It is in the back and forth between Biden and Meacham about their favorite presidents that you get an idea of how Biden sees the presidency. Meacham awarded high marks to Franklin Roosevelt’s sense of hope, Lyndon Johnson’s doggedness, and Barack Obama’s brain power on science. Biden, in turn, said he admired many presidents from Washington to Obama, but he highlighted three for their ability to envision the future. He said Lincoln’s presidency, in light of the country’s situation at the time and his own family circumstances, is a study in courage, insight, and foresight. He said no one generated a sense of hope and willingness to try new approaches more than Roosevelt, but he pointed to John F. Kennedy for being able to cut through the noise and articulate a vision. “He believed,” said Biden, “that if we worked hard enough, everything beyond the Horizon was possible. We could change history. We could mold it. We could move it.” Biden added, “But it’s a real close call. It takes having a bit of foresight, having some experience in knowing what is likely to come, preparing for what is likely to come.”