No Labels Should Endorse Joe Biden
No president in living memory is as committed to bipartisan governance, and also the alternative is a guy who tried to end American democracy as we know it
I have long claimed that No Labels is a front group for Republicans, used to launder conservative ideas into the mainstream using the fig leaf of bipartisanship. I still think that’s true. But the recent collapse of their Unity Ticket offers No Labels the rare chance to prove me wrong. If No Labels actually cares about bipartisanship, they should endorse Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.
They won’t though, because they’re conservative hacks who endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2016 and want him to win again.
Joe Biden is a moderate Democrat who regularly earns bipartisan support for his policies
When No Labels started their doomed 2024 Unity Ticket they immediately declared that Donald Trump and Joe Biden were both unacceptably extreme. This false equivalence was crazy then, but it’s even crazier now that we’ve seen three quarters of Joe Biden’s presidency. If Joe Biden — the most moderate 2020 presidential candidate — is too far left for No Labels, there is no Democrat who could possibly meet their standards.1
Joe Biden has nonetheless governed as a unifying moderate with massive bipartisan accomplishments:
Biden passed the first gun violence prevention bill in nearly three decades with large bipartisan majorities, despite the incredible difficulty of finding common ground on such a politically fraught topic.
Biden did what Trump couldn’t do, and brought the two parties together to pass a massive infrastructure package to invest in transportation, rural broadband, strengthening the electric grid, and shoring up supply lines.
Biden passed the CHIPS and Science Act to bring more tech manufacturing back to our shores and strengthen our 21st century economy
Biden won broad bipartisan support for the PACT Act to expand health care benefits for veterans
Biden even picked up bipartisan support for his law to repeal DOMA and guarantee recognition of same sex marriages.
And, to top it off, nearly every budget bill that the Republican-led House passes is now being passed with more Democratic votes than Republican votes.
On inauguration day 2021, no one would have believed that Joe Biden would have this many bipartisan legislative accomplishments. He is the most bipartisan president of my lifetime. On that alone, No Labels should proudly reward him with their endorsement.
Donald Trump tried to end American democracy as we know it
Even if you think Joe Biden could have done more to unite the country and bring both sides together, Donald Trump is the antithesis of bipartisanship. He regularly threatens to use the power of the federal government to prosecute his enemies. He led a violent mob to disrupt the peaceful transition of power, which is not very bipartisan of him.
Sometimes life hands us hard choices, we still have to decide
Not every election will have a perfectly bipartisan choice. In 2018, Illinois’s 3rd district featured primaries with a progressive Democrat, a conservative Democrat, and a Republican who was a literal holocaust denier. No Labels found it in their hearts to weigh in on the race to criticize the progressive Democrat, and frame the race as a referendum on the far left while ignoring the Republican holocaust denier.
Surely, in 2024, with two imperfect candidates, No Labels will find it within themselves to endorse a candidate. If they truly are looking for a bipartisan champion, they will endorse Joe Biden. But they aren’t. They’re conservative hacks. They endorsed Donald Trump in 2016, and they want him to win again. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m not going to hold my breath.
Programming Notes:
Next Friday: a fun essay looking back at this extremely dysfunctional session of Congress
Last Friday: Turning Point USA Isn't College Student Outreach; It's Elderly Republican Donor Recruitment
One might conclude from this that No Labels is a conservative organization.
I hate that we have to reasonably say "sometimes you have to choose between hard choices" and one of the choices is "tried to end American democracy".