Despite What You Heard, There Was No Peaceful Transition
A critical look at Biden's first Executive Orders set against the backdrop
of Operation Peaceful Transition in Washington, DC.
by Eleanor Goldfield
Mint Press News
January 22nd, 2021
By Eleanor Goldfield
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Anyone trying to find the edges of the U.S. Overton Window right now must
feel like they're tracing an amateur rendition of an early Picasso. After a
summer spent chanting "defund the police," self-identifying progressives
applaud the pouring of some 25,000 troops and busloads of out-of-city law
enforcement into the streets of Washington, DC. Those eager to cheer the
departure of a racist, sexist, war-hawking elitist from the White House were
quick to welcome a new racist, sexist, war-hawking elitist. Those who
lambasted Trump for dragging more swamp creatures into the swamp rather than
draining it are applauding Biden for his diverse cabinet appointments,
ignoring the revolving door of corruption and oppression they represent.
Those who (correctly) decried the Paris Climate Agreement for being flimsy
and non-committal are celebrating Biden's executive order to rejoin it.
Indeed, anyone applauding Biden's first flicks of the wrist as President
would do well to look beyond the window dressing. Of the 15 new executive
orders that aren't merely a light Trump-eraser, they herald the return of
the classic Democratic practice of sprinkling progressive-tasting garnish
around deep systemic problems. For example, Biden's executive order to once
again kill the Keystone XL pipeline project, a project that Obama had
already killed (that Trump then revived) is at best a step sideways, not
forwards. Biden has said outright that he has no interest in a Green New
Deal, despite the fact that the watered-down version that bounced around
Congress left gaping holes in truly addressing climate chaos. He has also
ignored repeated calls to kill both Line 3 and the ill-fated Dakota Access
Pipeline.
Meanwhile, the executive order to "advance racial equity" in the federal
government grinds sharply against Biden and Harris' own political histories
while, much like Pelosi's toothless Climate Crisis committee, it offers up
no real action to address the issue at hand.
The same is true of Biden's call to defend DACA, the Obama-era legislation
that granted a renewable two-year stay-of-deportation for children who
immigrated to the U.S. with their parents. As DACA recipient Ella Mendoza
explained to me back in 2017, "DACA was flawed from the very beginning."
Mendoza described a carrot and stick program that demanded recipients sign
admissions of illegal border crossings for momentary reprieves that could be
overturned at any time. The convenient announcement of DACA around Obama's
re-election just highlighted for Mendoza that this was really about
dismissing "Obama's deportation of more than 2 million people" just in time
for election day. "You can tell me it's about children all you want, but
you're deporting our parents," she said. In short, DACA wasn't a dream come
true. While people like Mendoza struggled to build a life under the gaze of
the deporter-in-chief, Obama was only too glad to throw other children in
cages, a practice many only found abhorrent when Trump did it years later.
DACA isn't comprehensive immigration reform - it never was. Establishment
Democrats and their fans cooing over it like the return of a lost child
doesn't change that fact.
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Looking ahead, many might feel a sense of relief that Biden at least takes
the COVID-19 pandemic seriously, signing executive orders to mandate masks
in federal buildings, to rejoin the World Health Organization and to address
the financial free-fall impacting millions of Americans. However, if you
look closely, you'll see again that unfulfilling Democratic garnish
sprinkled on deep systemic rot. The executive order to extend the CDC's
eviction and foreclosure moratorium until March 31 doesn't address the
loopholes in the original order that still allow for evictions. Furthermore,
the moratorium does not cancel rent. Tenants will still be liable to pay for
all missed payments once the moratorium ends, and landlords are still
allowed to hike the rent during the unpaid months.
Likewise, the "pause" on student loan payments demonstrates yet again how
little the Democrats are willing to help the people. The move carries over a
pause which the Trump administration started while "asserting" that Biden
will carry through on his campaign pledge to cancel $10,000 of student loans
per borrower, noting however that it will take time as the cancellation has
to go through Congress first. Great! So we've got a Trump leftover plus an
empty promise to shave off $10k in student loans when the average debt sits
at $32,731, and that's not including accrued interest. Biden's executive
order is essentially a Post-It note 'IOU' with a smiley face scribbled on
the back. It kicks the can over to Congress in the hopes we won't realize
that Biden could actually cancel all $1.7 trillion in student debt with a
different (read: actually useful) executive order. He's probably also hoping
we'll forget that back in 2005, Biden was one of 18 Democrats who voted
excitedly for a bill that stripped student loan borrowers of bankruptcy
protections, leading to a tripling in student loan debt over the next ten
years. Oddly enough, Biden never voted to say, strip multi-million dollar
corporations of their bankruptcy protections. If you're a huge corporation,
you can easily wriggle out of your debts to workers, communities and local
governments. If you're a destitute student, there's no way out of your debt.
Still, Biden could do it - he could lift the burden of an indebted future
from millions, a move that even the likes of Business Insider agree would
bolster the economy and in particular benefit communities of color and
low-income households. Gee, sounds like that'd be a win-win in your quest to
"advance racial equity" there Joe.
Of course, the fact of the matter is that Biden, the master-mind of the '94
crime bill, has no interest in advancing racial equity. He's never cared
about the plight of people drowning in debt - or drowning in rising
floodwaters - and he doesn't care now. He has no intention of progressing or
changing the direction of his political career. Indeed, he quite glibly
announced to rich donors back in 2019 that "nothing will fundamentally
change" when he takes the Oval Office. Based on his cabinet picks and his
first orders as President, I think we should take him at his word.
The relief that Trump is gone is understandable. But don't be lulled by the
very conditions that gave rise to Trump's presidency in the first place. To
celebrate our so-called return to a democracy we've never had with a decency
that is at best shallow, and at worst a conniving cover-up for crimes
against humanity speaks of a belief in American exceptionalism that is
neither warranted nor helpful. Underneath the progressive platitudes and
unfulfilling garnish lie the same systemic rot, a rot that was perhaps most
noticeable on Inauguration Day itself - when two worlds stood sharply
demarcated by militarized checkpoints, and the revolving door of red and
blue capitalist imperialism was almost literally visible.
Walking around DC on Inauguration Day, I felt like I was touring a vast
military exhibition - which basically, I was. Military vehicles rolled down
quiet neighborhood streets as if they'd gotten lost on their way to the
frontlines. National Guardsmen with giant rifles and camo gear stood out
like militantly sore thumbs against the backdrop of a local park. Operation
Peaceful Transition (as I've come to call it) was in full swing, with all
the irony of previous imperialist missions like Operation Iraqi Freedom. In
the shadows of Biden and Harris' gleeful photo-ops with the likes of George
W. Bush, community members across DC were working tirelessly to address the
effects of a city shut down, blocked off, and singularly concerned with
providing the ruling class with a cushy Inauguration Day.
DC Inauguration
Credit | Eleanor Goldfield | Art Killing Apathy
DC Inauguration
Credit | Eleanor Goldfield | Art Killing Apathy
DC Inauguration
Credit | Eleanor Goldfield | Art Killing Apathy
Indeed, despite DC serving as the stage for this tragicomedy of political
theater, a lot of locals weren't focused on Joe Biden. Community members
were busy raising funds and pooling resources for neighbors who were scared
to leave their homes or go to work, fearing both fascist violence and the
scourge of freshly deployed ICE and CBP officials (two sides of the same
coin). Others were delivering groceries or hot meals to people who were
understandably creeped out by the massive military and police presence in
the city. Mutual aid groups set up 24-hour rolling shifts to address
emergency requests and to share information about everything from
checkpoints (potentially life-changing information depending on your
immigration status) to local POC-owned restaurants to order food from.
Meanwhile, Biden stood at perhaps the most protected podium in the world,
speaking of hope, unity, leadership, peace, and a brighter future. These are
two worlds disconnected. We the people are literally barred from his world,
and he has no interest in entering ours.
There is no such thing as a peaceful transition in a city with more troops
than both Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no peaceful transition for the
black and brown folks displaced in the fastest gentrifying city in the
nation. There is no peaceful transition for a city with a higher maternal
mortality rate than Syria.
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There is no peaceful transition for a country with the largest military and
surveillance system the world has ever seen. There is no peaceful transition
for a country that represents 5% of the world's population but 25% of the
world's incarcerated. There is no peaceful transition for a nation where
slavery is still legalized, where millions have died due to lack of
healthcare, housing and other basic human rights.
The revolving door of imperialist capitalist preservation turns again. But
there is nothing peaceful about it. And the hope that flows from the twisted
tongues of our politicians is not hope for the people. Still, that doesn't
mean that there is no hope. Indeed, quite the opposite. Our hope lies in
recognizing and manifesting our power - in realizing that projects like KXL
would never even have been canceled in the first place were it not for
people's collective, tireless and targeted actions.
Our hope lies in the roots - in these communities that bustle and build in
the shadows of empire. It lies in the crowns of trees where tree-sitters
block the way of pipelines. It lies in solidarity - in growing everything
from garlic in community gardens to growing networks of interconnected local
aid groups. It lies in direct action. As Direct Action & Climate Justice
Organizer Alex Cohen notes, "Direct Action builds the new and stops the old.
Direct Action brings hope in the darkest times. Direct Action builds
community, creates assembly, fuels worth and empowerment, and builds people
power. No matter how grave the time, it remains a tool available to us 24/7
and 365 days a year, on our own terms."
It is this hope and these tactics that we must take into the Biden
presidency - into every presidency. Instead of gazing at the spires of
empire through the Overton Window, fogged by false promises and twisted by
hypocrisy, look closer to home. Don't look up for liberation, look next
door, down the street. These aren't progressive platitudes but quite
literally how we survive - how we fight, how we build - on our own terms in
these grave times.
