Biden, Progressive Idealism, and the Problem of Anger

Our world stands upon the blade of a knife. We sway but a little to the ruin of all.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Why am I not particularly angry that Biden and Harris are failing to live up to their campaign promises? Because they’re doing what I expected them to do: I didn’t think that they would be bastions of progressive policy, at best, I hoped we could collectively force them to do some good things. And you know what? We did.

I see a lot of anger foisted toward those at the peak of power. Rightly so, in many cases. Even if Biden is limited by our outdated political system, he does have actions available to him (like the legal ability to cancel all student debt) that could transform the world. He also has a platform upon which to preach a different ideology than the harmful corporatocratic one that’s become the norm of world politics. Given his failure to fully utilize the tools he has, then, it makes sense to be both disappointed and angry. But not because he’s failed to live up to our expectations.

Let me explain.

We elect leaders, too often, as if we were electing paragons: we have a hero-worship problem in our world, and the disparity between our idea of the mythic hero, and the reality provided by the leaders we have access to, is a…