Joe Biden wasn’t my first choice for president. When the 2020 race got underway, I preferred Sen. Elizabeth Warren or maybe Sen. Cory Booker. But their candidacies waned and it soon became clear that Biden would be the firewall to defeat Donald Trump.
As president, Biden has been a little boring but steady. He doesn’t inspire, but he doesn’t shrink away from the big moments either. Last week, the president had one of his finest moments, and it gives me hope for a nation that revels in its divisions.
Biden and the Republican speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, engineered a massively important bipartisan vote to defer the federal debt limit for two years and avert a possible economic catastrophe. The bill was opposed mostly by folks on the far left and far right. America’s great middle held together.
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Biden’s instincts — that there is still room for Republicans and Democrats to work together on the biggest issues — proved valid. The deal is far from perfect, but Medicare and Social Security weren’t cut, veterans were protected, and most of the budget cuts secured by Republicans were less damaging than the ones they originally proposed. Go ahead and let Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, both Republicans, and Rep. Cori Bush, a Democrat, vote no; a bipartisan majority can still get the job done.
This is a moment to celebrate. In today’s social media world, it’s easy to rush to the outrage of the day and drive a wedge between American groups separated by politics, religion or race. The divisions are real — but so is the fact that we can still come together.
St. Louis is seeing this up close with the appointment of new Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore. Handed the difficult job of rebuilding the prosecutor’s office left behind by Kim Gardner, Gore has quickly oozed steadiness and confidence, showing that he’s the right person to guide the ship.
As with the debt deal, the politics here provide hope that Missouri still has leaders willing to put partisanship aside for our most serious issues. Gore, a longtime attorney at powerhouse firm Dowd Bennett, doesn’t advertise his politics, but he’s donated over the years to Democrats. He was appointed to the office by a Republican, Gov. Mike Parson, with at least some influence from Mayor Tishaura Jones, a Democrat.
Among Gore’s first moves was to bring back Marvin Teer, a former judge, as his chief trial assistant. It was the same position Teer held under Gardner before he resigned amid the avalanche of troubles in her office. It’s worth noting that Teer and Gore, who were members of the Ferguson Commission created in 2014, served together on the working group that focused on fixes for the judiciary in St. Louis County.
The Ferguson Commission report didn’t deal with Gore’s new office, but its ideas for reforming policing and the courts — and applying a racial equity lens to everything we do in the region — surely guides him, at least in a general sense.
This should be hopeful to supporters of the progressive ideas that Gardner espoused but couldn’t follow through on, although the top job right now is to show that St. Louis has a functioning prosecutor’s office.
Gore wouldn’t be in his job if not for the actions of Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, who pursued a court action that helped force Gardner from the job. I’m not necessarily Bailey’s biggest fan, but using the courts to force a resolution was necessary in this case, where there was dire need for stability.
It’s OK to say it: in St. Louis, Republicans and Democrats, including some people whose politics you don’t like, worked together to steady the circuit attorney’s office. In Washington, D.C., Republicans and Democrats found a compromise to avert potential economic disaster.
Confidence and stability are two things the American people want in their government, and can still have when they don’t let the folks on the extremes control the narrative.
