From the “Hopes for Biden Presidency” thread:
To wit:
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No one should be working harder to tamp down the unrealistic expectations raised by this sort of commentary than Biden. He served in the Senate the last time it was split 50-50, in early 2001. So he’ll vividly recall how Republicans, who then held the tie-breaking vote in the form of Vice President Dick Cheney, had to cut a power-sharing deal with his Democratic Party to proceed. Biden is a 36-year veteran of an exclusive club that prides itself on its ability to exasperate and foil the executive branch.
…This is the way the founders planned it: They designed the Senate to be a giant speed bump in the lawmaking process.
…That group includes Biden, who clearly would rather master the Senate the old-fashioned way, through relationships. The question is whether they still count for anything in a chamber whose members spend more time on jet planes and at fundraisers than they do socializing with one another — and where partisan polarization has increased in the decade since Biden left.
…And about Biden’s whopping 50-plus-Kamala Harris majority: Let’s not forget that the Democrats are hardly a reliable voting bloc, running the ideological gamut from democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) to centrists who need to win in Republican states, such as Manchin and Jon Tester (Mont.).
Biden’s best chance for accomplishing anything may come from what happened Wednesday at the Capitol. Will the shock prove grievous enough to restore something of the comity that marked his time in the Senate, when bipartisanship and compromise were not dirty words? There are at least some signs he could “enjoy,” if that is the word, the most harrowing of presidential honeymoons.
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Sadly, I have a feeling that the shock and disgust over the events of the last few days will fade, and it will be back to bare-knuckle fighting almost immediately, including within the Democratic party. I hope I’m wrong.