During his first year in office, Biden’s call to our better angels had a hard time cutting through the din. Maybe it’s Covid-19, maybe it’s the algorithms that appear to have permanently polarized our politics, but Biden’s calls for unity and compromise seem like a sweet Beatles tune sung by a nostalgic old guy from a bygone era. And his friends from both sides of the aisle were no help, when he really needed somebody.
TheTeCHyWorLD Illustration by Matt Wuerker
In 2021 — the first year of the Biden presidency — the nation just seemed to want to double down on divisiveness. From our inability to come together to fight the coronavirus, or unify in defense of our basic democratic institutions after Jan. 6, it became clear the nation just wasn’t in a mood to put the unum back in our pluribus.
Picking up where they left off with its eight-year project to stymie the Obama presidency, the GOP has been very disciplined in not letting Biden find the tiniest foothold for any bipartisanship. Like the Blue Meanies in “Yellow Submarine,” they were out to stymie him at every move.
With the Senate tied up at 50-50 and a narrow majority in the House, the president couldn’t even muster much unity within his own party. Aside from success restarting the economy and also the singular triumph of finally starting to fix our broken infrastructure, the Biden agenda remains stalled by gridlock in Congress — and all the while the coronavirus continues to mutate.
TheTeCHyWorLD Illustration by Matt Wuerker
So hey, Joe, it’s a sad song, but we can make it better. After all, it’s a long and winding road. Maybe somehow we might be able to get back and come together. Biden’s magical mystery tour has just begun.
Please enjoy our very Beatles parody of Joe Biden’s hard day’s night and year, 2021.