With Love to Uncle Joe

Attending Netroots Nation last week in Detroit, Michigan gave me much to think about regarding liberals, progressives, leftists, and the soul of the modern Democratic Party.

I consider myself an ‘establishment’ Democrat, if there is such a thing. I believe that one works inside the system to affect meaningful change rather than making a ruckus on the margins. I think activists wearing business casual are more effective than those in t-shirts and flip-flops, and that it looks silly to snap when you agree with something when clapping works just fine. Compounding my slight feeling of ‘otherness’ is the fact that my issue area expertise and passion is in international affairs, a policy domain hardly present on the Netroots agenda.

That being said, I still found much to agree with those populating a gathering like Netroots. I fall squarely in the demographic characterization of other young liberals in many ways—I’m assertively areligious, a feminist, and believe in equality for all. And while I don’t buy completely into Senator Elizabeth Warren’s brand of aggressive, fire-in-your-belly populism, I consider substantive reform of the financial sector and tax code a serious question for debate within the party.  

One thing I didn’t agree with, however, was the overly cool reception to keynote speaker Vice President Joe Biden.  

I was particularly incensed when, partway through the Vice President’s remarks, a group of protestors interrupted his speech with chants of “Stop deporting our families!” I work in the communications field, and I respect the scrappiness of an issue advocacy campaign willing to do anything to get publicity for what they care about. Nonetheless, for progressives to shout over the man who has consistently been one of their top advocates on the inside is a foolish gesture that speaks to that nagging immaturity in the Democratic Party’s activist base.

The Vice President was gracious in responding to the interruption (far more so, it should be noted, than many Republicans facing similar assaults). He declared that “We should clap for those young people” as they were coaxed from the auditorium by the event staff. That poise and genuine sense of empathy only makes him more respectable.

The speech itself was solid. To be honest, it did not have the rhetorical flourish or deliberate, rythmic cadence of the great Obama speeches. But the Vice President’s use of volume was simply masterful in drawing in his audience; he would at times shrink to a whisper, only to ramp up to shouting and banging on the podium when driving home a key point. He has a Bill Clinton-esque ability to make you feel like of all the people in an auditorium, he is having a conversation specifically with you.

The Vice President’s value-ad, however, has never been eloquence; his most frequent criticism on the mainstream left of course revolves around his ‘gaffes.’ The party needs him, however, because he is a vocal contrarian, a tireless advocate, and relentlessly blunt. Vice President Biden must serve a vocal factor in the 2016 Democratic Party nomination battle.

As political ideologies grow increasingly polarized, the value of a contrarian in the party to provide a dissenting viewpoint is clear. Foreign policy in D.C. circles is prone to a pervasive groupthink, but the Vice President is often the voice of discord from within the crowd. He questioned the sagacity of the surge in Iraq, as well as the daring incursion onto Pakistani territory that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden. Regardless of if you share these particular policy positions, it takes a special brand of courage and conviction to disagree with the dominant narrative and challenge policymakers within the bubble of Washington.

The Vice President has led the pack as often as he questioned it, however. In a move that ought to have endeared him to progressives, his honest expression of his own tolerance forced the White House’s—if not the president’s—hand on the issue of marriage equality. But his tenure of advocacy is a long one; Senator Biden fought for the START II Treaty, pushed for women membership on the Senate Judiciary Committee, argued for “lift and strike” in Bosnia, and served as a tireless advocate for infrastructure development in the United States.

Perhaps the most endearing quality to his devotees, however, is that the Vice President has guts. Tell me about a timid and listless campaign, and I’ll show you man who lampooned Paul Ryan with the folksy disregard of “malarkey.” Bemoan to me a (false) perception of American weakness abroad, and I’ll show you a man who called Milosevic a “damn war criminal” and told Putin he didn’t have a soul to their respective faces. And shake your head in shame at a modern Democratic Party that is too spineless too often, and I’ll show you the guy who went on TV and—inadvertently or not—called healthcare reform exactly what it was: a big f*cking deal.

This is why, if the Vice President chooses to run come primary season, he’ll have my vote. If not Senator Warren, the progressives will surely choose a candidate to take on Hillary Clinton’s perceived corporatism. Clinton, to maintain the air of inevitability and defend against the right flank, will no doubt distance herself from the previous administration. Vice President Biden will be desperately needed in the primary conversation both to remind disillusioned youth voters of all we saw accomplished in the Obama years and to act as the elder statesman who can moderate a slowly emerging factional divide within the party.

Thank you for all of your public service, Uncle Joe. Please don’t stop just yet.