Biden's First Year & The State of America with Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley

In this episode of FMC Fast Chat, America's foremost presidential historian, Douglas Brinkley, grades Biden's first year, offers up some advice for the cabinet, and tells us how he really feels about the 1619 Project from The New York Times. This podcast is made possible by Northwell Health, Henry Schein, Protivity, St. Joseph's College, the Bartol Law Firm, and Hofstra University.

FMC Fast Chat takes you inside the news so you can be in the know. In 30 Minutes, hosted by Fair Media Council CEO and Executive Director Jaci Clement. Fast Chat features notables in news, media, and business.

We're very fortunate to have joining us today an old friend and America's foremost presidential historian and bestselling author, Douglas Brinkley. We're going to chat about Biden's first year and the state of democracy. One of the things you may not know about Doug is he's also a Grammy Award winner, which may make him the most cool, uh, history professor, uh, out there. So Doug, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

If you were to give a grade to the Biden administration in its first year, what would that grade be and why?

I pretty much, I would give it a C. I say that because I think what Biden's done quite well is kind of calm somewhat the tone and temper of what was going on in America. I mean, he inherited January 6th insurrection. Things were coming unglued. Also, by inheriting the COVID crisis, there's no way any president was going to have a magic wand to, you know, suddenly make COVID disappear. And so I think he had a— it was tough from the get-go. I think, though, that the infrastructure bill that he got passed in a bipartisan way is great. But Donald Trump would have done a similar bill. And so then it gets to legislatively the failure of Build Back Better, the failure to get Senators Manchin and Sinema on board. Now, I can't blame Biden for them not getting on board, but I can blame Biden for airing it out in the public the way that it drug on and ate up an entire year. I would've thought that Biden's strength was that he had been in the Senate for so long. knew how to vote count and he needed to get a clear indication from them if they were going to be unbendable. Instead, there was always this feeling eventually I'll be able to wear them down. Well, he didn't, at least not as of yet. And then with the voting rights crisis going on, I think Biden's done well. He gave a powerful speech in Atlanta and gave a powerful speech on January 6th. But there is this fear of Republican gerrymandering. People making it harder to vote, not easier in America, that I don't know if Biden's been able to effectively combat. Certainly he has, you know, with words, but not yet with deeds. And then finally, you know, Afghanistan might look good in history. I mean, we— I might have to revise my C to a B because we had to get out of Afghanistan. But the way that we did, it seemed to be very helter-skelter, perhaps unnecessary loss of lives. It didn't play Well, now maybe again, 20 years from now, we'll say, God, he was brave. He did the tough thing we had to do, like Gerald Ford got us out of Vietnam. But if you're looking at how it, how it played out in his first year, it was mixed because it may have been the right policy but executed poorly.

Now, there was some press coverage when Biden finally called out Trump was the moment he actually became president. was the basis of those news articles. What do you think of that?

I agree with that. I think that, you know, look, Joe Biden wants to be like— everybody say, I like Eisenhower. It's like, I like Joe. He wants to be a uniter and a healer, a backslapper, a hugger, a Catholic who's mourning the loss of his son, and somebody who has great empathy. He is all of that, Joe Biden. But our times are mean. Our times are brutal. And if you truly believe that Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy, as Biden has intimated, then I don't think by playing a sort of calm, Zen-like middle road is going to get you results. I mean, you're going to have to— if it's true that Donald Trump's a bully, then Biden's going to have to outbully him, unnerve him. And so there was, unfortunately, I think the Biden basement campaign that worked when he got elected, and he continued that his first year, taking the high ground, which we all love. Who doesn't want to be doing high ground things?

Right.

But instead, he probably needed to be more of a pugilist at Trump. And we started seeing that happening early in 2022. It did not happen much in 2021.

Well, one of the things Biden's been criticized about is being perceived as a slow responder, especially in regard to the pandemic. But has part of that slow response been purposeful and in contrast to what came before him?

Yes. And look, I, I, and I'm going to be about as fair as I can be here. When you get something like a pandemic, it's hard. It was hard on Trump and it's hard on Biden. The good news is that we developed vaccines. It's a triumph of American medical ingenuity that we were able to do it. The downside is a lot of mixed messaging going on and rank confusion. And I don't blame Joe Biden for that, but nevertheless, there were moments when confusion reigned. There, you know, it seemed to be that we were caught off guard about a second wave. of the, you know, the Delta variant and onward, you know, and we shouldn't have been, because if you study history, these pandemics usually have a 2-year lifespan. If we look back at the Spanish influenza, it did. So maybe we were all being a little too hopeful. I remember when President Biden said it'll be normal on the 4th of July, and, you know, Yeah. and then started telling us how many people would be vaccinated, and the numbers didn't materialize. And That starts— you don't want to, I feel, as president, get yourself painted in a corner or in a box by dating things that then don't happen because you're giving your opposition ammunition. But again, an average grade for a first year is not bad. I mean, Bill Clinton in 1992 probably had a C or less. He spent the year trying to do affordable healthcare and it blew up in his face. And he had to combat in the midterms the Newt Gingrich, you know, Contract with America revolution. Yet Bill Clinton is now viewed in history as a successful 2-term president. I think Joe Biden's got a lot of life left in him. I feel very much that he will do better, but he's had to kind of get off the mountaintop of being a healer.

Right.

And start recognizing that this is trench warfare, because Donald Trump didn't fade gently into the night, but he really has a whole different view of what democracy is. So if Biden's going to believe his rhetoric that it's a battle for the soul of America, he was focusing on the word soul. And it might be now he has to realize that there has to be a battle, a true battle for that soul. that Republicans didn't shrink away after January 6th like many pundits believed they would, um, that there would have been a return to a more center Republican Party instead of an entrenchment further to the right.

Okay, so if he arrived as president this year, the commander-in-chief is still kind of trailing behind. Has he hit the Oval Office yet?

A lot depends on how Biden can deal with the Ukraine crisis in foreign affairs right now. Certainly Biden does a marvelous job of letting our armed forces, our troops know how loved they are. I think he's been a very appropriate grief counselor through some of the cataclysms that we've faced. I'm always impressed that there's nobody, no Democrat in Congress that actively dislikes him. Even when they oppose him, they try to say nice things about him. So I think he's done, he's built quite a coalition for the Democrats. And it still has credibility within his party ranks. But you have to pay attention to slipping poll numbers and not just say they don't matter. Ronald Reagan used to say, if I'm not over 50%, I'm not selling properly to the American public, meaning Reagan would be self-critical. I'm failing as a salesperson. So Biden's at 36 or 40% of the vote. He's got to— in polls of approval, he's got to say, how can I get up to 50? What is it that I can do? to move that meter and take some responsibility for that, not just denounce the, um, you know, the Hydra-headed, you know, MAGA Americans, that he's going to have to try to find policies that wake people up and move. Alas, that's hard to do when you have inflation and COVID.

Okay. Okay. Now you brought up international affairs and the Ukraine. One of the headlines today, and this comes from The Guardian, is why is Biden one of the most unpopular US presidents? Do you find that true on the international front?

Yeah, I, um, I think again Biden's hurt by high expectations. I think after Trump was defeated, the thought that Joe Biden would come in and there'd be harmony in NATO and that there'd be a new reset, you know, with, um, with Russia and with China, um, and none of this has of course materialized. I don't find it particularly Joe Biden's fault, although, you know, he's not a charismatic leader when he travels abroad. It's not John F. Kennedy in Berlin or Ronald Reagan in, in Geneva or something. It's, uh, you know, that's not Biden's style. He doesn't give sweeping oratory. He comes off more as somebody that's a statesperson in a low-grade way. I don't mean that as an insult. It's just that He's not flamboyant. But yeah, so I— and then look, with inflation, with COVID the fact that the menace of Trump has continued to grow from a foreign perspective, he's not getting high marks anywhere you look. Yet, I don't think he has negatives. That's what I guess I'm trying to say. That C grade could easily turn into a B because people still think he's a decent man. and like Biden. Nobody thinks he's a nefarious character. And this can be and is a strength, but it has to be, um, latched to more intense rhetoric and oratory, which we're starting to see rolled out for this last few weeks, and a major policy initiative of global implications. I mean, if we're going to go after climate change as an issue, Biden's going to have to find a way to really lead on that in a very very strong way, but, but you can't get it done, fold it into the Build Back Better plan. So every time he makes a big step forward, it's followed by a step backwards. And he needs somewhere to make a giant leap and capture the imagination of the world on a few issues, perhaps something as simple as wildlife protection, that who doesn't want to see the world's species survive, but something that puts a more charismatic face on his administration.

Do you feel some of these weaknesses stem from weaknesses within the cabinet?

I do feel that Biden, it's a competent administration, but it's not media savvy.

Right.

It seems to be the messaging out of the White House and the cabinet isn't there, except for Pete Buttigieg. You know, they just haven't caught people's imagination. I would think that this would be a moment for a Secretary of State of great stature, because Biden, due to his, you know, problems that he's had with his speech impediment, the age factor, the fact that he seems tired, he could, I think, be better served by having a Secretary of State, Defense, CIA that might be a little more vigorous in global presentation than we've thus far had in the first year. I'm not suggesting a massive shakeup like Jimmy Carter did, where you get mass resignations and appoint new people, but I do think they need to amp up their messaging considerably.

Okay. All right. Fair enough. So let's broaden the topic a little bit. Let's talk about the state of democracy right now. How do you feel about where we are right now in terms of the country? But I'm also kind of wondering, since you teach at Rice University, how are your students feeling about the future?

Well, thank you for asking about students. I think college students are nervous, like we all are, about the future of democracy. I have studied so much American history that I continue to stay optimistic. I see a lot of things working well in America, including our universities and research centers. A lot of local politics is working well. I have serious concerns about the future of democracy, particularly the role social media is playing in this broken media world where entertainment and exaggeration become news and real stories get buried. And, you know, you know all of that also well. So that— our broken media culture concerns me and our politics in Washington. I mean, we have a Congress that I don't know what the figure is today, but they have a lower approval rating than Biden by far, meaning everybody's tired of government. And this becomes a problem because we, we have to lead with government. Um, so my concerns for our democracy are great, but I also know, um, that we've gone through a lot. I mean, when you really study the War of 1812 or the Civil War or McCarthyism or, or the, uh, 58,000 Americans killed in Vietnam, and I kind of am impressed that we've kept our— kept moving forward through this COVID world that are, you know, that businesses are running, roads are running. Yes, it's inflation, but we've had inflation before. And I have to believe that we're going to be able to— things are going to get better. I don't think you can teach like I do young people. My job's not to preach despair. I have to believe we need to be a little bit like Barack Obama, you know, yes, we can, we can do it. We can tackle these problems of like climate change or voter registration, inflation. But alas, we're all weary. We're tired. We're anxiety-ridden. And COVID is taking a larger toll on people because working people that have kids that are going to school, and then school's canceled and COVID sweeps through. And I feel very, very badly for the generation. I have 3 kids in high school right now, and I feel they're not getting their full wallop out of high school, um, and all that it means as a, a rite of passage in American life because of the, the sense of constant fear— fear of touching, fear of being, fear of breathing. Uh, and it's taking a psychological toll on our country. And so the sooner we can get out of this COVID spiral, out of it— I would— I'm hoping by the summer, uh, and in a year or two, we can get back to some kind of, um, normal circumstances, uh, hope that we can, uh, whip inflation. Remember Gerald Ford used to have those Whip Inflation Now pins? Yeah, it takes a long time to get rid of inflation, I'm afraid though, but eventually better days will be here. And that's all we can do is stay active democratic citizens, believe in our country, and, um, move forward with a sense of honor and rectitude.

Now you mentioned the broken media system. which you know well. It's so polarizing today. Part of that is the algorithms, which says, you know, if I believe everything is a conspiracy, the algorithm will continue feeding me more conspiracy theories, therefore reinforcing what I already think, even if it's faulty. I'm wondering, because there is such a great divide now, does what we see in media happening right now kind of clue us in that There's an end to the two-party system coming?

Boy, what an interesting question. Um, I'm afraid— I would love to see a vibrant third-party movement. Um, I think it would be healthy. But we've created a system where to be a third-party leader, you have to be a billionaire. Um, and this is a problem, the money in politics. So I'm not looking and believing that this mad third-party you know, person's going to emerge. I think we're gonna be back to Republican and Democrats. Now, there's always a spoiler. I mean, Ross Perot ran a third party in 1992 and got 19% of the vote. Ralph Nader, some people feel, and by being on the ballot in the Green Party in Florida, tipped that election to George W. Bush. It's debatable whether that's true. I don't think it is. But the point is there can be a mischievous third-party movement that turns the tide. Imagine if a real conservative voice, let's say a Jeff Flake figure, you know, decided to run a third party. Would that drain off Trump votes or would it drain off votes from Biden? Probably Biden at this point. And by me saying that tells you just how strong Donald Trump's forces are. What creates massive disharmony and despair is our Electoral College system. But it is here to stay. But for, for, you know, a party to win so many millions more votes, but to have the person that with less votes be president, still kind of warps the mind some. And Donald Trump, the Republicans are very focused on the Electoral College because that's the game.

Okay.

And again, we're back to who's going to win Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan. Arizona. You know, there's a handful of states that are going to determine this again. I— so I would say if I were the Biden administration, I'd be looking at what can you do in the Great Lakes states? How can we, we, um, how can we help Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, who has gone through the so-called Rust Belt era? How do we help them modernize in the 21st century with, um, Better internet systems, more turning more technology into the Midwest from the coast. Because the South is where people are moving due to the good weather. So in addition to a 2-party story, we have the urban versus rural divide.

Mm-hmm.

And then we have the blue state, red state, and the red states are in the South. And I'm talking to you from Austin, and I will tell you, morale is higher in the South. People are a little more in the kind of football culture, packed stadium, cheering through COVID. And then I go to New York and San Francisco, and I'm feeling Democratic strongholds, and people seem terrified about, um, you know, having to deal with the pandemic.

Mm-hmm.

So there's a psychological divide going on here. And I think Team Biden, the Democrats, need to get really quickly very more optimistic and not constantly saying what's wrong with America, but talk about what's right. The presidents that have been successful that I've studied, whether it's Theodore Roosevelt or Franklin Roosevelt or John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, they trade in optimism. You've got to lead by optimism, making people think that things are going to get better, not by, woe is me, what a— we're really a rotten country and look how many things are broken.

Now, we did just come through a period of active protesting. The kind of protests we haven't seen for a long time. I'm wondering though, does history teach us what happens after those protests?

Well, often protests then get co-opted by large culture. By that, I mean, you know, rock and roll was once revolutionary, and then it gets embraced by capitalism and becomes, you know, the mainstream. Black Lives Matter, which started off on the streets, very grassroots, suddenly now it's being slogan all over. If you watch an NBA game, Uh, I saw the, the Rams football game yesterday, uh, and it said something, a banner, uh, we are against racism. Uh, well, that's bannering.

Yeah.

What's a banner? I mean, it, we gotta get at the fundamental causes of racism, which is still the biggest plague in America. Uh, I feel, um, uh, it's just entrenched, uh, to, and yet we always make advances. Barack Obama was fond of saying, you know, that arc of justice and Dr. King bending, but it bend, it bends slowly, but in the right direction. I, I, Look how we've decriminalized marijuana in recent years, or something like gay marriage, or things that seemed impossible in the '60s and '70s from a progressive point of view are now part of our modern lives. So things do change. And I think these protest movements have been great because it's allowed people to feel that their voices matter. And my gosh, what a sick country we would've been after the George Floyd murder If there wasn't a widespread national protest about police violence and intimidation, we— that would have been a sign of something wrong with America. On the other hand, we have to recognize that most police officers do a great job, and we have to thank them and be proud of them. We can do both. And I'm afraid what social media is doing is making us choose either/or all the time. That I can't talk to somebody like yourself. Like, most people want me to either give Biden an F or an A.

Right.

Are you with Biden or are you against Biden? And you might get away with a D or a B, but the truth is, I would love to say Joe Biden's— I'd like any president to give them an A grade. Who wouldn't?

Right. Yeah.

I mean, America's winning, but it's been a tough year for Biden due to a number of factors. And the fact that he's doing all right, he's hanging in there, Um, it gives them an opportunity to have a better year this year.

But putting it into perspective the way you just explained it, it sounds like having faith in the American people is where we're at right now, more so than in the government. Would you say that's correct?

Absolutely.

All right.

And I have high expectations of the American people because, like you, we meet them every day. Amazing people everywhere doing incredible things. I just don't mean doctors and nurses, uh, but people that work in national parks and state parks, people that are Or biologists, professors, um, you know, um, people laying down asphalt roads or flying our airplanes. And, but the, the jerks make the news. And that's the problem that really, if you go door to door, there are just so many fantastic people, so much kindness in this country. We're still a land of great generosity. And we have a kind of a spiritual vibration to us still, but it's being— getting diminished by all the hate rhetoric we're being fed on the internet. Um, and you know, if I go on and do a TV show, let's say I do a CNN show or CBS, Yeah. I mean, the people, whatever you say, you'll see these people, they're spending their time just throwing hate messages at whoever speaks. And that's sad, but that's very few people. Most people are consuming different points of views and are are, um, are mature and, and, and juggling it and thinking about it, you know. Um, but we're, we're, and we're in our, you know, our teachers are doing a marvelous job through COVID. It is hard to, to be a teacher in this era. So yes, there's going to be a teacher here or there that goes off the grid or does something odd, uh, or a school board one. But we're, we, you know, the great writer Thomas Wolfe said there are a billion forms of America. We have so many schools, police, most of it's working pretty well. The fact that you and I are able to communicate like this by Zoom and electricity and, you know, our washing machines and our, you know, our local city council protections and the fact that you can just, you know, flush a toilet and it goes somewhere. I mean, our infrastructure's quite strong in America, but it's gotten weak at different places and we need to fix it. And we have to fix it with the can-do attitude, not just complaining about what's broken.

Okay, well, that's a great way to sum that up. I want to get to a couple questions from the audience, so I'm going to segue to, um, you know, when Biden took office, there was quite a bit of news coverage about how he and his vice president would be working together. Now the question is, why has Vice President Harris been underutilized?

That's a wonderful question. And I agree with that person. I think she has been underutilized. The Kamala Harris I know is, is really very warm, funny, brilliant. I think that it's hard because she doesn't want to step the bounds of the president. And it's a tricky role to be VP. But I think in 2022, Kamala Harris could be a very effective campaign surrogate for different people running for reelection because, you know, she, she can deliver. And I find her to be a very special politician who's been deeply maligned. Are there reasons for that? It might have to do with gender, might have to do with race, or it might have to do with her own lack of wanting to take leadership initiatives. I would recommend to Vice President Harris Do grab an issue and own something that you become identified with. Not the whole package of a Build Back Better, but something that she gets closely identified with. And if that can become a success, it'll be her success that she led Biden. Remember, Joe Biden was really Barack Obama's surrogate for Capitol Hill.

Oh.

And he would constantly negotiate, you know, with senators. I think Kamala Harris can be a great spokesperson for voting rights all over the country and go on a nonstop tour and be everywhere and try to galvanize people to recognize that, that we've got to protect the right to vote and register more and more people.

Another question from the audience is your view of the New York Times 1619 Project. Is it historically accurate?

There's, there is no such thing as really historically accurate history, believe it or not. Uh, everybody, everything has a kind of bias and it's because what people leave out, not only what's in. So you can write an article for the New Yorker and have it fact-checked and be true, but it may not be of a larger truth.

Mm-hmm.

I think it's a, it was an interesting exercise. I think it was, I, I, I love the idea that the date gets known now and people, uh, it's created, I think, a way to, stop acting like 1776 was magic. And, you know, I mean, you know, just because the United States got founded, we were still, um, you know, Andrew Jackson would later have a kind of genocide of indigenous people, and slavery continued for decades, and women were denied the vote. And when they got the vote in 1920, there was still disenfranchisement of women of color. So it's a little like the Howard Zinn approach to history, uh, uh, his people's history, where you're finding what's been wrong in American history and putting a bright, uh, uh, a spotlight on it. So I applaud the, the, the New York Times for doing that, but it isn't the end-all. It isn't just one, this is it, this is the real history. And we, we, because we also have to be very aware of a disease called presentism, where we're looking at the whole past world history from our little perspective of today. And the world just wasn't that way anywhere at a given amount of time. So you're having— if I'm judging a president, I have to judge on the issue of race. I mean, what do we do with Washington and Jefferson, for example, as slave owners? Do we rename Washington, D.C.? Uh, or are we trying to use that era to understand them in different ways? But I, I'm— so I'm pro the New York Times project, but I'm not into taking down Jefferson's statue in New York City or renaming, um, schools. I think Confederate figures are a different story. I think that they've committed treason against the United States, that there is no reason to be, uh, having anything up short of being run, run in a historical education way by the National Park Service or something about the Civil War. But just to put these Jim Crow era Uh, statues of Robert E. Lee and, and Jefferson Davis and others up. I, I'm fine with those coming down, but I get, uh, I don't like the idea of taking down presidential statues, uh, all over the country from the public square because that particular person, um, was deeply flawed on various aspects of their careers.

Okay. And on that note, we're already out of time.

Can I say one more thing with that?

Yes, you can, but it always goes far too fast with you, Doug. I—

all I would say is that I like the way Barack Obama did it. Add things. Let's add— he added Cesar Chavez's burial site to the National Park Service, added Stonewall for LGBTQ, added, uh, Harriet Tubman sites. Let's, let's add things instead of working to just, uh, take down The Fair Media Council is a 501 nonprofit organization advocating for quality news and working to create a media-savvy society. For more information about the Fair Media Council and upcoming Fast Chat shows, check out fairmediacouncil.org.