"No Honeymoon." A Grassroots Group Looks to Hold Biden Accountable

Following a successful campaign to defeat President Donald Trump during the general election, progressive advocacy group RootsAction is now turning its attention to holding President-elect Joe Biden accountable. That’s why on Wednesday, December 16, RootsAction unveiled a new campaign called No Honeymoon.

Biden, a lifelong centrist, made some progressive overtures during his campaign, calling for a $15 federal minimum wage and aggressive policies to combat climate change. RootsAction not only wants to ensure that Biden doesn’t walk back these promises, but to push for even more progressive policies.

“We have no intention of going silent about progressive principles just because the president will be a Democrat,” said RootsAction National Director and co-founder Norman Solomon.

RootsAction endorsed Bernie Sanders during the 2020 primaries. After Sanders suspended his campaign, RootsAction threw its organizing efforts behind Biden (although it didn't endorse him)—not out of enthusiasm for a potential Biden presidency, but because its founders acknowledged Democrats had to prioritize defeating Trump. With Trump losing the election, RootsAction is fulfilling the second part of its promise: “Vote Trump Out—Then Hold Biden Accountable.” (See our previous coverage of RootsAction.)

“One reason our Vote Trump Out campaign was so successful and persuasive with progressive voters, especially those not friendly toward Biden, was our pledge to continue the battle by challenging Team Biden to support policies that put the multiracial working-class ahead of corporate greed and profiteering,” said RootsAction co-founder Jeff Cohen. “No Honeymoon is how we’re honoring that pledge.”

No Honeymoon will focus on six key progressive agenda issues: cancelling student debt, ending the wars, a Green New Deal, universal healthcare, racial justice and the fight for a $15 minimum wage.

Even before launching No Honeymoon, RootsAction was already claiming success in pressuring Biden. It recently partnered with several other progressive groups to stop Michèle Flournoy’s nomination as secretary of defense. Biden ultimately nominated retired Gen. Lloyd Austin for the position.

Cohen says their campaign against Flournoy was a “warm-up” for its No Honeymoon campaign. 

No Honeymoon will employ similar strategies to the VoteTrumpOut and anti-Flournoy campaigns. In addition to creating a toolkit with sample tweets and graphics, RootsAction will also be teaming up with other groups to publicly pressure Biden and his administration. 

Additionally, No Honeymoon will focus its organizing efforts on pressuring members of Congress to act. “We’ll start targeting U.S. senators on relevant committees from within each senate to block—or, at least, seriously interrogate—certain Biden appointees,” said Cohen. “That’s where a big national email list comes in handy—when local activists need to communicate with their state’s senator.” RootsAction currently has about 1.2 million online supporters.

The McConnell problem

One of the major obstacles for Democrats lies in the uncertainty over who will control the Senate. If Democrats don’t pull off dual wins in the Georgia runoffs, Republicans will retain control of the Senate, and as he did during the later years of the Obama administration, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will be able to block Democrats’ legislative efforts.

Republicans have already signaled their intent to block some of Biden’s cabinet appointments. 

RootsAction, however, has proposed a way around some of McConnell’s potential stonewalling. President Trump set a precedent by declaring national emergencies to enact his agenda. Biden, Cohen argues, should do the same. While Trump fabricated national emergencies, Biden is faced with a legitimate crisis in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent impact on the economy.

“That calls for legitimate executive orders,” said Cohen. 

“Biden can use executive orders to cancel federal student debt, an economic stimulus that McConnell couldn’t block; to mandate $15 minimum wage for all workers on federal contracts; to impose a national moratorium on utility shutoffs; to call on the EPA to protect Black and Brown communities wracked by pollution (”sacrifice zones”) under the Clean Air Act,” Cohen added. 

“A return to 2016 will lead to a return to Trump or Trumpism.”

Tensions between the Democratic party’s progressive and moderate factions is not a new phenomenon. But with Trumpism far from defeated, progressives warn that if Democrats don’t pass policies to help middle and working-class Americans, right-wing populism will gain more ground. 

Cohen argued that simply returning to Obama-era policies will spell disaster for Democrats. “2016 led to Trump,” Cohen said. “A return to 2016 will lead to a return to Trump or Trumpism.”

“To avert a big Republican win in two years, Team Biden has to deliver for poor, working-class and middle-class people,” said Cohen. 

“If he doesn’t deliver, Biden plays into the hands of the GOP faux-populists, setting us all up for defeat in 2022,” he added.

In an op-ed published in CommonDreams, Solomon argued that people on the left did not challenge Bill Clinton after he won his first term in 1992 nor did they challenge Obama after 2008. In both cases, Republicans took control over of Congress in the subsequent midterm elections.

"Now, we're being told that people on the left should pipe down and do little to challenge Joe Biden," Solomon wrote. "But silence or merely faint dissent would enable the third Democratic president in four decades to again sacrifice progressive possibilities on the altar of corporate power."

"The idea that corporate centrism is the best way for Democrats to defeat Republicans is belied by actual history," Solomon added.

Demanding a seat at the table

Progressive grassroots organizers played a significant role in helping Biden win the presidency, mobilizing voters in key states like Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Now, progressives want a seat at the table.

Senator Sanders recently told Axios, “The progressive movement is 35-40% of the Democratic coalition. Without a lot of other enormously hard work on the part of grassroots activists and progressives, Joe would not have won the election.” 

“The progressive movement deserves a number of seats—important seats—in the Biden administration. Have I seen that at this point? I have not,” added Sanders.

After making concessions to help defeat Trump, progressives are no longer biting their tongues nor will they embrace a honeymoon period for Biden. “The energized progressive base around the country is paying attention and cannot be mollified by smiles and symbolic gestures,” said Solomon. “We have a progressive agenda and we’re going to fight like hell for it, without delay.”