Katrina vanden Heuvel joins Paul Jay to discuss Biden's attempts at bipartisanship and the need for progressives, inside the Democratic Party and in the movement outside, to mount massive pressure for real reform.

Hi, I'm Paul Jay. Welcome to theAnalysis.news podcast. Please don't forget there's a donate button at the top of the webpage.

I watched the reaction to President Biden's inaugural speech on Fox, assuming I'd hear nothing but fawning and cheerleading for Biden on CNN and MSNBC, somewhat to my surprise when I heard on Fox was mostly fawning and cheerleading for Biden. Most of the Fox commentators praised Biden's calls for unity. And I wondered why they were being so positive about him. And then it hit me. Calls for unity and calls for bipartisanship in Congress, which means handing back power back to the Republicans at a time they are weak and in disarray.

The last time there was a moment like this was in year one of the Obama administration when the Bush administration was discredited by the disastrous Iraq war and an economic meltdown. Instead of charging Bush and Cheney with war crimes and vigorously attacking the Republican Party while they were on the ground. Obama said he only wanted to look forward and went back to business as usual, negotiating with the GOP even while the Democrats held the balance of power in both houses. Bipartisanship is a way to put a brake on demands for progressive reform.

Biden's call for unity, which appeals to a genuine desire to end the crazy antagonisms amongst the people, is really meant to say he will negotiate in Congress with the same forces who defended Trump and brought you the events of January 6th. Yes, Americans need unity, but not in the abstract. They want unity of the people to solve the crisis of the pandemic, of unemployment, of climate change, of systemic racism, of a general feeling of despair about the future.

Yes, unity for that, but not unity with the forces that ignored the pandemic, that refused to support unemployed families, that deny the climate crisis. If Biden is serious about modeling his administration after FDR and he hung a large painting of FDR in the Oval Office right across from his desk, he should prepare to rule like the autocratic FDR was accused of being. FDR faced an attempted coup. He threatened to pack the Supreme Court. He forced his policies down the throats of Republicans and bankers who got in his way. Yes, he did all this to save capitalism. And no doubt there is a dark side to FDR' rule, which we can talk about another time. But when it came to pushing his policies forward, he called for unity of the people in support of the reforms and focused on creating the New Deal.

Now that the Democrats control the Senate by a thread, the issue is will they change the rules of the Senate to allow their slim majority to pass the dramatic legislation that's needed? Or do the corporate Democrats actually like the break on the progressive reforms that Republicans provide? Now joining us to discuss all this and more is Katrina vanden Heuvel. She is the editorial director and publisher of The Nation and a frequent commentator on U.S. and international politics on ABC and NBC and CNN and PBS.

Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe. And she writes a weekly column for The Washington Post. She's also the author of several books, including Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama. Thanks very much for joining me.

Katrina vanden Heuvel

Paul, it's great to be with you. I mean, you set it up as well as anyone can set it up. I mean, we're looking at a time of extraordinary crisis on several fronts.