Distinguished pol of the week: What a difference a new president makes - The Washington Post

Since he took office, President Biden has been the opposite of his predecessor. He has under-promised and over-performed, nominated diverse judges, reassumed U.S. leadership in the world, stayed out of phony cultural fights and supported inclusion and racial justice. This week, he managed to check most of those boxes.

The Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson, a highly regarded woman of color, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Biden also announced five more nominations including Myrna Pérez for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, Jia M. Cobb for the D.C. District Court, Florence Y. Pan for the D.C. District Court and Sarah Merriam for the Connecticut District Court. The Post reported, “Fifteen of his 19 nominees so far are women, including 11 women from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. … In his first four months, Biden nominated as many minority women to the federal bench as [President Donald] Trump had confirmed in his entire four years.” Four of Biden’s nominees have been non-White men.

On his overseas trip, Biden proved to be the antithesis of the promoter of “America First.” He reveled in support of allies, pointed them in the direction of a tougher stance on China, nailed down an international commitment to a minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent, pledged that democracies would distribute half a billion doses of coronavirus vaccine and touted the benefits of democracy. Despite low expectations for his meeting with Vladimir Putin, Biden warned the Russian president about the consequences of allowing opposition leader Alexei Navalny to die in captivity and engaging in cyberstrikes against our essential infrastructure. He insisted on bringing up human rights and directly repudiated Putin’s nonsensical comparison between his oppression of political opponents and the Jan. 6 attack. It was a performance that Americans could view with pride.

Finally, Biden presided over a signing ceremony on Thursday to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. That might seem like small potatoes considering the GOP assault on voting rights, but consider the importance of public education about our troubled past on race at a time when Republicans are trying to blot it out.

Biden told his audience at the signing ceremony: “You know, I said a few weeks ago, marking the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, great nations don’t ignore their most painful moments. … They don’t ignore those moments of the past. They embrace them. Great nations don’t walk away. We come to terms with the mistakes we made. And in remembering those moments, we begin to heal and grow stronger.” That’s more powerful than the zillion of the GOP’s inane and uniformed attacks of critical race theory.

Biden clearly understands that culture is upstream from politics. Using the bully pulpit, he aims to educate and inspire discussion (maybe even artistic expression) about racial justice. He declared that “we must understand that Juneteenth represents not only the commemoration of the end of slavery in America more than 150 years ago, but the ongoing work to have to bring true equity and racial justice into American society, which we can do.” In other words, he said that “this day doesn’t just celebrate the past; it calls for action today.”

The commemorations it inspires, the lesson plans it promotes and the films and books that may tie their release to the holiday can remind us of our common history and ongoing struggle to make this a more perfect nation. In an age in which the right wants to erase history, eradicate facts and promote moral and political nihilism, this is vitally important.

For helping to diversify the federal bench, conducting himself honorably on the world stage and using his bully pulpit to continue his effort to educate Americans about race, we can say, “Well done, Mr. President.”

Read more:

Adblock test (Why?)

"Opinion" - Google News
June 20, 2021 at 06:45PM
https://ift.tt/3xBXQe4

Distinguished pol of the week: What a difference a new president makes - The Washington Post
"Opinion" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2FkSo6m
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update