Like Trump, Biden Is Transactional. That’s Not a Bad Thing.
The president-elect came of political age in an era that valued pragmatism over principle.
Who’s ready to make a deal?
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesJoe Biden ran as the antithesis of Donald Trump: an experienced, dignified and empathetic leader who could bridge America’s political, racial and class divides. The success of the Biden administration, however, may depend on something he has in common with Trump: a transactional approach to politics.
Biden is no one’s idea of a demagogue. But even admiring chroniclers of his career acknowledge that his entry into politics was, like Trump’s, driven more by ambition than by principle. As Even Osnos, author of “Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now,” explains, Biden entered the Senate when the polarization of U.S. politics was at a low point. The most powerful senators weren’t those who could galvanize the base with high-minded rhetoric or, alternatively, venal demagoguery.