10 thoughts on “Biden Executive Orders: Read For Yourself

  1. Obviously I’m pleased to see the focus on minority rights, and in particular LGBTQ rights, as those directly affect me.

    I’ve very please to see the response to covid, including the federal mask mandate. Although that doesn’t really affect me, as I have little direct interaction with the federal bureaucracy, I do think “leading by example” will have a positive effect. After a year with a president who refused to wear a mask, it will be very nice to have leaders who insist on wearing one. Plus it’s reassuring to know our president takes covid seriously and believes that testing is good, even if it “makes the numbers go up.”

    (Opinion: Trump is literally that stupid. He honestly believed that testing was bad because it made the numbers go up. He said so multiple times. It wasn’t 4-d chess. He’s just a moron who thinks that your car engine will run forever provided you never check the oil.)

    Anyway, on the latter point, it’s nice to have leadership who shows the basic level of intelligence and moral calibration that I’d expect from a functional adult.Report

  2. It was only slightly a year ago that people were worried that Biden would be a sop to the right and not be effective. Biden is moving at great and efficient speed to undue the worst aspects of the Trump years. I think he was always more liberal than a lot of people gave him credit for. He is also pretty firm in the Democratic middle and if that middle moves left, so does he.

    All in all, the Democratic Party seems to treat this as an opportunity for another New Deal and Great Society. This is good.Report

  3. The term “equity” is often used as a contrast to “equality”. Equality is taken to indicate equality of opportunity, with equity referring to equality of outcome. As Harris famously said in a campaign ad, “equitable treatment means that we all end up in the same place”.

    The EO on racial equality explicitly defines equity as “the consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals…”. Now, it does so for the purposes of the order; the meaning doesn’t extend beyond the document, except insofar as actions are taken in accord with the document. But this seems to me to constitute a big change in rhetoric. I don’t see anything in that definition of equity that a conservative would argue against.

    Opinions? Reactions?Report

    1. It’s gibberish for people who like to hear gibberish. Any actual attempt to enforce outcomes on the basis of immutable characteristics will spend years in litigation.Report

      1. Agreed. It’s red meat for the identarians- wily in a way. The ones who care passionately about it will be thrilled that the word was thrown out whereas in actual definitions it basically is unobjectionable.Report

    2. I don’t see anything in that definition of equity that a conservative would argue against.

      I noticed that too. Lots and LOTS about the importance of equality of treatment… but it seems to be defining that treatment as “per individual” rather than “per group”.

      Fundamentally this seems pretty sane and competent so far. I think the results will seriously disappoint those who think racism is at the core of everything but I guess we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.Report

      1. That is the point- use the language, signal the virtue and move on with much more defensible, practical concrete policies while the lefties bask in joy at seeing their chosen language employed (and right wingers gibber and froth for the same reason). It’s clever politics.Report

          1. I don’t know that Bidens’ admin is really out to have fun at this moment but something like this- using cheap political talk instead of expensive political action to placate a noisy constituency with a lot of media connections but no serious voter support- probably gives them a certain feeling of gratification similar to a dressage jockey clearing a hedge or a craftsman turning a gnarled branch into a pretty and useful chair leg. At least I hope it does.Report

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