By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

Every time a new president is elected the winning candidate always states they have a mandate from the American people to pursue the agenda that they were elected on; Joe Biden is no different.

The unfortunate problem for Joe Biden and the Democratic Party is that his election was less on the American people agreeing with his policies, and more wanting someone different then the persona of Donald Trump.

Democrats were salivating at the prospect of flipping the Senate and expanding their Democratic majority in the House.  Then reality set it in, Democrats lost House seats, and now cling to a slim majority, and the fate of the Senate is left to two races in Georgia in January.

At best the Democrats will only have a very slim majority in the House, at worst Republicans will retain their Senate majority.  The best the Democrats can hope for is a split decision where the Senate is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris having the tie breaking vote.

Biden, may subconsciously hope for a Republican sweep, therefore he can use Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell as a foil, and then he can tell his progressive base that he has to moderate his positions because of the Senate is controlled by Republicans.

If Democrats sweep the Senate races in Georgia, this would be the worst case scenario for Biden, then have to deal with an energized and active progressive base who want nothing more than to enact their socialist agenda.

After the election progressives want Biden to pursue a solid progressive agenda, as this is what they believe got him elected.

Many conservative pundits believe Biden perpetrated a Faustian bargain, where Biden abandoned his moderate policy credentials and signed an agreement not to criticize progressive policies and those openly rioting in American cities.  The Faustian bargain would allow the progressive/socialist soldiers of the Democratic Party base to support Biden with the full knowledge of getting their polices enacted once he gets elected.

Progressives realize they would not be able to get elected during a normal presidential election as the American people have repudiated their socialist policies.  Instead perpetrated a back door of sort, by having one of their own as vice president in Kamala Harris, then utilize the 25th amendment by having Biden step down for health reasons.

Right now progressive Democrats are demanding major changes from Biden that he must embrace the progressive/socialist policies as payback for their support in him elected.

Democratic/socialist Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren recently stated that President-elect Joe Biden should bypass Congress. Warren is advocating that “Biden-Harris can cancel billions of dollars in student loan debt, giving tens of millions of Americans an immediate financial boost and helping to close the racial wealth gap,” the Massachusetts senator tweeted, referring to both the incoming chief executive and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. “This is the single most effective executive action available for a massive economic stimulus.”

Progressives are now clamoring for Biden to name Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders to key cabinet level positions.

The New York Times reported that some liberal activist groups have warned Mr. Biden about backsliding on his commitment to progressive policies since he was declared the winner of the election on Saturday. And with control of the Senate still unclear, progressives have shifted their focus to figuring out how they can persuade Mr. Biden to enact progressive policies through the executive branch, using executive orders and by appointing leaders to positions that act, in effect, as gatekeepers for policy.

“President-elect Biden must embrace this historic moment by keeping the party united and appointing progressive leaders who will help him usher in the most progressive Democratic administration in generations,” Alexandra Rojas, the executive director of Justice Democrats, said in a statement.

Beyond Sanders and Warren for key cabinet positions, other progressive list of potential appointments would be;

  • Representative Barbara Lee of California for secretary of state
  • Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota, for attorney general
  • Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, one of the four congresswomen known as the Squad, for secretary of housing and urban development
  • Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, a co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, for secretary of health and human services
  • Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico for secretary of the interior
  • Representative Chuy García of Illinois for secretary of transportation
  • Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine for secretary of agriculture
  • The economist Joseph E. Stiglitz for director of the National Economic Council
  • Darrick Hamilton, an economist and the executive director of the Kirwan Institute at Ohio State University, for chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
  • Mustafa Ali, vice president of environmental justice, climate and community revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation, for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

This is only a small sampling of what progressives want.

If this isn’t bad enough for Biden he is also facing demands by “Black Lives Matter,” whose leadership penned an article to the president-elect wanting demands for helping him get elected.

While giving his victory speech, Biden stated that “Especially those moments — and especially those moments when this campaign was at its lowest ebb, the African American community stood up again for me.”

Biden continued, “You always had my back and I’ll have yours. I said at the outset, I wanted to represent — this campaign to represent and look like America. We’ve done that. Now that’s what I want the administration to look like and act like.”

The six platform demands are:

  1. End the war on black people.
  2. Reparations for past and continuing harms.
  3. Divestment from the institutions that criminalize, cage and harm black people; and investment in the education, health and safety of black people.
  4. Economic justice for all and a reconstruction of the economy to ensure our communities have collective ownership, not merely access.
  5. Community control of the laws, institutions and policies that most impact us.
  6. Independent black political power and black self-determination in all areas of society.

How Biden threads this difficult needle will be interesting to see and will test his political skill, the remaining question what happens if he can’t will the riots of this past summer become more violent and extreme? Democrats never acknowledge the riots instead calling them peaceful protests; how will they handle the riots now that they control the government?

This time the Democrats can’t use Trump as a foil, they now will control the levers of power!