Joe Biden’s Cabinet: Finding a Balance
A presidential cabinet is a crucial component of american democracy. The members of said cabinet must advise the president and discourage or encourage certain pieces of legislation. Throughout history, the composition of this cabinet has varied greatly, depending on the man that sits in the oval office.
From George Washington to Donald Trump, a large range of individuals have filled these essential roles. While the appointment of cabinet members has always been important, the creation of a strong presidential cabinet is uniquely urgent and pressing today. Going into the Biden Presidency, at a time where 300,000 Americans are dead due to a pandemic, racial inequality is at some of the highest peaks in recent history, and climate change is slowly but surely disrupting American lives, our Presidential Cabinet is more important than ever before.” And in order to ensure that this cabinet serves, in the words of Joe Biden, “every American,” it must be a perfect balance of diversity, experience, progressivism, and status-quo.
Thus far, Biden has received quite a bit of criticism from both politicians and citizens alike due to the appointments that he has made. Biden’s approach to these appointments has been quite sweeping. He has attempted to satisfy all potential sides of American politics while still remaining true to the Progressive values of the Democratic Party. Biden has already selected three members of the four “big-deal positions”: State, Defense and Treasury. Of these three nominees only one is a white man: secretary of state Tony Bliken. Janet Yellen, the presumed Secretary of the Treasury will be, if elected, the first woman to run the Treasury Department. And the prospective Secretary of Defense, General Lloyd Austin would be the first African American Secretary of Defense if appointed. Although these individuals have yet to be confirmed they are already making history.
Critics claim that Biden’s cabinet is based solely on diversity rather than skill. Both Yellen and Austin are perfect examples of how this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Yellen became an economist at a time where the field was almost entirely dominated by white males. Then, from 2014 to 2018 she served as the chair of the Federal Reserve. Her work paved the way for a strong labor market and “a record-long expansion that drove unemployment to its lowest rate in 50 years”. Austin is a retired four-star General with more than 40 years of military service. He worked with President-elect Biden to bring troops home from Iraq, and was the chief architect of the military campaign to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Though Austin’s experience in the military is immense, his appointment is expected to be the most controversial of all prospective cabinet members. He has yet to complete the seven-year waiting period that the US government demands of military officials before serving in the government. Austin retired from the military only four years ago which means that he would need a congressional waiver to even be considered for the position of Secretary of Defense. Furthermore, Austin devoted much of his time in the military to efforts in the Middle East. Given that today, the current issues in the militaristic field are largely rooted in China and Russia, he has been called out for not being the right man for the job.
Nevertheless, he has the advanced strategic skills needed to run the Pentagon and there is no evidence that he has any inability to lead. Austin started his military career by attending the world-renowned United States Military Academy at West Point, where he received a commission in infantry. After his first assignment with U.S. Army Europe, “General Austin was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C., where he commanded a company and served as an assistant brigade operations officer. General Austin then commanded a second company in Indianapolis, IN before earning a Master’s Degree from Auburn University and serving as a Company Tactical Officer at West Point.” Following this, he spent decades leading and serving in Germany, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the United States. To insinuate that Austin lacks qualification would be a down-right lie. If anybody is qualified for this position, a position that ensures the safety of American lives it is General Lloyd Austin.
The qualifications of Yellen and Austin are consistent with the overall level of qualification in Biden’s cabinet. Nearly all of the individuals who have been appointed have first-hand experience in the field that they would be working in. Prospective Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is an immigrant himself and is incredibly familiar with the struggles that families face when making the decision to move to the United States. Prospective Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland would be assigned the role of overseeing public and federal lands and their natural resources. This includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Haaland is of Pueblo descent and has personal ties to Native land. Like Mayorkas, she has experiential knowledge of the intricacies of reservations and state-protected land.
But these members’ personal ties to the issues they’d be tackling are not the only thing that they have in common. Most of Biden’s top cabinet pick’s worked under the Obama administration. This may be an attempt, on the part of Biden, to entirely undo what President Trump has done over the last four years. These cabinet members are undoubtedly empathetic to the issues they are dealing with, which is a key difference between Biden’s cabinet and Trump’s cabinet. These individuals have served under a president that Donald Trump truly despises. Their history of working under a democratic president may also be an effort to restore the status quo and bring some familiarity back to the White House.
Biden’s cabinet is still largely filled by white men but in comparison to Donald Trump’s cabinet, which has been labeled as the most white-male Presidential Cabinet since Ronald Reagan. So it’s a little ironic that Biden’s cabinet may be seen as “overly progressive.” Factually, Biden’s cabinet is nothing more than a step in the right direction, a shift away from the last year of pain and suffering. The qualifications of his appointees are consistent with that of past cabinet members — even amplified by unique, first-hand experience.
Appointing a presidential cabinet is a tricky balancing act. If a cabinet lacks empathy, the executive branch becomes a sector of government that is completely out of touch with the American people. But if it’s members lack professionalism and experience, a cabinet can quickly become a vessel for destruction. Thus, moving into the Biden administration it is important to refrain from making any one-sided accusations. A president must appoint his cabinet in a way that he deems appropriate for the American people and Joe Biden has done just that.
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