Name: Jerry Brown’s advice to Joe Biden: Follow FDR. And progressives should ‘chill’
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Jerry Brown’s advice to Joe Biden: Follow FDR. And progressives should ‘chill’

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Jerry Brown has lasted five decades in public life by following his “canoe theory” of politics: Paddle a little left, then paddle a little right to maintain a mostly centrist course — or in his case, center-left.Brown is offering the same advice to President-elect Joe Biden, who is hearing the first complaints from progressives that he isn’t paddling left as hard as he should.Some railed on his choice of Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Sen. Bernie Sanders that Tanden “repeatedly maligned my staff and supporters and (belittled) progressive ideas” when she led the liberal Center for American Progress think tank.That’s probably just the start, as progressives for a Medicare for All health plan and a strong climate policy once Biden lifts his hand from the Bible on Inauguration Day.Brown’s advice to Biden is to embrace his “inner Roosevelt” and use his limited political capital to create jobs, just like FDR did when he came into office during the Depression.For progressives, Brown’s message is: “Maybe they should, in the states where it’s now legal, get a good joint and just chill. Just chill.”Brown, 82, said Democrats can “be as progressive as you want,” but they should remember that “Biden was the last man standing” after the primaries, not Sanders.Of course, any canoe course that Biden charts will be dammed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, should. And regardless of which party runs Congress, the coronavirus pandemic will be foremost on Biden’s agenda.Brown urged Biden to focus on the who are out of work, most of them because of the pandemic. About 12 million of them will lose benefits at the end of December with the expiration of the unemployment provisions of the Cares Act — the $2.2 trillion relief package Congress passed earlier this year.Here, Brown suggests paddling left by pushing hard for the program Biden proposed during the campaign. It’s not as expansive as what many progressives want — it’s no Green New Deal, which calls for the U.S. to run on 100% renewable energy within 10 years — but it has the blessing of many progressives as a step in the right direction.“There’s a lot of people out of work,” Brown told The Chronicle in an online video interview the night before the election. “That can be a major jobs program.”As part of that green commitment, Brown — unlike a growing number of Californians — remains committed to the state’s beleaguered high-speed rail plan. President Trump’s administration when Gov. Gavin Newsom the problem-plagued train project to a Central Valley-only line, for now.“We need a New Deal program of investment and yes, I want the president to put tens of billions in high-speed rail in California,” said Brown, who served four terms as California’s governor.“This is a great source of jobs, and it’s American, and it can be done and you can fund it for the same amount of money that (went to the) Trump tax cut — which, most of it, went to pay very rich people in the form of dividends and stock buybacks or corporate bonuses,” Brown said.Redirecting that money into high-speed rail in California and elsewhere will deliver “quite a jobs program and you’d run it 100% on renewable energy,” Brown said. “So, what’s not to like about that?”The price tag, for starters.Originally intended to be a San Francisco-to-Los Angeles route when voters approved a $9 billion bond in 2008, it has been scaled down for its first phase to a 171-mile run between Bakersfield and Merced that is supposed to start carrying passengers by 2028. And even that date is in jeopardy, as the state has limited funds to complete the project and continues to have trouble obtaining land. The current cost is around $80 billion.But Biden is famously a train fan, having logged more than 2 million miles commuting on Amtrak from Washington, D.C., to Delaware while he served in the Senate.About Our NewsroomBrown acknowledged that “it’s very expensive. But one thing we learned in the last six months, that the federal government can spend $3 trillion (on coronavirus relief). And what’s the result? People want another $2 trillion. So what’s a trillion here, a trillion there if you direct it toward strengthening the productivity, the efficiency, the innovation, the climate resilience and reducing carbon emissions?”In other ways, Brown encourages Democrats to paddle right.More for youHe doesn’t recommend spending big on a single-payer health plan — even though he advocated for one when he ran for president in 1992, and somewhere between 5 million and 10 million Americans have lost their employer-based health care in the pandemic.Nor is he a fan of other ideas popular with progressives like themovement. Brown’s guiding principle over his last two terms as governor — including when he helped to pull California out of the recession — was to tackle only a few key issues each term.He reminds progressives that not every congressional Democrat will be “asked to join ‘the Squad’” — the nickname for the progressive House members led by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (A side note: Brown said he has not spoken with Ocasio-Cortez, the Green New Deal co-author, but is impressed by her “charisma” and sense of “urgency.”)“Let’s be as left as we want in California, but the difference between having 47 Democrats and independents (in the 100-member Senate) and having 51, or 52, is moderates. So therefore, being in the real world, you’re gonna have to deal with that,” Brown said.Biden’s toughest task, Brown said, will be to try to unite the country — and that means “you got to find a way to include Republicans and business, too. That’s why he needs this Rooseveltian moment. He’s got to really invest. He’s got to make things happen. And he can’t do everything.”Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicle’s senior political writer. Email: Twitter:About Our Newsroom

Jerry Brown has lasted five decades in public life by following his “canoe theory” of politics: Paddle a little left, then paddle a little right to maintain a mostly centrist course — or in his case, center-left.Brown is offering the same advice to President-elect Joe Biden, who is hearing the first complaints from progressives that he isn’t paddling left as hard as he should.Some railed on his choice of Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Sen. Bernie Sanders that Tanden “repeatedly maligned my staff and supporters and (belittled) progressive ideas” when she led the...

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Senior political writer, The San Francisco Chronicle @sfchronicle Host, "It's All Political"podcast https://apple.co/2EGbK4r Insta: joegarofoli Go Steelers/Pens

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Jerry Brown’s advice to Joe Biden: Follow FDR. And progressives should ‘chill’

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