It’s time to give President Joe Biden credit for achieving something no one predicted: bipartisanship in foreign policy.
The Senate on Wednesday delivered a victory for Biden’s foreign policy agenda, voting almost unanimously to admit Finland and Sweden into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Previously, Biden was able to get the Ukraine aid he has asked for. That Senate vote in May also was truly bipartisan, with all the Democrats joined by 39 of the 50 Republicans; that was after House Republicans voted nearly 3-to-1 in favor of the bill.
Overall, choices by a group of Republican senators are the top reason that the all-out obstruction many of us expected in the face of Democratic unified government hasn’t come to pass. From an infrastructure bill to a gun safety law to legislation promoting domestic computer-chip production, some Republicans have chosen to buck their own party and negotiate rather than resorting to knee-jerk opposition. It also helps a lot that Democrats have been open to compromise and that Biden has a legislator’s get-things-done mindset. That has allowed everyone to wind up with deals that they could live with.
