As vice-President he was used as a "water tester", finding the best time and place to move the Obama Administration to the left on various issues. In particular with the Defense of Marriage Act and "Don't Ask Don't Tell." These were issues that, in Obama's first term, were not terribly progressive (there was clearly a political calculation to not push against DOMA at the time as the right were good at freaking out massive numbers of old people with the fear of gay marriage), but Joe could, and did, put things out there in his sort of rambling media forays and help guide public opinion to "move the needle" so to speak on gay marriage and gays serving openly in the military. I mean, there's a reason Obama chose him as his running-mate.
So let's look at what's meaningful with the difference between, say, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.
The first, and presumably biggest, difference, is in healthcare. Sanders favors a "Medicare for All" and Biden favors a "public option."
Now, a public option, if actually enacted, would give us the most progressive national healthcare plan we've ever had. And Medicaid for All would be even more so.
But here's the thing: the President does not present legislation. Both houses of Congress would have to vote in favor of a bill that the President would sign. And the "Medicaid for All" is not popular with the public (which is the fault of our idiot media circus but that's a story for another time.) So it's very unlikely that a President who even champions Medicare For All will even get a bill to sign.
Furthermore, a "public option" might happen first and be a good gateway drug to more comprehensive healthcare. I'm sure that's how the Republicans will see it.
As for higher education, Biden favors a more conservative plan than Sanders, but again it would be the most progressive plan the US has ever seen if it got passed. However, introducing legislation is not the President's job. All bills start in the House. But then they need to be passed by the Senate. Everything is a moot point if Republicans control the Senate.
Both Biden and Sanders are aiming for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Sanders wants 100% renewable energy by 2030.
Early Childhood Development. Let's fact it, neither Sanders nor Biden can even come close to the detailed, exact, and specific plan that Hillary Clinton had. But between free Pre-K and raising teacher's salaries, I don't see a lot of daylight between Biden or Sanders' positions. Obviously a bill would need to be written and passed by both houses.
Central and South America. You'd think an old socialist like Bernie would be all over this but nope, it's Joe who wants to build what we might call the un-jerk plan for US relations with our southern neighbors. For those of us of a certain age, the constant American jerkiness of our policy toward pretty much every country of Central and South American has been a nightmare. Bill Clinton closed the School of the Americas. The Democrats have a pretty good record of doing something positive with the Americas and Biden seems to have a specific plan. This is an issue which is the purview of the President and honestly I'm a tad befuddled about Bernie's lack of policy, at least that I could find on his website.
Guns. Joe wants to have the government buy back assault weapons. He is WAY to the left of Bernie on guns.
Other than that, what have we got?
- Supreme Court nominations.
- National Labor Relations Board appointees.
- Head of the CPFB appointment.
- A functioning Pandemic Response team.
- A working military that doesn't have to kow-tow the the President in order to save the lives of their soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen.
These are big freaking deals. These are all issues which directly affect the lives of workers. The NLRB has a great deal of power to affect, for instance, when overtime is paid. Right now many companies use a nonsense definition of "manager" in order to deny workers overtime pay. Under Obama, the NLRB was about to really help people who managed McDonalds and other places because in reality those people are dramatically under-paid and expected to happily work long hours without OT.
The CPFB puts the fear of god into banks who want to play games with consumer lending -- doing absurdly criminal things to lock poor and working people into worse than loan-shark-level loans.
A functioning pandemic response team that actually, you know, responds to pandemics. The sheer number of people who have died because of the blundering of this Administration is horrifying.
I would expect those appointments would likely be mostly the same between Joe and Bernie, perhaps not the same individuals, but people with the same sorts of ideological temperament.
Biden is pro-choice, pro-trans rights, pro-climate, pro-working-class, pro-science, pro-education, pro-early childhood development.
If elected, Joe Biden will be the most progressive President the United States has ever seen.
