Is a Diverse Cabinet a Progressive Cabinet?

President-elect Joe Biden stands with his nominees for his national security team [Joshua Roberts/Reuters]

By Sarah Leonard

As Trump flounders and blusters through his final days in office, President-elect Joe Biden has begun a series of agency appointments that are winning praise as historic firsts. “Biden Will Nominate First Women to Lead Treasury and Intelligence, and First Latino to Run Homeland Security,” read a headline in the New York Times on Monday.

But so far, Biden appears more committed to the symbolism of diverse appointments than adopting the more progressive positions advocated for by his critics. Nowhere is this contradiction more glaring than his pick for the director of national intelligence Avril D. Haines, who oversaw Obama’s drone strike program, notorious for killing civilians. Biden has said little about his position on continued drone strikes and feminists have decried the appointment — “There is nothing remotely feminist about women in rich countries dropping bombs on women in poor countries,” wrote Arwa Mahdawi in The Guardian. The nomination and its enthusiastic reception in some quarters is the “hire more women guards” meme come to life.

As progressives begin to develop their stance toward the new administration, they’ll surely confront a diverse but centrist Cabinet. It remains to be seen whether these nominees will be more open to progressive influence, or simply offer moral cover to an administration for which the rising left wing of the party has little love.

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