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Melissa Harris-Perry: Thanks for being with The Takeaway on this first Monday of 2022, I'm Melissa Harris-Perry. The name for the a Roman God Janus. In January, we find ourselves standing at the gateway between the old and the new. Are you a prospective new year thinker? Do you optimistically make resolutions to get in shape, pay off debt, spend more time with loved ones, maybe even pick up a new skill by taking a cooking class, learning a new language or dusting off your high school musical instrument? If so, great. Research shows that even if you fall short of your loftiest goals, looking forward optimistically is good for your mental health. Make those resolutions, even if you don't hit the mark on everyone. Let me remind you again that Janus has two faces. One looks forward, the other, it gazes back. Before we brush the dirt of 2021 off our shoulders entirely, I'm thinking we need to take a moment to look back and take stock of the year that has passed. Now, stick with me because I know nobody wants to talk about 2021.

Speaker 2: Worst episode ever.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Nearly two thirds of American ranked the year as bad or terrible. What's the point of reliving a year where we lost so many Americans to coronavirus?

Speaker 3: Over 800,000 COVID related deaths have been reported in the US since the start of the pandemic.

Melissa Harris-Perry: A year that began with the president who claimed he'd won an election that he most certainly lost.

Donald Trump: I just want to find 11,780 votes which is one more that we have because we won the state.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Which, of course, led to a full on violent attack against the US Capitol. Even if it's uncomfortable to stare backward into that abyss, let me suggest that that's precisely the reason we need to pause and take a careful look before we step into our collective future because even in the darkness of 2021, there were so many moments of light as we were reminded by Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in US history.

Amanda Gorman: Being American is more than a pride we inherit. It's the past we step into and how we repair it.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Takeaway family, we're going to borrow a practice for one of our regular guests.

Christina Greer: Hey, it's professor Christina Greer from Fordham University.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, in the final days of each year, Christina Greer likes to complete a little personal worksheet where she assesses areas like--

Christina Greer: Work Life, health and wellness, creative activities, impact on society.

Melissa Harris-Perry: She even shares the template with those of us who are on her holiday card list so that we too can take a little time to take stock of our past before we step into our future. I knew she'd help us assess where we collectively succeeded and where our nation came up short in 2021. Christina Greer, associate professor of political science at Fordham and co-host of the podcast FAQ NYC. Chrissy, happy new year.

Christina Greer: Happy new year to you too.

Melissa Harris-Perry: All right, Chrissy. Thinking about our national politics, was 2021 total trash, or are there some moments of success that we should remember to highlight?

Christina Greer: It definitely was not total trash. We survived. It started off obviously really difficult with January 6th but then we're resilient as a people and as a nation and Joe Biden is sworn in. Obviously, it has not been a perfect presidency, but when we think about how so many communities came together to move past and move through various epidemics in their small areas, we can't look at it as a macro picture.

Everything is made up of small bricks. When I assess 2021, I think about the neighbor who helped out someone. I think about the family member who stepped up. I think about the person who used the pandemic to make a personal change in their lives for the better. There's a certain level of optimism that I just inherently have. I always say, I tell you, "I'm a plant. I lean towards the light."

I think a lot of people are doing that a lot more than they're are accustomed to, or that they realize. That's why I sent this reflection just to help people remember, you've actually done a lot more than you're probably giving yourself credit for.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I think such a great example of that is this moment of the pandemic that we continue to find ourselves in. On the one hand as we watch infections rise with Omicron, and nonetheless just, I feel so grateful that we did have vaccines emerge in 2021 that even for young people, five and over, that there is that capacity to be vaccinated.

When you look at that stunning feat of science that allowed the vaccines to be possible, but then there's also the politics and policy side of the vaccine distribution, how would you rate those two aspects, the politics versus the science?

Christina Greer: The politics and the rollout has been beyond frustrating, not just for me obviously, but for millions of people domestically and abroad. There were so many millions of Americans who stepped up, not only got vaccinated, but also got boosted so that they can be a part of the greater good and the greater collective. I think we still obviously have a lot of work to do on the international level, but also so many Americans have thought about science in ways that are new and somewhat frightening for them.

I think about the work that my sister has done and so many other Black doctors to take the time to explain to specific communities why it is that they need to get vaccinated. I'm still optimistic. I know that there's some people that will unfortunately never get vaccinated, but I do think that there's a way that we can get on the other side of it.

Melissa Harris-Perry: 2021 is a year when Democrats technically controlled the White House, the House of Representatives, the US Senate. You look back on the year in politics, it rarely felt like the Democrats had a commanding presence. I'm wondering like in the decade forward, will we look back on some of those internecine battles within the party in 2021 and see it as having strengthened the party or weakened it?

Christina Greer: I really wish the Democratic party behaved a little bit more like LBJ in the 1960s. Now, granted, he had a much larger majority with the Democratic Congress. I do wish Joe Biden would take the lessons that he saw as vice president under Barack Obama a little more seriously and recognize that the Republican party that he worked with for 40 plus years no longer exists.

They are the party of no and they will say no to his ideas before he even puts them forth. The tenure of Obama was the first time we saw a party that obstinate and calcified working against a policy agenda. I don't know what the future of our democracy looks like. This is the first time in my life professionally that I'm genuinely worried. I teach intro to politics every single semester, so I can steal all the smart kids from other majors.

This is the first time that I can genuinely look my students in the eye and say, "I don't what the future holds in this country. All of the norms and the status quo are somewhat out the window when it comes to dealing with this Republican party and letting the fascist wing of the party essentially take control."

Melissa Harris-Perry: When you look at 2021, do you see the Democrats as having tried the big things? Maybe a good place to start on that as immigration reform. Did it seem like the Democrats put forth-- that they tried to use that, at least, nominal control they had of the federal government to move immigration reform?

Christina Greer: For me, no. I would add voting rights. I'd add the George Floyd Policing Act. I'd add the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. I'd add essentially anything that's on Kamala Harris's docket because she's got everything but the kitchen sink and world peace on her plate. I just think that so many Democrats, one, are lily-livered; two, think that providing healthcare or thinking about humane immigration tactics are "moving too far to the left."

We haven't had an honest conversation about a lot of the Democrats aren't really into immigration reform. A lot of Democrats aren't really jazzed about the George Floyd Policing Act. There's a racial and racist undertone to all of these policies that the Democrats are trying to negotiate with their Republican partners.

Melissa Harris-Perry: At the national level, I'm wondering, when you look at some of these spaces where Democrats didn't try to move, I'm wondering if it's about a lack of courage, or if it's about the structural realities of, for example, the filibuster?

Christina Greer: When Republicans get power, they grab it and they run with the power. They do not look back. They don't care about how much time they have. It's literally that old school game show where you just see people-- Supermarket Sweep, people are just running through the grocery store grabbing everything and putting it in the basket. When Democrats get power, they look at it and they say, "Oh, wow, geez, shucks. What should we do? I don't know.

Let's call the Republicans and compromise with them and see what they want." Now, on paper, that's the essence of democracy. Great. Let's pat ourselves on the back. When we feel like we're in the precipice of losing said democracy, we cannot sit around and call Mitch McConnell and see what he wants when he's already hold you that he will be the party of no. We keep seeing President Biden make concessions and take things out of the bill and ask the Republicans, "Is this okay?" Nothing will ever be okay with them. They want him to fail. They want the party to fail. They want history to go along with the natural pattern, and in the midterms, have the Democrats lose and lose spectacularly. I do think that some of the institutional barrier, such as the filibuster right now, need to be temporarily removed and or Joe Biden, you do have this other little thing that was put in the constitution.

You have an executive order that you can use. Now, I know that those don't carry the same longevity as a law all the time, but he does need to use that power of the pen. George Bush was a not afraid to use executive orders. Donald Trump used lots of executive orders even when he had unified government which was when the Republicans controlled Congress and the presidency.

Melissa Harris-Perry: You were pretty tough on the Republicans there, but worth noting that an awful lot of the negotiation was actually happening with a Democratic Senator.

Christina Greer: Listen, we know that Sinema and Manchin, this is their 15 minutes of fame and they are loving it. What's frustrating is I would have hoped that Joe Biden, as a member of the Senate for so long, would've used back channels. What coal in your stocking do you need, Joe Manchin, so that we don't have a public embarrassment, so that we move this thing forward, but we can still get this legislation passed?

Melissa Harris-Perry: Again, looking back on 2021, in April, we have a jury finding Derek Chauvin guilty of murder. Just before Thanksgiving, a predominantly white Georgia jury returning guilty, guilty, guilty verdicts and then a jury just last month finding Kim Potter guilty of manslaughter. When you look at 2021, do you see it as a good year for racial justice?

Christina Greer: Mixed bag. Don't forget Kyle Rittenhouse is not only walking free but he's headlining Republican activities. Until we see these police officer killings as part of a larger institutional problem, I don't think that we'll make a lot of progress. Yes, I am happy that justice was served but these are individual instances. We know that there are hundreds of cases that never made it to the national attention.

Some of those police officers were never punished. Those who were, just moved to a police department two towns over. We can't keep looking at these racist incidents where innocent people of color are being murdered by the police as one-offs. Especially when the reports and data are showing us that our police departments and our military have been infiltrated by white supremacists and white nationalists in a much larger and more systemic and organized fashion that we care to believe.

Until we think of it as a larger connected problem across all 50 states, yes, justice is served in these particular high profile cases, but sadly, there are far too many families of color who will never see justice for blatant racist crimes that have been committed against them and their family members.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Christina Greer, associate professor of political science at Fordham University. Thank you for doing a little 2021 review for me today.

Christina Greer: Thank you for having me. Happy new year.

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