THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS FOR JOE BIDEN (NO, REALLY)

I saw a lot of folks complaining about this on social media, but I think it's fine:

... a progressive group has decided to deliver a formal response to President Joe Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress next week.

It's traditional for the opposition party to give a response when the president delivers a State of the Union or other address to Congress. But it's much less common for a member of the president's party to deliver a rebuttal.

Next week, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., speaking on behalf of the left-wing Working Families Party, will respond after Biden gives his first address to a joint session of Congress.

Bowman ... said the response is intended not to be critical of Biden but rather to credit him as appropriate and cue him for what the left wants to see next.

"It's a balancing act. He's already done a lot that I love. And he's going to say a lot of things that I like, as well," Bowman said in an interview. "But if we relent, it doesn't mean that what's been going on so far is going to continue. It's important for us as progressives to continue to push and continue to organize."

And this is fine, too:

Climate activists gathered in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to dump wheelbarrows full of cow poop near the White House in protest of President Biden’s climate plan, which they say is “bullshit” and does not go far enough to protect the environment.

Videos posted on Twitter from the Earth Day demonstration featured a group of at least a dozen demonstrators pushing pink wheelbarrows downtown toward the White House, where Biden is hosting a two-day virtual climate summit with dozens of world leaders.

The demonstrators then dumped the manure onto the street, along with signs and banners reading, “Stop the bullshit,” and “Declare climate emergency now!”

Photos showed the piles of dung lingering in the street even after demonstrators dispersed.

These things are good for Biden's brand. He's been a surprisingly progressive president, but having critics to his left reinforces his message that what he's been doing doesn't make him some kind of crazy communist. It helps to normalize the changes he's advocating.

I'd feel differently if this were an election year. Republicans generally come together to back whichever party members are on the ballot, while progressives often turn up their noses at mainstream Democrats, sometimes electing Republicans as a result (and mainstream Democrats often express contempt for progressives, with the same result). I won't be happy next year, or three years from now, if progressives and mainstream Democrats can't unite. But for now, it's good for the public to see that Republicans are lying when they say Biden is a radical leftist.