Biden Is Failing But Not Because He Isn T Left Enough.

In the New York Times, Michael Shear writes: “While many Democrats are begging for a fighter who gives voice to their anger, Mr. Biden has chosen a more passive path…” Politico reported on Democrats growing “disenchanted” with Biden . lack of urgency’ and ‘apparent lack of fire’. And one Democratic insider told CNN that what people “want to see is the president out there swinging.” Having experienced the #ButHeFights! The wars that brought Donald Trump to the top of the Republican Party, I know all too well the power of aggression. It’s true that there’s often little correlation between fighting and winning, but even performance battles make people feel like you’re giving them the wink. Dig deeper and you’ll find the key distinction: it’s not just that Biden isn’t “fighting,” it’s that he refuses to abandon existing rules and institutions. Increasingly, progressives blame “institutionalism,” “neocentrism” and “populism” for Democratic failures — and suggest that to win, “Democrats will have to shed any concern about the appearance of moderation.” The acceleration of this anti-Biden narrative suggests to me that progressives are starting to move past the “let’s work the referees” stage (where they tried—often successfully—to push Biden to the left) and have now moved on to the predicate. explain (at some future point) why the Biden presidency failed. Their motivation? Some progressives are passionate about issues (like abortion rights, for example) and genuinely believe that Biden could turn things around by trying harder. For others, telling this story furthers their ideological agenda and (in some cases) their own career aspirations. If the Biden administration becomes a cautionary tale about the dangers of moderation, Democrats will be more likely to nominate someone with a more progressive agenda next time. Since the stakes are so high, it’s worth questioning whether the narrative is actually true. I mean progressives have an obvious incentive to tell a story that makes them both Cassandra and the solution to the problem. So is it true? Not in my book. “[Biden] he cavalierly goes around calling things “Jim Crow 2.0.” This is a guy who told African Americans that Mitt Romney (!) wants to put them “back in chains.” It is not a shrinking violet.’ As the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank points out, “Biden has said — fervently and repeatedly — the very thing he’s accused of avoiding.” Biden also wants to shoot the filibuster (at least on voting rights) and codify abortion rights at the federal level. Therefore, he is willing to bend to rules and institutions. You can argue that he’s not a good or convincing fighter, or that he doesn’t want to burn down whatever standards or institutions you might prefer. However, this is a guy who goes around belligerently calling things “Jim Crow 2.0.” This is a guy who told African Americans that Mitt Romney (!) wants to put them “back in chains.” It is not a shrinking violet. Instead, it’s more likely that Biden’s fundamental mistake was trying to be too progressive and transformative—trying to be FDR and LBJ—instead of running as a restorer of rules that would work across the aisle. What went wrong with his presidency? Biden’s election collapse began a year ago with his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. And his biggest political problem is inflation, which he has exacerbated with his spending and pretending it’s temporary for months. There are certainly valuable lessons to be learned from these mistakes. But the idea that Biden should have been busy destroying more rules is not the answer. Getting the story right matters, because otherwise, Democrats will make assumptions and calculations based on a flawed premise. Indeed, one could argue that at least some of Joe Biden’s problems were created because he embraced dubious narratives. As liberal columnist Bill Scher points out in Washington Monthly, Biden adopted narratives promoted by liberal opinion leaders such as Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, saying that Barack Obama spent too little on stimulus and spent too much time trying to convince Republicans. . Krugman was not alone. “THE [Obama] stimulus bill cut lower and lower,” wrote Ezra Klein shortly after Biden was sworn in. “A simpler, faster, more generous account [than The Affordable Care Act] it would be better politics and better politics.” At some point, this became conventional wisdom on the left, and it’s pretty clear that even Biden accepted it once he was sworn in as president in January 2021. Instead of trying to cut a deal with the Republicans, Biden immediately kicked them out the door. Plus, he didn’t let concerns about an overheating economy stand in his way. “We’ve learned from past crises that risk doesn’t do too much,” Biden said in January 2021. “Risk doesn’t do enough.” Parties that learn the wrong lessons are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, and it looks like the Democrats are in the process of doing just that. Dump Joe Biden if you will. But at least do it for the right reasons.