IS JOE BIDEN DOING WHAT HE PROMISED?

 

                                                    …President Joe Biden

 

The evidence is showing that governing from the center works!

 

You know, if you take all the action that has been done by the current president, you could say that Joe Biden isn’t being a leftist Democrat.  He is instead, actually doing what he said he would do when he was running his campaign.  He’s governing from the center.   That’s what he promised, that’s what he’s doing.

For Democrats, there is a real potential upside here. They are better positioned than Republicans to become the big-tent party. As a notable Brookings study showed, in 2020, “Biden’s election victory came from the suburbs,” and those voters are presumably more moderate and centrist than, what has been called the “Democrats’ base.”  Suburban voters seem to be increasingly turned off by Republican positions on issues such as abortion and guns.  In the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the generic congressional ballot has moved from favoring Republicans, to today, being essentially a tie.

Just look at the results from his, and other Democrat’s efforts.

• If the compromise hammered out between Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) passes, it will be the largest investment in climate change ever made by the federal government, while also being the largest deficit reduction package in a decade.
• This deal comes on top of the Chips and Science bill, which will make massive investments in basic research and critical technologies. That followed the first bipartisan gun control legislation passed in a generation. and that was preceded by a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that had been one of Donald Trump’s signature campaign promises..
• Being a big-tent party is hard. It means holding coalitions together, including people with whom you profoundly disagree. But in a large, diverse country of more than 330 million people, it is the only way to gain working majorities.
• Governing from the center in today’s world looks a lot different than it did in the past. When Congress came together in the 1980s and ’90s to pass big bipartisan bills saving Social Security, reforming taxes, helping Americans with disabilities and reducing air pollution, the authors of the bills were often given great attention in the media and within their own parties. That is not today.
• Today, unfortunately, the incentive in Congress is to never compromise. Holding out against the other party, the party is regarded as the enemy, and holding out has become a badge of honor. That is what allows the enemies to fundraise from the most radical elements on their side of the spectrum. One big bipartisan effort to address immigration reform stalled in the early 2000’s.  It was viciously attacked by the extremes of both parties.
• In trying to revive that old model of governing, Biden is fighting against the tide. But surprisingly, in small but significant ways, he is winning. If more bipartisan bills get passed and if legislators don’t get punished for working across party lines…even get rewarded for it…that might begin to shift some of the incentives and reduce the toxicity in Washington.
• Franklin Roosevelt deferred action on civil rights so that he could pass the New Deal. Lyndon Johnson enlisted the segregationist South to support much of his Great Society legislation. Bill Clinton had to govern mostly with a Republican-controlled Congress. And when Barack Obama had congressional majorities, he chose to prioritize universal health care over many other important social issues, including same-sex marriage.

Sometimes, compromise can lead to better outcomes.

Is it possible that, despite all the partisan noise and expert disbelief, Joe Biden is actually managing to do something he had promised: governing from the center?

The evidence seems to be piling up.

Copyright G. Ater 2022