Joe Biden's "Popularist" Politics

[brooklynite]

That is why Democrats must resist the siren call of “unpopularist” politics driven by the activist left of the party. On immigration, the administration has been more liberal and humane at the border, but has no clear plan to stop the surge, enhance border security and tighten rules for asylum-seeking. The lack of action on these problems is unpopular but, since the left is adamantly opposed to doing anything that smacks of toughness on immigration, that is the de facto policy.

On policing, the administration is pursuing police reform, which is popular, but has had little to say about the surge of violent crime which suggests the need for more, not less, policing in communities, including black communities. But this approach too is verboten on the party’s left, so nothing is being done even as the crime issue spikes in salience.

On education, the steady march of “anti-racist” ideology into curricula of not just elite private schools but now public schools will generate a backlash among normie parents that the administration is studiously ignoring. Indeed, we now have gaffes like an Education Department proposed rule for a civics education grant program that touts the Ibram X. Kendi/1619 Project approach to understanding American society and history. The administration is doing nothing to head off this impending culture war in the schools because to do so would bring the wrath of the stridently woke sector of the Democratic Party down upon Biden’s head.

What Biden needs instead is a consistent and unifying policy approach that goes beyond his laudatory economic programs. Only that will permit the Democrats to pursue a progressive agenda that goes beyond 2022 and achieves a thorough transformation of American society away from the current, dysfunctional neoliberal model. The administration should promulgate an inclusive nationalism that emphasizes what Americans have in common and their right not just to economic prosperity but to public safety, secure borders and a world-class but non-ideological education for their children.

https://theliberalpatriot.substack.com/p/joe-bidens-popularist-politics

Ruy Teixeira is a Fellow at the Center for American Progress

[-misanthroptimist]

1. Another fear-based screed against the left.

Color me unimpressed.