We’re running a 20% off discount right now that gets you the next year of member access for just $80. Joe Biden: The Stealth TriangulatorBiden has been triangulating between the MAGAs and progressives without anyone noticing.Programming note: No Thursday Night Bulwark this week. The gang is in New Orleans for the live show. Speaking of which, I’ll be at our November 16 live show in DC where Charlie will interview Brian Stelter, the former CNN media correspondent and author of the forthcoming book Network of Lies about Fox News. Then Sarah, Tim, and I will tapeThe Next Level live. We’ll stick around after the show to meet anyone who can stay up. It will be a fun night. I’ll be comatose for days afterwards. For tickets, head over to TheBulwark.com/Events. 1. Biden’s Liberal ProblemYesterday Charlie noted that Joe Biden has a problem with the left on Israel and that’s true. The Democratic party has been solid on Israel post-10/7. Certain portions of the progressive movement have not been and the polling on younger progressives is very not great. But Biden doesn’t just have a problem with the left on Israel. And here I want to get to the second half of my Focus Group talkback: What Democratic voters have been telling Sarah and what that means for Biden. In Sarah’s first episode of the season she heard from a number of Democrats who were unhappy with Biden’s performance. Here’s a sampling of their complaints:
These are not “vibes” complaints. These Democratic voters have specific policy areas where they believe Biden has not moved aggressively enough.
Now the reality is that the Biden administration has passed legislation on most of these issues. But the legislation he has passed has been quite…centrist.
My point here isn’t to judge Biden’s accomplishments as good or bad. Rather, the point is that Biden has substantively addressed these issues. But he has done so in a manner centrist enough to (in many instances) garner Republican votes. Which has left some Democrats—and many progressives—disappointed that he did not go farther. In other words: He’s been triangulating. Some progressives complain that Biden has been too tough on immigration, while Republicans complain he hasn’t been tough enough. Progressives complain that he didn’t go far enough on student loan debt while Republicans complain that he went too far. This is what centrism looks like. It’s messy. Here are two ways to think about centrism:... Join The Bulwark to read the rest.Become a paying member of The Bulwark to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. A subscription gets you:
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Joe Biden: The Stealth Triangulator
October 24, 2023
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