If, as William Galston declaims in his most recent Wall Street Journal column, independents are disappointed that Joe Biden has chosen to pursue a progressive agenda over uniting the country:
The erosion of support for Mr. Biden has been especially steep among independents, for reasons that cut to the heart of his presidency. During his campaign, he sent two basic messages, one to his party, the other to his country. He promised to bring Democrats together around an agenda carefully negotiated before the 2020 election began, as the leader of a party in which all Democrats from the center to the left would have a voice. At the same time, he would bring Americans back together by treating Republicans with respect and by doing his best to craft policies that appealed to both parties.
In practice, these two promises have proved incompatible. There have been some discrete bipartisan successes, such as the infrastructure bill and a measure to boost investment in technologies to counter China. But there is no Republican support for Democratic approaches to social programs, voting rights, immigration, criminal justice and public education.
Faced with a choice between party unity and national unity, Mr. Biden has chosen the former more consistently than independents had expected, and their disappointment is showing up in the polls. He will have a hard time regaining their support without trying harder to reach across party lines. But in today’s polarized climate, such a démarche might well fail.
it’s clear that they don’t read The Glittering Eye since that’s what I said he would do while he was campaigning for president. But Mr. Galston has it wrong, too. President Biden is not trying to unify the Democratic Party but to remain in its center. As it moves left, dragged by the energetic progressive activists, so does he. The only limiting factor would be political defeat. Even then it would be blamed on undemocratic, intransigent Republicans.
“…they don’t read The Glittering Eye since that’s what I said he would do while he was campaigning…”
That’s a pretty good trick since he spent almost the whole time in his basement. Alright. Alright……
Is he really trying to keep it in the center out of philosophy? I don’t think Joe Biden has a bone of conviction in his body. He’s about Joe Biden. The flashback tape and film cuts are starting to come out everywhere. Where’s Joe on an issue? Just ask who’s in the crowd and you will know.
I am confused.
Trump was the worst President in history, and for a majority of voters, anybody was better than Trump. Those who did not vote for Trump should be elated that not-Trump was elected, and even better, we have three more years of President not-Trump. Just imagine all the wonderful not-Trump things he will accomplish.
So, what’s the problem?
Biden voter here. I don’t recall much of what Biden said or promised anyone, but I was pretty confident that Biden would have a Republican controlled Senate, so whatever he wanted would be mediated by divided government. I did not foresee that Trump would jump the shark and go on a rant to discourage Republican voters in Georgia.
” I did not foresee that Trump would jump the shark and go on a rant to discourage Republican voters in Georgia.”
You couldn’t foresee it because it was in actuality a convenient diversionary tale used in national media accounts. We get our TV feeds out of Savannah and news and public interest shows have covered this extensively. It was the outrageous film of a “water emergency” (leaky faucet – pre-planned) followed by suitcases of ballots magically appearing, roving buses used to collect mail in ballots, and non-verified signature ballot matchups that caused the runoffs, and the impetus to change voting laws in GA.
The principal changes in those laws were reducing the absentee voting period from 180 days to a measly 11 weeks (!), requiring some sort of ID, and elimination of those buses used as ballot drop offs which may, or may not (ahem) have reached their destination. Chain of custody being all shot to hell.
The current word is that Warnock has no chance in hell in a straight election. Ossoff is a sold and bought Senator, so who knows.
Lets help Drew. PD is correct, Trump really did advise people to not vote.
As to the rest you should send that to someone so they can take it to court as evidence. 8 of the 9 justices on the GA supreme court were appointed by a Republican. I know you have lost every suit brought so far but keep trying.
You forgot that they limited the number of drop boxes to 1 per 100,000 voters. This means that counties that had lots of voters, which were more democratic, will have fewer drop boxes. Most counties in Georgia have fewer than 100,000 voters. So in those rural, and Republican, counties you actually get to have one box per 30,000 people. They also cut the hours for those places making it harder to reach them and fewer.
No one has ever shown anything other than very, very rare voter fraud that would be stopped by voter ID. Yet we have to have big govt intervention for a problem that does not exist. I wonder if most of those who dont have ID would be expected to vote for the democrats?
The buses were to be deployed to areas with long lines and back ups. That doesn’t happen in those rural counties but it does happen in the large cities where I wonder which party those voters belong to?
The Ga legislature can now pretty much boot county officials whenever they want. Wonder which way the GA legislature leans politically?
Steve
PD, this comment isn’t meant to be critical – it just sparked a recollection.
A Biden victory mediated by a Republican Senate was a pretty low probability prior to the conclusion of voting.
Taking a look at realclearpolitics — they had the Senate as 48R/50D (with runoffs in Georgia); it’s hard to believe now, but Susan Collins never led a poll during the campaign and polling averages had her trailing by 5+%. Tillis of North Carolina was saved by his opponent’s sex scandal during the last 14 days of the election. And realclearpolitics was more favorable to Republicans then 538 or other election prediction organizations.
As for Georgia; I always gave it a much higher chance Democrats would win both then most pundits. The top race results indicated which party had a higher ceiling.
Yet unified control may turn out to be curse upon Joe Biden’s presidency. A Republican senate would likely have forced better execution and/or shared blame on Afghanistan, COVID, inflation, and the border.
I find the complaints that the Biden agenda is being stalled by a minority amusing in a grim sort of way. The Biden agenda is being stalled by a bipartisan majority and being promoted by a partisan minority. This translates into minority rule in ProgressiveLand.
“Not Trump “
Now that the Clinton dynasty is passe,
Whom will the Democratic establishment run?
Following the precedent of tenure, it will be Nancy Pelosi.
God, I’d love to see her debate Trump.