July 21, 2022
IT'S A LIBERAL COUNTRY, NOT PROGRESSIVE:
Why Joe Biden failed: In just 18 months, his ambitious agenda has been demolished - along with his popularity. Where did the president go wrong? (Adam Tooze, 7/21/22, New Statesman)
If Biden's plan was to stabilise US democracy with progressive politics - an updated New Deal for the 21st century - the conclusion now is that his presidency has failed. [...]Both the GOP and the Democrats consist of coalitions of several distinct caucuses. These caucuses reflect an electorate as fragmented as that of any other modern society - no different from Germany, with its six-party system, or the shifting coalitions of French or Italian politics.As in the UK, the US's first-past-the-post majoritarian system fails to represent this complexity. It forces the two big parties to contain divergent sectional, ideological and regional interests. Without formal coalition agreements between these groups, legislation becomes a daily fight for votes.The left wing of the Democratic Party carried energy and ideas into the administration. Embracing Biden's high-spending agenda, the president's new progressive allies celebrated a decisive break with the neoliberal corset of the Obama and Clinton presidencies.
Like the Trumpists, they were celebrating a break with America.
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 21, 2022 7:22 AM