Hillary Clinton said she was personally progressive & publicly more moderate. Many accused her of being disingenuous. But this balance is true of most of our modern major Dem leaders, including Biden. A failure to understand this has led to poor analyses of Biden's agenda.
The Dem party is ideologically diverse. There is the far left edge--AOC, Sanders, Warren--& the moderate edge--Manchin & Sinema. Then there are those who operate in the Center Left. Many of these politicians are quite progressive but move in line w/ what is politically possible
Most of our leaders--B. Clinton, Obama, Pelosi, & Biden--fit this mold to some extent. They identify where the country is & where the party is & where there is a space to move a bit left. This is typical for leaders, given they have to represent more than one ideological faction.
Pelosi, in particular, is quite progressive. On a personal level, there is probably very little daylight between her & Warren on economic issues. Biden is perhaps slightly less personally progressive than Pelosi, but is definitely not a recalcitrant ideological moderate.
Biden & Pelosi have clearly identified this as a moment where they don't need to moderate on economic policy. "Big & Bold" is within the realm of the politically possible. The press doesn't seem to understand this, which is why they keep painting them as opposed to progressives.
To be clear, I'm not defending any politician's record. Everyone I mentioned, w/ perhaps the exception of Pelosi, has done a number of things I disagreed with. I'm offering a description of who they are as political actors. Not a defense of any action
https://twitter.com/Ben_Alpers/status/1444683766224629763
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