Joe Biden needs to learn a lesson from Bill Clinton in 1994.
After two years of progressive idealism, Clinton and his Democratic Party got crushed in the 1994 midterms. Clinton deftly moved to the center. Then he won re-election. And his Dems even did well in his second midterm.
Biden has the ability to make this switch one year earlier into his term than Clinton did. And, perhaps, in the process, save American democracy.
Biden won because he was perceived as a moderate. He won contests that Democrats haven’t won in a while (AZ, GA and NE-02).
And over the course of the year, he has allowed himself and his agenda to be influenced significantly by a very vocal progressive caucus (which doesn’t even comprise 50% of the House Democrats).
They are all competitive, highly diverse states which have GOP Governors and GOP legislatures which have MADE IT HARDER FOR CITIZENS TO VOTE. #VAGov
In fact, I can’t think of a single state which is competitive, has a large black or latino population and in which the GOP controls the Governorship and the State Legislature which HASN’T enacted new #VoterSuppression laws this year.
I once did business with a person who mentioned that they preferred this one area of a suburb more than another. The area they didn’t like as much is an area with a very large Indian-American population. The person said of the place “it doesn’t seem as much like America.”
This wasn’t a mean person or a person intending to be mean. But this person probably inadvertently revealed they way a lot of people view demographic changes in this country. That it somehow seems not “like America.”
Whereas the truth is that this country is one long, continual, never ending story of change. People coming from all over the world. Becoming more like us and giving us some of them. That’s the most American thing there ever was.
Perspectives/experiences probably come into play here. The 1950s were a simpler time and many people may think about Leave It To Beaver and John Wayne.
To me, that era meant people like me not being able to vote, stay in hotels, attend good schools or drink from water fountains.
One of the unfortunately aspects of human nature is we tend to not think much about or worry much about things that don’t affect us directly or affect those we know directly.
It’s not even malicious in its intent. It’s just how we are. Self-focused.
Because I learn so much about how different groups of people view the same thing and because Marist breaks out the poll so well, here is how different groups of Americans asses Biden’s job performance and other issues in today’s poll: