Thread by @TheValuesVoter

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).

He needs to change this.

And although the country is empirically in a much better place than it was when he took office, the last three months have featured a series of challenges which have affected his popularity. And his own party squabbling publicly without passing either bill has not helped. At all.

https://twitter.com/thevaluesvoter/status/1453017735592660999

Bill Clinton was nothing if not extremely agile. After his party lost the House and the Senate in 1994, he moved to the center. He sounded like a centrist. And it worked for him. He was the last Democratic President to win Kentucky, Louisiana and West Virginia.

Biden needs to study what Clinton did after his first midterm. And he has the advantage of being able to employ those lessons one year before the same midterms. And he can leverage some legislative wins as well.

But he has to stop giving any impression whatsoever that the progressives are driving the ship. He needs to drive the ship. And show people that he can be the moderate many people expected him to be.