Will Biden make the centre great again?
Joe Biden is a 78-year-old white guy with a slight stutter who has been in the United States political system since Adam was a cowboy. Not a description of the kind of person who might change the world.
But it might be a case of the right person being in the right place at the right time.
Since the slow deflation of Third Way politics (but by no means its demise), centre-left politics has been in deep trouble. Throughout democratic nations, parties of the centre-left have been variously annihilated or reduced to a shadow of their former selves.
The election of Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party in 2017 was greeted with such relief (remember Jeremy Corbyn saying ‘‘Do it for all of us’’) by progressive people everywhere because it seemed that the wheel was turning.
Ardern has gone on to become a world figure – a beacon of kindness in an otherwise very nasty world.
But New Zealand is small beer in the general scheme of things. The US is something different altogether. Despite the best efforts of Donald Trump, the US remains the most powerful nation on earth. Where it goes a lot will follow.
There are many on the left of politics who will be already preparing their statements of disappointment in Biden. In a world that demands a response to everything from Covid-19 to inequality to climate change to racism, Biden seems too reasonable, too moderate to lead much-needed transformation.
But this, many observers have noticed, is what might make Biden work. He has the knack of making radical ideas and actions seem reasonable.
If there is to be lasting change in the US and if this change is to be echoed around the world, a majority of people are going to have to be ready to go along for the ride. There are many in the US who see the division as so deep that the only way forward is to match the populism of the right with the populism of the left. Fire with fire. Anything less is capitulation. There is some merit in this argument, but for it to work without violence democratic rules must be respected. The legacy of Trump is that American democracy is on its knees.
Given Biden’s backstory, he is the perfect person to dress the wounds of severely damaged public institutions. He has surrounded himself with the most experienced and diverse team to ever govern the US. Against all the odds that are already obvious, these people have the best chance of proving to the American people that government can work for them.
Efficient government will, of course, on its own not be enough. Results are what will matter. In the two years between now and the next congressional election cycle, Biden and his team will need to encourage Americans to agree on answers to the many problems they
Biden has the knack of making radical ideas and actions seem reasonable.
face.
Not all Americans, just the majority. If Biden can appeal to this majority in ways that to them seem reasonable then great things could happen.
But this is the sleight of hand that we are yet to see if he can pull off. Holding the centre together can easily turn into not rocking the boat. Once that happens the problems keep piling up at the door and the way is open for authoritarian populists of the Right and Left (yes, they come from both directions) to tout their wares.
The early signs are that Biden has learned the lesson of the Obama Administration when too little happened in the first two years and control of the Senate was lost.
Go hard and go early seems to be the motto. If that proves to be the case and Biden can encourage a majority of American voters that a programme of radical change is the reasonable thing to do, something special might happen. Not perfection, there is no such thing. Just progress towards something better. Welcome to the new reasonable.