Joe Biden moves left

When Bernie Sanders said recently that if Joe Biden implements his policy agenda he could be “the most progressive president since FDR,” he was probably right. In fact, something extraordinary is happening: Biden is getting more progressive in substance, yet that has done nothing to change his image as a moderate.

The Trump campaign is utterly flummoxed by this state of affairs; in fact, they long ago gave up trying to claim that Biden is some kind of extremist, and now can only shout that he’ll be a “puppet of the radical left.” That doesn’t seem to be convincing anyone, either.

Biden, who has always been a politician with centrist impulses and a radar that seeks out the median location within the Democratic Party so he can stand there, is able to move left on substance because he has done such a good job of portraying himself as a moderate.

To be clear, I’m not saying it was some kind of con. But two things have happened. First, we went through a primary that was widely seen in part as a contest of ideas, with Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on one side and Biden (and some others from the party’s more moderate wing) on the other. He won precisely because Democratic voters decided that as a moderate he’d be more palatable in the general election.

Even at the time, Biden was taking positions farther to the left than ever before; for instance, his health-care plan was far more ambitious than the Affordable Care Act. Yet because it wasn’t Medicare-for-all, it was framed (and derided by some) as the moderate alternative. That reinforced, again and again, the idea that Biden is a cautious moderate.

The second factor in maintaining the idea of Biden’s moderation is that he has very intentionally resisted taking symbolic positions that might sound to some like he’s running to the left. Just as in the primaries he rejected “Abolish ICE” when it was suggested, more recently he refused to join calls to “Defund the police.”

If Biden is feeling the liberty to be more ambitious on policy because of the situation he finds himself in, it means he could pull back if circumstances change. Which is why just about every progressive activist is greeting his evolution by saying, “This is good news; now we have to keep the pressure on him.”

If he wins in November, they’ll have to worry about the appointments he makes, the legislation he proposes, and the executive actions he takes, all of which could be arenas for conflict. Biden might have earned their praise, but he hasn’t yet earned their trust.

For that, he’ll have to show that as president he can follow through and produce results.