Biden Is the Centrist President Everyone Says They Want

[In It to Win It]

https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/biden-is-the-centrist-president-everyone

1. Biden Stans

One of the criticisms I often hear about Joe Biden is that he’s a tool of the progressive left who has given them full run of the store.

This doesn’t make a ton of sense! It seems to me that many (most?) lefty progressives are frequently frustrated by Biden because of his tendency to compromise with Republicans and conservative Democrats—as well as his reluctance to wade into the kind of big, structural fights that liberals believe are necessary.1

From where I sit, it looks like Biden is the centrist president everyone always says they want.2

Biden passed the American Rescue Plan that included a lot of spending, but it was short on progressive give-aways and long on help for working families. The Inflation Reduction Act was passed on party line, but was full of spending for rural states. He passed a bipartisan gun reform law that was modest enough to leave gun-reform advocates wanting a lot more. He accomplished a big infrastructure spending law with large-scale Republican support.3 He passed the CHIPS Act to jump-start domestic semiconductor manufacturing with lots of Republican votes. He passed the Respect for Marriage Act with loads of Republican votes, too.

[Mad_Machine76]

1. Agreed

I don't have Trumpers on my social media feeds but I have lots of left-wing friends there who are constantly angry and frustrated with him (and Democrats in general) and often refer to him mockingly as a 1980's era Republican, which makes me chuckle every time I hear people on the right call him some kind of a left-wing radical. I think it's fair to say that he has been a bit better than some people thought he might be in terms of trying to advance progressive causes, but he is no radical. He is a centrist/moderate liberal.

[emulatorloo]

9. 'refer to him mockingly as a 1980's era Republican'

No doubt people who weren’t alive in the 80’s or actually know anything about the Reagan years. Makes me chuckle too when I read that stuff on reddit or twitter.

[Mad_Machine76]

11. I know right?!

It drives me crazy. From what I can remember, Republicans were less sh**ty in the 1980’s but they were still shi**ty but almost none of them were pro-choice, pro-same-sex marriage, pro-LGBTQ, etc. Their description of Biden as a “Republican” is………illogical.

[Earth-shine]

16. 1980s moderate Republican, you say?

[Mad_Machine76]

20. He sounds more like he would be a 1950's era Republican

more than a 1980’s one. But socially he was still so much more progressive than Republicans of almost any era.

[Cha]

17. But who's feeding the "Mockers"..

Susan Sarandon, Krystal Ball, MW fans, ..? I say consider the source.

I think Pres Biden is a practical Progressive.. with all the Forces against him he Strives to Get Things Done to Better Our Lives and the Life of our Country and Planet.

He's the one who WON.. nobody else did.. he got us where we are today.

I absolutely hate those who mouth off but don't know what they're talking about.

This is our Democracy we're Fighting to SAVE.

[Mad_Machine76]

18. Oh I agree

That opinion is certainly not my own. As somebody much older than some of my 20-something or 30-something friends, I have to explain to some of them how government actually works and why some things can’t or won’t be done the way they think it is.

[Cha]

19. I know you don't think like that, Mad..

just saying.

[FalloutShelter]

2. I actually think Biden is more liberal than he gets credit for.

It is somewhat unfair to criticize him for not pushing liberal priorities that I JOE knows he cannot get passed. Given a second term and possibly the votes in Congress… then we will see.

[EmmaLee E]

4. +1

[emulatorloo]

8. ++++

[Hekate]

3. Biden will take off his aviators, slap a platinum trilly on the table,& yell "How about that, Jack?"

I like that image Whoever this guy is, he makes some good points.

Look: I don’t know what’s going to happen with the debt ceiling. Maybe there will be no resolution and America will default. Maybe McCarthy’s demands will be so outlandish that they will be designed to trigger a default. Or maybe Biden will refuse to compromise on a reasonable Republican proposal.

Maybe, when he meets with My Kevin today, Biden will take of his aviators, slap a platinum trilly on the table, and yell, “How about that, Jack!” At which point liberals across the land will cheer.

But what if, instead, Biden gets to a compromise with Republicans? Again?

[Shermann]

5. Is "moderate left" even recognized as a thing on Fox News?

It's seemingly all just one big "radical left" bucket over there.

My impression of Fox News:

Them them they blah blah they the left blah blah woke blah radical left blah blah open borders blah blah cancel culture blah blah

[emulatorloo]

6. Biden's a left liberal.

[betsuni]

13. Yes. According to the American Conservative Union ratings, his score was 12.56.

Joe Manchin's score is 26.10, getting into actual centrist territory.

Krysten Sinema 14.19
Hillary Clinton 7.89
Barack Obama 7.56
Bernie Sanders 6.05
Amy Klobuchar 5.01
Kamala Harris 4.45
Elizabeth Warren 3.36
Al Franken 1.50

"Centrist" -- one of those insult words that when you get down to it really means "yer a capitalist."

[doc03]

7. Biden ran as centrist but since he took office he

has been more liberal than I would like.

[mzmolly]

10. He's been more liberal than I expected,

and I'm pleasantly surprised.

[Kennah]

12. I think Biden is outperforming FDR

He's had to contend with Manchild and Cinnabon and now Speaker Kevin McAllister.

[ColinC]

14. Probably why he'll win re-election fairly easily

[LetMyPeopleVote]

15. I am happy with President Biden be a centrist