What If Biden Can’t Deliver for His Party’s Left Wing?
His executive orders may mark the peak of progressives’ impact on policies to change the country.
The two on the left are not likely to be happy.
Photographer: Alice Keeney/Bloomberg
A series of executive actions by President Joe Biden has pulled U.S. policy to the left on a range of issues including fracking, abortion and transgender athletes. Progressives should savor the moment, because it could well represent a peak in their efforts to change the country.
Biden came into office with a very progressive platform. But it is entirely possible, even likely, that he won’t deliver on much of it. His immigration proposal is for show, not an attempt to get something through Congress. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin’s opposition means he may not have 51 votes for a $15 minimum wage, let alone the 60 that Senate rules probably require. Democrats don’t have nearly enough votes to create new states, block voter-identification laws or increase gun regulation. Legislation on some of those issues would struggle even to pass the House.