In a remarkable — and uncharacteristic — show of restraint, the radical left is biting its lip and holding its fire following Joe Biden’s debate performance.
Biden disavowed the Green New Deal during the debate — even though he admits it was the inspiration for his plan. In fact, both plans are ridiculously expensive and guarantee energy shortages in the future.
He also reiterated his opposition to Medicare for all, although he keeps promising to accomplish exactly what Medicare for all says it will do: affordable insurance for all and first-class health care. He’ll just do it on the cheap and not call it Medicare for all.
Biden is running away from his strongest, most active supporters and while they don’t like it very much, they’re putting up with it because they know if Biden wins, he will be their man and will be easy to control and manipulate.
“Our differences are exactly why I joined Biden’s climate unity task force — so we could set aside our differences & figure out an aggressive climate plan to address the planetary crisis at our feet,” [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] tweeted late Tuesday, referring to one of the working groups Biden set up with liberals after capturing the nomination. Biden said Wednesday that he while they had not spoken recently, “I appreciated her endorsement.”
Her Green New Deal co-sponsor, Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), sounded similar notes. “I support the Green New Deal and I’m voting for Vice President Joe Biden,” Markey said in a statement. “Donald Trump is wrong. The progressive left is with Joe Biden, and we will pass a Green New Deal.”
Biden is weak. There are questions about his mental abilities. He has never shown the kind of political courage it would take to stiff his most vociferous supporters and tell them to get off the bus.
The left knows that if he wins, they have him.
Biden’s posture at the debate reflected his belief that the path to the White House runs largely though moderate suburbs where voters are sick of Trump but are not ready to embrace ideas such as government-run health care or defunding the police.
But that strategy is not without risk, and some on the left fear that turnout could be depressed among liberal voters. Sanders himself has expressed concerns about Biden’s strategy.
There’s no doubt Trump-hate will be a powerful motivating force for the left to go to the polls on Election Day. So while many radicals may be fuming at Biden for not mounting the battlements and going over the top with them on health care and climate issues, they know he won’t be far behind.
Where does that leave the rest of us? The Bill Clinton campaign called it “triangulation” — the art of making all sides think you’re on their side — which is just another way of describing how to lie to the American voter about what your real plans are.
Biden isn’t one-tenth the politician Bill Clinton was. He doesn’t have to be. The radical left has never been closer to the levers of power. This will not only mean ruinously expensive policies, it will also mean that they will create the mechanisms and structures of government where dislodging them from power may be impossible.
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