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The Return of Bill Clinton
Joe Biden’s approach to governance is not the only way.
Joe Biden is an unpopular president. He has spent over two years with an approval rating near forty percent. His opponent, Donald Trump, is trusted more on nearly every social and economic issue from immigration to inflation and unemployment. Biden’s weakness has prompted a number of left-leaning third-party candidates to join the race, most notably Cornel West, Jill Stein, and to a certain degree Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Biden is in such a precarious position that it is front-page news when there is a story that his staff is not panicking.
Joe Biden still has advantages over Donald Trump. He has the benefits of incumbency, universal name recognition, and the ability to improve his image with economic success over the next year. But there is still a good chance that Biden will lose in 2024. If he does, such a defeat will not just push Biden into retirement, but will also lead to a substantial shift in the operations of the next Democratic president.
Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 was not just a repudiation of the Trump administration. It was also a subtle rebuke to the way Democratic politics had been run for 30 years. Biden launched an experiment in Democratic governance. His administration would embrace youthful movements and government-focused economic policies. Instead of spending as little money as possible like the 2009 stimulus, Biden generously expanded welfare spending and gave out checks to American families. In marked contrast to the 2009 cap-and-trade failure, Biden passed the largest policy ever enacted to combat climate change with money for green energy companies and infrastructure. He became the embodiment of a neo-Keynesian approach to government that has gained steam for the past decade.
In order to implement his policies, Biden also used a different staff than his predecessors. His staffers are young, diverse, and committed to social justice and extending the power of government throughout society. They helped push the old and calcified Biden into policy areas that young people supported. He canceled billions in student loan debt in addition to the wide-scale cancellation overturned by the Supreme Court. He also changed the names of military bases named after Confederate generals and enacted a number of executive orders designed to…
