Don’t expect many progressive plans
When asked why they voted for Biden in the primary, a majority of Virginia voters said their main concern was to nominate a person who can defeat Trump.
The sentiments had been preempted by South Carolina voters last Saturday. This was the case even in a state where exit polls showed a majority favored Medicare For All, Sanders’ flagship proposal.
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Biden has been running on bringing back “decency” to American politics and contrasting his character with Trump’s. He has questioned the meaningfulness of progressive proposals and at one point, even told wealthy donors that “nothing would fundamentally change” if he becomes president.
This is not a bite at Biden, only a reiteration of the fact that he is not preferred because he has ambitious plans. He is preferred for the simple fact that he is a better man than Trump.
Biden did not even share the outsider’s vibe and progressivism that Barack Obama loved to posit, especially in Obama’s first term in office.
As Rev. Jesse Jackson said recently, “Biden was Barack’s right-wing. With Barack out, there’s nothing left but the right-wing.” Rev. Jackson explained that Obama’s choice of Biden was to invite the support of old-guard, conservative and white America.
This is where Biden has always proved useful – a Democrat willing and able to make the deals with conservatives by falling on retail politics and white working-class values.
