Biden as a New F.D.R.? Try L.B.J.

Joseph R. Biden Jr. was supposed to be another Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democratic president who enacted transformative liberal legislation and in doing so built a lasting political coalition. … The decision to prioritize the goals of his party’s activist base over the issues prioritized by voters is more reminiscent […] Read more »

Five Warning Signs for Biden as He Marks First Anniversary in Office

Key Points• As Joe Biden marks a year in office, he has found himself in a perilous position, and there are no obvious signs of improvement.• Among Biden’s challenges is an apparently weakened position among nonwhite voters as well as younger voters, two immensely important pillars of the Democratic coalition.• […] Read more »

America’s shift to the right in 2021 is worse news for Democrats than it seems

… Democrats have repeatedly hoped that Trump would prove so poisonous that the electorate would turn against the GOP. It worked in 2018, when the midterms served as a repudiation of Trump’s politics. It didn’t work in 2016, though, when Trump first won, and it offered only limited utility in […] Read more »

It’s Foolish to Predict the Midterms Until We Know Covid’s Future

… In sharp contrast to everyone else doom scrolling about the pandemic, political handicappers seem determined to treat 2022 as an ordinary election year. As a result, we are awash in glib forecasts about how the inflation rate, Biden’s approval numbers, or the Democratic stalemate on Capitol Hill will determine […] Read more »