Somewhere in the morass of contemporary American politics, centrism has lost its way. The fringes seem to have deposed the establishment, and the last bastions of political sobriety, like John Delaney and Mitt Romney, have been subjected to excoriating attacks from party elites.
Former Vice President Biden’s recent reclamation of his front runner status hasn’t changed a thing. His position as the presumptive nominee does not make him the new standard-bearer of moderation. Biden has embraced radical stances on the campaign trail, many that would be anathematic to his brand of politics a decade ago.
For starters, Biden backs a health insurance public option, which was considered too extreme for Democrats to incorporate it in the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Don’t be deluded by the clever euphemisms and the fact that eleven other major Democratic candidates supported a public option. The health policy scholar who provided the theoretical basis for Obamacare even admitted that given the underlying dynamics of the proposal, the end result would be a fully government-run health insurance system. A public option would mean the collapse of choice and competition in the health insurance markets, more on-budget costs transferred to taxpayers and healthcare professionals, and the decimation of private health care alternatives for patients.
Then there’s Biden’s desire to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. A Congressional Budget Office report found that this measure would cost 1.3 million American jobs and could be as high as 3.7 million. The report also determined this wage hike would reduce business income, raise prices for consumers, and hasten automatization, meaning even more unemployment in the long run. Biden has also proposed $3.4 trillion in tax increases, more than double what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed as the Democratic party’s nominee in 2016. Now Biden says he wants to end cash bail. New York state enacted a similar bail reform policy into law last year, and the results have proven disastrous. Serious crimes in NYC rose 16.9% in January, and law enforcement remains on edge.
These are not the policies of someone running as a moderate. Biden’s campaign is doing everything it can to woo progressives who supported Senator Bernie Sanders and feel disaffected by the Democratic establishment. Biden’s only centrist bona fides is the fact that political observers believe he has the best chance of beating Donald Trump. To accept the narrative that Joe Biden is a centrist champion entails overlooking the details of his agenda and the overall leftward shift in Democratic Party politics.
For the center to truly regain its footing, it must repudiate the cynicism of the dueling extremes of grievance-based populism, instead of appeasing this sentiment. Additionally, if centrists are to have a future in the national conversation, they should refrain from whitewashing America’s past or lambasting the republic as a den of capitalist iniquity and sinful prejudice. Instead, they should extol the virtues of American democracy, remaining conscious of the work that needs to be done to achieve a more perfect union. Even in our postmodern age, there is still a large portion of the electorate yearning for true patriotism.
Lastly, instead of conducting purity tests, as radicals on the left have done on the issue of abortion, casting aside millions of pro-life voters, for centrism to reemerge, the two parties should each aim to be as big of a tent as possible. Despite all the fodder that has been made of Donald Trump’s divisiveness, at least he has made genuine overtures to African Americans and working-class whites left behind by the negative externalities of globalization to broaden his party’s appeal. To transcend the adage, “the center cannot hold,” maybe centrists can take a cue from the 45th President, and try to grow their respective parties, instead of castigating anyone with whom they disagree.
At this point, Biden’s primary appeal is stability. The former vice president offers a “return to normalcy” after four years of Trump’s turbulent presidency, and an idealized cease-fire in partisan warfare. He hopes that the COVID-19 pandemic will bolster his attractiveness with voters who are looking for a predictable candidate. However, this narrative needs to be based on reality to hold water. If Biden continues to hide behind the headlines generated by the outbreak and coalesce around quixotic positions, as questions regarding his mental health and sexual assault allegations linger, he’ll have a hard time convincing voters this November.
