There’s a reason Nikki Haley continues to win votes in Republican primaries despite dropping out of the race. It’s the same reason college-educated middle-class and upper-middle-class voters are rallying around Biden and the Democratic Party in general.
Of course, some of these high-end voters are urban and suburban liberals who have been voting Democratic for years. But almost all of them are temperamentally moderate, value functioning institutions, and rebel against leaders who seek to overturn constitutional arrangements and expand their power.
Whether these voters support tax cuts or regulation, they understand that Donald Trump is the true radical in this election. He has said he will become a dictator (for one day only, he claims), mobilized violent mobs to overturn the 2020 election, attacked the judiciary, and used prosecutorial powers to punish political opponents. threatened to use it.
Even at the level of economic self-interest, some wealthy conservatives are willing to put aside their concerns that Biden wants to raise taxes and prefer more stable governance than the chaos that Trump’s new term will portend. You may like The bullish performance of the stock market under the Biden administration could push some stocks in this direction.
An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Wednesday highlights Biden’s opening to pro-institutional conservatives. The report found that while Democrats are united on a range of systemic issues, Republicans are divided, providing many wedges for Biden to drive into the Republican coalition.
For example, Republicans are divided on whether we need leaders willing to break the rules to get the country back on track (56% approve, 43% disapprove) and on allowing religion to play a role in government policy (40% approve, 58% disapprove). ) Opinions were divided. ), granting immunity to presidents who commit crimes while in office (34% in favor, 63% against), and recognizing Biden as the legitimate winner of the 2020 election (38% in favor, 61% against).
Democrats, by contrast, were much more united against rule-breaking, opposition to religion in government policy, and granting presidential immunity. Unsurprisingly, nearly everyone deemed Biden the legitimate winner of the election.
However, Mr. Biden cannot win simply by advocating conservative causes. Not only will he need progressive voters to turn out in large numbers, but he will also have to show how he has responded to the economic discontent caused by Trump’s 2016 victory.
Biden’s paradox is that while he is an institutional conservative, he is the most economically progressive president since President Ronald Reagan taught “trickle-down” or “supply-side” economics. be.
A revealing symposium published in Democracy magazine (with which I have been associated for many years) details how far Biden has pushed the boundaries of policy. He emphasized the importance of government investment as the key to economic growth. He pursued regulatory changes to empower workers, lower drug prices, eliminate “junk fees,” and protect the environment. He has launched a tougher approach to antitrust law to increase competition. And he supports raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations to expand access to child care, health care and other forms of social insurance.
As Tim Wu, a Columbia University law professor who served on the Biden administration’s National Economic Council, argued in a New York Times op-ed, the president’s strategy is “unconventional, bold, and far-reaching,” meaning that it is “unconventional, bold, and far-reaching.” should be seen as an attempt to replace harmful policies. It combines a form of capitalism with an earlier, fairer model of free enterprise. ”
Biden’s challenge here is twofold. Many progressives, especially young people, find it difficult to see the 81-year-old president as an embodiment of change. Biden has a lot of work to do to show the nation how much reform he has ushered in and how much more he proposes. But institutional conservatives, especially those in the corporate world whose votes he also needs, prefer quiet to boldness and the status quo to change. The more Biden tries to send his first group home, the more he will instill fear in the second group.
Walking this tightrope may be easier in practice than in theory. Buying companies is never bad politics. A Marist poll found that 89% of Democrats think corporate greed is the main cause of inflation, but so do 57% of Republicans.
Mr. Biden has also received significant support from Mr. Trump, whose wild and often hateful rhetoric will continue to shake the souls of many conservatives. An AP/NORC poll late last month found that while 43% were “very” or “extremely” afraid of a second Trump administration, fewer people had such fears about the new Biden administration. It was revealed that only 31%.
Biden’s mission in this campaign is to show that “safe” can be compatible with “progressive.” Biden’s lack of “excitement” and perhaps even his age may be some of his greatest assets when it comes to making this claim.
