If President Joe Biden were wiser and more honest, he would reboot his presidency to govern as he campaigned: a man of the center-left, eager to work with Republicans in the name of national unity.

Throughout the Democratic nomination campaign, Biden presented himself as the candidate who believed “we have to reach across the aisle, get things done. No other way to get anything done in this country.” During the general election campaign and in his inaugural address, he repeated the word “unity” as a mantra that would solve almost every ill while insisting he would “be a president for Democrats and Republicans” — for all voters rather than just his party’s hardliners.