Former Vice President Joe Biden’s rejection in 1975 of forced busing — he argued that it might interfere with “the entire black awareness concept” — probably will not haunt him more than any of his dozens of other cringe-inducing episodes in 47 years in public life. In fact, some of the thoughts he offered then might actually serve him well among a Democratic electorate more obsessed with identity politics than ever before.

Still, the ideas he expressed that might actually help him are the very ones that should be most strongly rejected today.