Biden seeks to appease the Left as Democratic fissures emerge

Yet those fears seem to be misplaced, with Biden’s top spokeswoman signaling liberal Democrats won’t be let down by the two-term vice president once he’s inaugurated.

Republican strategists, including Brad Todd, suggest Biden’s buckling to the Left has been a running theme of his bid, citing his running mate choice of presumptive Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

“By picking Kamala Harris, the most liberal member of the Senate by voting record, Joe Biden gave reason to believe it is his intention to allow the left-most elements of the Democratic Party to have heavy influence on the rest of his administration,” Todd told the Washington Examiner.

But with another divided Congress set to be sworn in next year, pundits and Democrats don’t believe centrist voices will be entirely drowned out.

A Republican Senate headed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would make it “nearly impossible for really progressive legislation to pass,” according to the Brookings Institution’s governance studies vice president Darrell West.

“Leader McConnell will block action, and there won’t be a majority in favor of those bills,” West said.

“Even if Democrats win the two Georgia Senate seats, it will be challenging to enact a progressive agenda because there are moderate Democrats such as Joe Manchin who would not be likely to support the legislation,” he added of the West Virginia senator. Prior to the Georgia runoff, Republicans enjoy a 50-48 advantage in the chamber.

Although he reached out to socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s base after two bitter primary cycles, West predicted Biden would “turn out more centrist than liberals would like due to the political forces that will be arrayed against him.”

The thought of frustrating the Left once terrified many Democrats, fearful of low participation or primary challenges.

Former President Barack Obama, for instance, urged activists last month to stay engaged with the process regardless of how quickly reforms were introduced. Obama was shellacked during the 2010 midterm elections because of suppressed Democratic turnout and the rise of the Tea Party movement.

In his apparent victory speech last Saturday, Biden spoke about uniting the country, imploring Democrats and Republicans to work together.

“I believe that this is part of the mandate from the American people. They want us to cooperate,” he said.

Yet he listed climate change and systemic racism as issues he’d like to address, topics lawmakers can’t even agree are problems, let alone discuss solutions.

Biden spokeswoman, Kate Bedingfield, then made overtures to liberals the following day on a Sunday morning show.

“Do you believe that she’s going to be disappointed or not when she sees the agenda of the Biden administration in the first six months?” NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd asked specifically of socialist New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“No. I think that Vice President Biden campaigned on an incredibly progressive and aggressive agenda. Take a look, for example, at his climate plan,” Bedingfield said. “It’s a big, aggressive plan. It’s the perfect example of the kind of big effort that he is going to make to meet this moment and meet these crises we’re in.”

The line between the Democrats’ left and center has become more pronounced after last week’s elections, with House Democrats shrinking their majority from 232-197 to 218-201 as of Wednesday.

In a leaked caucus call, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who narrowly won reelection in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, which voted for President Trump in 2016, criticized the socialism tag’s acceptance and slogans such as “defund the police.”

“If we are classifying Tuesday as a success from a congressional standpoint, we will get f—ing torn apart in 2022. Excuse the profanity — that’s the reality,” she said last week of the Nov. 3 contests.

Ocasio-Cortez, in response, pointed to lackluster digital strategies and a lack of door-knocking amid the pandemic, recommending candidates canvas constituents year-round.

“So the whole ‘progressivism is bad’ argument just doesn’t have any compelling evidence that I’ve seen,” she tweeted. “When it comes to ‘Defund’ and ‘Socialism’ attacks, people need to realize these are racial resentment attacks. You’re not gonna make that go away. You can make it less effective.”

For Christopher Hahn, Aggressive Progressive podcast host and a former Democratic strategist, Biden had been “very clear” that he would be “open to good ideas from wherever they come from.”

Hahn warned liberal Democrats who “settled” for Biden over Trump to temper their expectations.

“He has also stressed that he believes the mandate he was given by the American people was for compromise,” Hahn said of Biden. “I think there are many things progressives have pushed for that will be embraced by the president-elect, but no one should expect to get everything they want given the makeup of Congress.”