The Era of Triangulation is Over
Once upon a time, Democratic presidents went out of their way to distance themselves from the left. Those days are over.
I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If someone sent you this email - or you are a free subscriber - and you’d like to subscribe: you can sign up here.
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In 1995, when Bill Clinton was an embattled first-term president staring at a tough reelection campaign, he constructed a political strategy that sought to place him above the usual DC political fray — triangulation.
Developed with his secret political consultant, Dick Morris, triangulation sought to position Clinton as a political centrist, an arm’s length distance from obstructionist congressional Republicans and liberal Democrats. This thinking had also informed Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential bid and the dominant belief within the Democratic Party that no Democrat could get elected to the nation’s highest office if the public viewed them as being too liberal.
In 2008, Barack Obama would adopt a slightly similar approach, as he sought to keep a foot in both the political center and left, but, truth be told, a bit more to the middle.
Joe Biden is, so far, having a very different presidency.
A White House 180
For days the Biden administration said it had no power to continue a federal eviction moratorium due to expire at the end of July, without congressional action. But after liberal lawmakers, led by Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, spent several days sleeping on the steps of the Capitol to bring publicity to the issue, Biden reversed himself and announced a new ban on evictions that will continue through October 3.
This is not the first time that Biden has done such an about-face. In May, after a furious backlash from pro-immigration groups, Biden agreed to raise the low cap that he had initially set on refugee admissions. What both these decisions have in common is a willingness to appease progressives. It’s a far cry from the approach taken by Clinton and Obama, who tended to treat liberals as inconvenient members of the Democratic coalition. The left had nowhere else to go politically, so neither president needed to bend over backward to maintain their support — or so the thinking went. Indeed, attacks from the left were often seen as a political asset, allowing a Democratic president to appear even more moderate.
Those days feel like ancient history. Instead, Biden has made it a top priority to keep liberals in the fold, promote their legislative agenda, and ensure that they feel respected by the White House. The effort is working. As Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, noted this week, “When you look at the scope of what we're doing, and the list of progressive priorities that are being moved and acted on, particularly when we get this reconciliation bill done, it is really important to recognize how progressive so many of these things we're talking about are.”
This is a crucial point frequently lost in media coverage. For example, earlier this week, when Nina Turner, a boisterous supporter of Bernie Sanders presidential bid, lost her race for the Democratic nomination in a congressional seat in Ohio, political commentators portrayed this as yet another defeat for the left (coming only weeks after liberal candidates lost in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City). Along the same lines, an Associated Press piece from earlier this week — looking at the eviction issue — claimed Biden’s tenure in office has been defined by “courting moderate Democrats.”
“Biden’s agenda has focused on working across the aisle with the bipartisan infrastructure deal, including keeping moderate Democratic senators happy. The president has yet to fully tackle progressive priorities like climate change, voting rights and student debt.
“But the eviction moratorium was an undeniable win for the progressives — and proof of their clout heading into a budget package that is especially central to Biden’s promise to reshape government’s relationship with its citizens.”
This is practically Exhibit A for how political media focuses on optics at the expense of actual accomplishments. The American Rescue Plan, which included a new child tax credit distributed to American families monthly, was a virtual cornucopia of progressive priorities. Indeed, the very fact that Congress is considering a $3.5 trillion budget package, which will contain even more progressive agenda items — in concert with a bipartisan infrastructure bill — is proof of the clout that liberals now enjoy in the party. That the White House knew they could not pass the latter without appeasing liberals on the former speaks to the undeniably powerful role that the left is playing in DC legislative politics today. In the past, Democratic leaders might have been inclined to tell liberals to suck it up and get on board with a half loaf, bipartisan bill. Those days are over.
That’s why Biden’s initial stance on the eviction moratorium will not matter much to the left when, as Jayapal rightly points out, they are winning so many other battles. Liberals clearly have confidence that Biden will not sell them out — and that he will listen to their concerns. In short, there is a trust between the White House and the left that we’ve not seen, maybe ever, in Washington.
So What’s Happening?
First, with Democrats holding narrow majorities in the House and Senate, Biden barely has a vote to spare, and alienating progressives, who have shown an inclination in the past to stand on principle, is hardly the best political path for the White House.
Second, there aren’t all that many moderates to appease. This is not to say that the Democratic party is made up, overwhelmingly, of liberals, but rather that most congressional Democrats support progressive priorities and, more importantly, don’t see much political downside to associating themselves with them. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema might be the two Democratic senatorial sticks in the mud, but they stand out because they are unusual. Most Democrats are okay with voting for most of the left’s legislative priorities.
Third, the left’s legislative agenda is politically popular. It’s true that the left made it a priority to champion large stimulus checks and expanding the child tax credit earlier this year. Guess what? People like getting money from the government. Polls from earlier in the year also show strong support for eviction moratoriums and government funding to help schools reopen, extend unemployment benefits, and assist state and local governments in balancing their budgets. Generally speaking, Americans support higher taxes on the wealthy, like to see social insurance programs like Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid be strengthened, and are on board or more infrastructure spending. (They don’t support policies like “defund the police,” which is one of the reasons that you hear so few liberal Democrats spouting that slogan). So, for Democrats to get behind liberal legislative priorities is not a case of the left holding the party hostage — it’s the party as a whole supporting policies that most Americans like.
It’s true, of course, that key Democratic priorities on student debt, climate change, and voting rights remain unaddressed, but there is only so much the White House can do on its own, without congressional action. But on those issues reliant on Congress, the White House is following the left’s lead and doing so willingly. The days of triangulating the president away from progressives feel like ancient history. It’s true that in local elections, more moderate candidates are prevailing, and surely that is disappointing to progressives. But while the left might be losing those battles, they are winning the war.
“Nothing Left To Do But Smile, Smile, Smile”
Last week, my friend Gareth Hughes passed away after a 2.5-year bout with liver cancer. I got to know Gareth because our kids both attended the same public school in Brooklyn, and we quickly bonded over a shared love of music and, in particular, the Grateful Dead. Gareth was also my go-to source for “adult movies appropriate for children,” which was a topic we would often discuss via text (Ocean’s 11 and Hot Rod were two of his best calls). Or we’d talk about some killer Dead show we were listening to, the best version ever of “Scarlet-Fire,” the sheer greatness of the riff in David Bowie’s “Rebel, Rebel,” that Eric Clapton was horribly overrated, or the random oddities we’d see in our Brooklyn neighborhood. We planned to go together to see the Dead and Company show at Citi Field this summer.
Today, I looked on my phone and realized that I only had one picture of Gareth, but I can’t think of a photo that better captures his spirit and joy of life. The world is a slightly worse place today without Gareth Hughes in it.
In one of our many conversations about the Grateful Dead, Gareth spoke to me of his deep affection for “He’s Gone.” He loved that a song initially written about their band manager who had embezzled funds from the group morphed into a meditation about loss and death. He loved the idea that a piece of art could evolve to take on a completely different meaning.
He told me once that he particularly like this version from 1972. So give it a listen, and then hug someone you love. Consider donating to the GoFundMe page set up to help his wife and two young kids when you finish.
Americans at our core are centrists.
I am very sorry for the loss of your friend Gareth.