A month after Joe Biden took office, his political agenda is already hanging in the balance.
In order to win the presidential elections, Biden had to go for meanness – he distorted his campaign in such a way as to please both the progressive part of the Democratic Party, and the conservative Democrats and the centrists. As the newspaper “The New York Times” writes, the gamble was a success, and Biden occupied the White House. Now is the time of reckoning. Amid a health crisis and economic stagnation, the President of the United States is facing severe pressure from his own party.
Speaking in Wisconsin, Biden announced his readiness to begin negotiations on raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
At the same time, he scrapped plans to cancel student debt of up to $50,000 by his decree, sparking protests among progressives, student activists and some members of Congress.
This is just one example of the Democratic Party facing a stress test that it has not faced in decades. Democrats have long prided themselves on bringing together liberals, moderates and even conservatives. While this ideological mixture has helped the party take control of the White House and Senate, Biden’s agenda will pay the price.
Progressives, for example, are confident that raising the minimum wage and canceling student loan debt will become Biden’s legacy and a symbol that the president has fulfilled his campaign promise to rebuild the country. Moderate Democrats, for their part, argue that the road to success begins with a tone of unity and bipartisanship.
Such controversy is a consequence of the overly vague promises that Biden made during the election campaign. For more than a year, the party has been united by the idea of ousting Trump, holding back moderate and progressive Democrats. Now that the goal has been achieved, the discord that lurks beneath the surface is taking shape.