Biden Needs Bigger (Smarter) Ideas.

• Date: 01 September 2020
• Author: Glastris, Paul

Joe Biden enters the final two months of the 2020 campaign about as well positioned ideologically as any Democratic presidential nominee in decades. Over the summer he and Bernie Sanders negotiated a set of policy positions in which the former vice president moved to the left on everything from climate change to immigration. But he conspicuously stopped short of signing on to the most controversial "big ideas" of his socialist rival, such as Medicare for All and decriminalizing illegal border crossings.

This new agenda, because it's been blessed by Sanders and other progressives, gives left-leaning Democrats reason to hold their noses and vote for Biden. It also makes it harder for Donald Trump to persuade wavering Republicans and Independents that Biden is a tool of the extreme left. That--plus the smoldering ruin Trump has made of the country--should, with luck, be enough to secure the White House and a Senate majority for the Democrats.

But even Biden's Pretty Darned Progressive agenda will be no match for the catastrophic situation he and the Democrats will inherit should they win back power. The young voters who rallied around...