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Pulling Biden to the left
From the point early in this year that the Democratic Party managed once again to derail any chance of a progressive nominee, I have been told that we on the left must work to get Joe Biden elected, after which we can pull him in our ideological direction. When this has ever worked in the past is never demonstrated, but as an article of faith, it appears to satisfy the party’s current center-right base. Progressives are called the base, but we are seen as an embarrassment that have to be treated like children every four years for the good of the party’s mature members, its elected politicians.
But how realistic is it that Biden can be pulled to the left? His announcement that he would nominate Neera Tanden to head the Office of Management and Budget is a good test of what the Democrats promised progressives. The office in question is responsible for coordinating the agencies of the executive branch to comply with the president’s policy objectives and to prepare a budget to submit to Congress. As such, Tanden would have one of the most powerful roles in a Biden administration, and her work would take place mostly in the sausage factory of government, rather than in its storefronts.
Given how much influence the OMB director has in shaping an administration’s policy goals, the left has good cause for objecting to Tanden’s nomination. She has spent years on what has looked…
