Evan Vucci/AP Photo
Biden found himself on the defensive every time Sanders brought up his 36-year voting record in the Senate.
For those who want to see the Democratic nominee dispatch Donald Trump in November, and those who want to see the Democratic nominee move to a more progressive position, there was good news yesterday—only, it didn’t come during last night’s debate. It came before the debate began, when Joe Biden’s campaign announced he’d shifted his position on free public college. Previously, Biden had supported tuition-free education only at two-year community colleges. Now, he supports it at four-year public universities and colleges as well, for every student whose annual family income doesn’t exceed $125,000—a position his debate-stage rival, Bernie Sanders, staked out several years ago, and has improved upon since.
The move was of a piece with Biden’s decision on Saturday to support Elizabeth Warren’s proposal for making bankruptcy far less onerous for middle-class Americans—a clear turnaround from Biden’s zealous promotion of the very onerous bankruptcy legislation he helped turn into law in 2005, which made it almost impossible for people to get out from under medical and other forms of debt.
In other words, the Biden campaign has figured out that in order to win in November, he has to do more to win over progressive voters and voters under 50—so long as that requires embracing positions that are widely popular.
Well, the campaign has sort of figured that out. Partially. Sometimes.
During last night’s debate with Sanders, Biden found himself on the defensive every time Sanders brought up his 36-year voting record in the Senate, during which time Biden was an almost unfailing barometer of the conventional wisdom. Pro–Iraq War, pro–trade deals, pro–debt collection—Biden was there. Unfortunately, Biden chose to defend his every vote, sometimes by distorting beyond recognition either his role or the meaning of the vote. (Biden’s claims notwithstanding, everyone knew at the time that the Iraq resolution gave George W. Bush carte blanche to go to war.) The former veep would have done better to note that he’s learned different since those votes were cast—or, perhaps more honest and actually just as good, that the party’s conventional wisdom has shifted since then, and, now as then, he seldom strays from that conventional wisdom.
For his part, Biden rightly challenged Sanders on his once-atrocious voting record on gun control and gun manufacturer liability, and wrongly challenged him on his opposition to authoritarian regimes, on which Bernie’s record is relatively stellar. Biden managed to argue himself into a corner when he claimed that China’s three-decade success in eliminating deep poverty was a sham because China, as Sanders has repeatedly said, is a dictatorship. Sanders was either kind or negligent in not pointing out that Biden had voted for permanent normal trade relations with China, while he had opposed it. (He did bring it up later.)
Whether any of the Bernie-and-Joe back-and-forth mattered to most Americans, or even most viewers of the debate, however, is questionable. Clearly, what is uppermost in every sentient American’s mind—every sentient human’s mind—is the coronavirus crisis, and there was no real difference separating the two candidates when they were asked what they’d do to deal with it if they were president. The difference came, completely unsurprisingly, when Sanders pointed out that the temporary governmental assumption of universal health care, to combat the emergency of the virus, should be made permanent—as, of course, it should. But Biden’s answers on what he’d do tomorrow morning were sensible, rational, compassionate, and (at last!) articulate, as were Sanders’s. That’s likely what most Americans care about.
The encouraging takeaway from the past couple of days, if not necessarily last night, is that Biden can be pushed leftward, particularly on the popular, more egalitarian economic reforms that the progressive community seeks. If Biden becomes president, that sets a template for what the left should do: shifting the conventional wisdom so that Biden will follow. As a leader, he’s a proven follower.
