Joe Biden Abandons Some Liberal Principles In Latest Policy Moves: The man who said that the United States faces an existential crisis with climate change and declared his administration would do everything to fight it, is now singing a different tune.
Progressive environmentalists are crying foul against President Joe Biden’s policies to decrease the influence of oil and gas companies. He promised during the campaign that his White House would never support drilling on public land, but he recently gave the go ahead to do just that in a measure that is worrying some of his biggest supporters.
Does He Agree With Conservatives Now?
Biden has been roundly criticized by Republicans for gutting the U.S. oil industry and failing to unleash American energy companies to drill more and take advantage of vast reserves in oil and gas. The president appears to have listened judging from his latest policy move to approve an oil extraction project in Alaska.
Conoco Phillips’ Willow program will drill up to 199 oil wells at three drill sites on public land on the North Slope of the state. Biden’s leftwing Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, was notably silent during the decision making leading up to the approval. This frustrated liberals who believed they had a champion in Biden’s cabinet who would address climate change admirably and stop drilling on public lands.
A More Moderate Joe Biden
That’s not all of Biden’s newly moderate policy positions. The president has long supported statehood for Washington, DC that would give the capital two new senators and a full-time, voting representative. This has been a progressive policy staple. Now Biden is hiding his usual yearnings for making the District of Columbia a state. Earlier this month, he signed a more conservative bill that over-ruled changes to the DC code regarding crime. Democrats that the move hindered the city’s quest for more home rule.
Shift in Border Policies
Meanwhile, Republicans have been howling since Biden was inaugurated about what they say are “open border” policies at the Southern Border that have allowed a record-breaking stream of illegal immigrants into the country. The border crisis has convinced the Biden administration to change some liberal polices concerning migrant policy.
Biden may allow Customs and Border Protection to apprehend families at the border who come into the country unlawfully. He also may make changes to the refugee asylum policy that further limit who can cross the border legally. Leftist pro-migrant activists are not in favor of these two shifts.
These measures that address the environment, DC statehood and crime, and immigration policy are a curious departure for Biden. Progressives in Congress have up to now have been satisfied with the president’s work to bring leftwing policy ideas to fruition.
Try and Corral Centrists
But these extremist positions have turned off Independents – a large and important voting bloc that are needed to propel him to re-election. Joe Biden has not polled well with centrist voters and he is looking for issues that he can “triangulate” to make his presidency more palatable to moderates.
On the other hand, Biden needs every progressive on board to get re-elected and that mean continuing leftist policies. Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive group Our Revolution told the Guardian that Biden must keep the leftist lane well-trafficked so as not to turn off his regular supporters.
“I would say the base isn’t overly enthusiastic about Joe Biden being the [2024] standard bearer. So it would be important for the president to keep giving the base some red meat and keep folks energized early versus trying to deflate that.”
The problem is that most Americans are more concerned about the economy, inflation, and interest rates than they are about esoteric issues such as DC Statehood. Plus, many voters who do not live in border states are not aware of the crisis affecting Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Drilling in Alaska is also not top of mind.
These shifts could come back to burn Joe Biden in the long-run. He has governed way to the left after promising he would unite the country on issues that the president believed could bridge the divide with pragmatic, common sense, and non-ideological problem solving. It is likely too late to capture the Independents that have left him, and the new policy stances could only anger his biggest supporters.
He might turn off young people who he promised would get student loan relief – an effort that has languished in the courts. Twenty-somethings are usually animated on climate change and believe in refraining from drilling on public lands. Generation Z is an important part of the Democrat coalition and Biden risks losing this group.
So, Joe Biden could get burned by alienating his base. It’s surprising he has made a turn to the center, and he may not have fully thought out this strategy. Going to the middle worked for President Bill Clinton who won a landslide to earn his second term in 1996. But this is a different and more polarized country in which the progressives have no patience for moderation. Biden may find himself lonely and the only person who supports the latest policy changes and that could negatively affect his re-election effort.
MORE: Is AOC a Sellout?
MORE: Hunter Biden Has a Big China Problem
MORE: Kamala Harris ‘Seems to Be An Albatross’
MORE: Pete Buttigieg: Running for President?
MORE: What Trump Getting Arrested Could Look Like
Author Expertise and Experience:
Serving as 19FortyFive’s Defense and National Security Editor, Dr. Brent M. Eastwood is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Army Infantry officer. You can follow him on Twitter @BMEastwood. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Foreign Policy/ International Relations.