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Biden will have to choose between cultural and economic radicalism

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Even the greatest democratic leader of the last century chose his battles. As Franklin Roosevelt formatted a New Deal in the economy, it preserved a large part of the ancient culture. The cause of civil rights was postponed for another generation. Thin immigration laws they were maintained, even when a request was made for the accession of the crowds of Europe. If post-Jazz malice was in the air, it wasn’t limited to Washington. Hollywood, the other capital, began enforcing its code against dangerous issues.

It is difficult to recount the mixture of material reform and the reduction of culture over the years. But one theory suggests itself. There is just so much change that society will undergo at the same time. If the rules of economic life change, people crave stability and even setbacks in other areas. Seen in this respect, it could be said that the conflicts of the 1960s are spasms of the nation trying to change too many fronts in a short time.

The question is whether Roosevelt presumed heir supports this reduction. Recently inflation He has thought that the backlash against President Joe Biden’s Great Government is on the way. But in itself his economic courage is not extraordinary. It’s a coincidence that there have been so many other changes.

Violent crimes are on the rise US cities for a time, reversing the trend of at least one generation. At the same time, the southern border of the country has been a source of anxiety and imbalance for many years. The authorities had “Meetings” there were more migrants in the 19th century in April than in any other month at the beginning of the century. Then there is the third source of cultural insecurity, a set of issues that are subject to the neologism of the day, “wake up,” with all its consequences for the first amendment to freedom of expression.

Taken together, these social upheavals are unlikely to constitute a revolution. It cannot be said that the president is their main author. The wave of crime began under the command of his predecessor Donald Trump. Since French identity politics it has been developing within the western left philosophers it took a postmodern turn in the 1960s.

But if it’s not his fault for the cultural upheaval, it’s his problem. Americans are being asked to absorb a break in the economy doctrine at the same time as the social context changes. As a matter of taking the issue in miniature, Congress is working on a tax hike and police reform. They only sell these. Biden is trying both at the same time. It’s a lot to process from a man who will think of you as a breath after many high drama the president.

The idea of ​​naturally equating economic and cultural reform is the latest. History more often throws the builders of welfare states, which are conservative, into a broader view of nostalgia. Clement Attlee British, Charles de Gaulle In France and Otto von Bismarck in Germany these are only the largest cases. For them, redistribution was a national glue, not a source of abstract “justice,” and they were changing something better done than they regularly did.

In other words, what Biden is trying to do – change on the back of even more change, it is provocative not only for American but also for Western politics. Depending on his age and voting results, it helps that he is a person who calms himself down. Don’t expect this image to last if voters feel affected by the events.

The simplest mistake in politics is to think that ideas that are well interrogated in their own terms are brought together in a popular whole. The truth is, voters don’t listen to the notes, they hear the chord. A pile of reforms can also exhaust and squeeze those who admire them individually. It is not Biden’s policies that invite central voter retaliation, as much as their number, extent, and simultaneity.

Gustave Flaubert’s rules can take so much radicalism on a person (“be regular and orderly in your life,” the writer said, “so that you are violent and original in your work”), the same applies to body politics as well. If Biden had won one of these land movements, such as 1932 or 1980, when people demanded a new audible career, he might have been licensed for general change.

Instead he clearly won but was not against one unsuitable in itself opponent in a rich year in world history. Congress is in the hands of democratic hands thin margin. It is a weak command to do so many activities. Those who know him say that the president has regained the normal arc of life as he grows eager for change over time. It’s a noble change, but it shouldn’t capture what it should be supposed to be.

janan.ganesh@ft.com

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