As President Trump’s consolidation of autocratic power gains steam, it’s often been argued that the failures of liberal governance meaningfully helped to bring us to this moment. In this reading, the Biden administration—and other Democratic leaders in recent years—allowed well-intentioned caution and respect for parliamentary safeguards and procedures to hobble ambition, frustrating voters and making them easier prey for demagogues peddling authoritarian governance as our civic cure-all.

This reading has now picked up the endorsement of a surprising group: A large bloc of former high-level members of the Biden administration.

The left-leaning Roosevelt Institute is releasing a major new report Tuesday—with input from nearly four dozen former senior Biden officials across many agencies—that seeks to diagnose the administration’s governing mistakes and failures. The report, provided in advance to The New Republic, may be the most ambitious effort involving Biden officials to determine what went wrong and why.

In the report, Biden officials extensively identify big failings in governing and in the execution of the politics around big decisions—but with an eye toward creating the beginnings of a Project 2029 agenda. The result is a kind of proto-blueprint for Democratic governance to show that it can work the next time the party has power.

“We must reckon honestly with how we got here and why the American public has been so frustrated with these institutions for so long,” Roosevelt Institute president Elizabeth Wilkins writes in the report’s introduction. “The rising authoritarianism we see today shows us the stakes.”

  • Maeve@kbin.earth
    44·
    2 days ago

    MF we’ve pointed it out repeatedly! Nixon was to the economic left of Clinton, Obama or Biden, I’ve lived here for six decades, but do go on at telling me I’m wrong!

    Platforms don’t mean shit without codification and Dems conveniently excuse not doing any of it for 40 years, meanwhile GOP GET THINGS DONE. Not that they’re good things but they deliver what they promise. Dems wear kente cloths and vote for Rep agendas.

    ETA moreover, Nixon was environmentally left of Democrats since then, too.

    • edible_funk@lemmy.world
      21·
      2 days ago

      The solution was to roll your sleeves up and pull the country back left but you were apparently too busy jerking yourself off over being above it all. You register in closed primaries, stump for progressives and primary incumbent and establishment dems that aren’t progressive enough. You get grassroots support because these are wildly popular positions and always have been. But that’s a lot more work than just wanking off to “both sides bad”. Bit late for all that now though isn’t it Maeve?

      For the record the guy you’re arguing with clearly doesn’t understand what the terms he’s using actually mean, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to spout literal Russian propaganda points.

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
        22·
        2 days ago

        I voted and supported my candidate who damn sure didn’t run on genocide and campaigning with Liz Cheney. That was the solution, not wanking off and voting to “move farther right just one more time bro, I promise this time it’s going to work!” 🤡🌎

        The candidate, I will add, whom Democrats sued to keep off ballots in swing states.

        • edible_funk@lemmy.world
          3·
          2 days ago

          There it is. Congratulations, your principles and/or lack of understanding of how our federal system operates is responsible for Trump. Own it. You are the American that failed the open book test. I hope you get first have experience of everything you voted for.

          Edit: wait holy shit did you vote green party? Did you vote for the actually literally a Russian spoiler party and wanna talk about Democrats? That’s a choice alright.

          • Maeve@kbin.earth
            23·
            2 days ago

            🤡🤓

            Eta: I’m not young enough to know it all, nor old enough to be entirely forgetful. I’m in between, where I know and remember how many candidates Dems sued to keep off the ballots, while doing genocide and other war crimes.

    • finitebanjo@piefed.worldEnglish
      22·
      2 days ago

      Nixon sold drugs to black communities, is recorded on tape ranting about jews, kept a war going for personal gain, etc.

      He might have saved some trees and whales, but he wasn’t left of jack shit. Here’s him talking about the dangers of homosexuality:

      “They have a problem. They’re born that way. You know that. That’s all. I think they are. Boy Scout leaders, YMCA leaders and others bring them in that direction and teachers,” Nixon said. “And if you look over the history of societies, you will find, of course, that some of the highly intelligent people - Oscar Wilde, Aristotle, etc., etc., etc., were all homosexuals … Once a society moves in that direction, the vitality goes out of that society.”

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
        62·
        2 days ago

        Tell me you don’t know the difference between “economically left” and “socially left” without telling me you don’t know the difference.

        Uh guyz, people are starving and homeless but it’s fine if we arrest the homeless with rainbow zip ties! 🤓

        • finitebanjo@piefed.worldEnglish
          12·
          2 days ago

          Left means progress. There is no distinction between economically and socially left in the context of progress, you either lead to a better future for everyone or you don’t.