I am grateful to President Biden. That’s right. In one speech, his State of the Union address, he has done more than I have in years of writing to highlight how the MAGA and the progressive agendas are identical: subsidies for favored manufacturing, industrial policies, protectionism, anti-big-tech policies, and more.
Both sides even argue for these policies under the same cover of national populism. As Ross Douthat noted at the New York Times:
Biden just gave a State of the Union speech whose key themes and most enthusiastic riffs could have been lifted — albeit with more Bidenisms and fewer insults — from Trump’s populist campaign.
And let’s not forget the most noticeable moment of bipartisanship during the speech, when the president got confirmation that he and many Republicans agree that Social Security and Medicare shouldn’t be touched.
Phil Klein has a great piece on this:
“As we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right, they’re not going to be cut?” he said. And as applause traveled from the Democratic to Republican aisle, he added, “We got unanimity.”
Of course, we know the MAGA wing and progressives agree on adopting an extended child tax credit and on the federal role in providing paid leave.
All that was missing was Biden shouting: “Make America Great Again!”
That’s unity, and it is not good. It has, however, the merit of making things clear. Now, we can stop pretending that when it comes to wanting big, top-down government in our lives, there isn’t much of a difference between the two sides.