Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

F.O. simpleton.

Voters punished Biden for problems he didn't cause and effectively addressed

In what will be a generous gift to his successor, President Joe Biden beat inflation, brought down gas prices, created millions of jobs, spurred strong growth, boosted retirement savings and revived American manufacturing — just in time for Donald Trump to take credit for all of it.

Any objective assessment of Biden’s tenure would show him to have been a highly successful president, especially on economics (even if no president can actually bring down the price of gas all by himself). The fact that he is widely viewed as a failure shows just how warped our political and informational systems are.

In the inevitable circular firing squad Democrats and progressives are now assembling, one of the most prominent criticisms is that the party plays too much to its highly educated base, and if it wants to succeed then it must reconnect with working-class voters. As Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Wednesday, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”

Yet, far from “abandoning” working-class people, Biden’s has been the most economically populist presidency in decades, probably since FDR’s. He was the first president to walk a picket line, with striking autoworkers. His labor record has been exemplary: He banned noncompete agreements for most workers, expanded overtime pay and saved the pensions of hundreds of thousands of workers. The Federal Trade Commission is finally attacking monopoly power. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which all but lay fallow under Trump, is protecting consumers again. The bills he signed have begun a manufacturing boom, focused purposefully on jobs that don’t require college degrees.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/biden-trump-presidency-accomplishments-rcna179235