By focusing so much on manufacturing, old-style union power and worker organizations, and geopolitical competition with China, the Biden administration paid too little attention to the changing structure of the economy and the interests of the new working class. It had the right intentions, but the wrong strategy.
CAMBRIDGE – As US president, Joe Biden charted a new economic path for the Democrats by siding unabashedly with the working class and introducing a wide range of industrial policies to reinvigorate manufacturing, reshore supply chains, and promote the green transition. Most of these new policies made economic sense, and like many other progressives, I thought they made political sense as well. What, then, accounts for Vice President Kamala Harris’s disappointing electoral performance, especially with working-class voters?
CAMBRIDGE – As US president, Joe Biden charted a new economic path for the Democrats by siding unabashedly with the working class and introducing a wide range of industrial policies to reinvigorate manufacturing, reshore supply chains, and promote the green transition. Most of these new policies made economic sense, and like many other progressives, I thought they made political sense as well. What, then, accounts for Vice President Kamala Harris’s disappointing electoral performance, especially with working-class voters?