Will the election of Joe Biden lead into a new progressive era? This is being asked all over the world. In Britain, Keir Starmer wants to model Labour on Biden’s “path to victory”, which he described in a Guardian article as “paved by a broad coalition” based on what people most value – “family, community and security”. That statement could come from any political party, and hardly differentiates progressives from conservatives.
What is most remarkable about the US election is that someone as discredited and narcissistic as Donald Trump could receive 74 million votes, 11 million more than in 2016, after egregiously mishandling a pandemic that has killed over 300,000 Americans.
Bernie Sanders, also writing in the Guardian, says that Democrats must appeal to “working families”, and offer a standard package of social democrat policies, all sensible. Both Starmer and Sanders seem to offer a new version of Third Wayism. Progressives who have watched the spectacles of Trumpism or Brexit are entitled to ask whether this will be anything like enough to reverse the populist tide.
