A problem in social justice and left circles is a hesitancy, even a silence, in expressing a positive attitude to the Biden administration. I realize that on some issues – especially internationally – the administration’s posture is more than problematic, but on many other issues, it is breaking with neoliberalism and challenging white nationalist authoritarianism. It success in doing so will in large measure determine the outcome of the midterm elections, not to mention the day to day living circumstances of tens of millions.

Thus to take a standoffish or relentlessly critical position toward the Biden administration isn’t principled politics. It is, instead, a failure to understand the dynamics of left center unity and what is will take to successfully surmount the existential dangers of this conjuncture.

In the 1930s, the Communist Party, which evolved into the largest organization on the left at the time, didn’t make these mistakes. It made mistakes for sure, but not along these lines.