The High-Water Mark of Biden-Era Progressivism

Two notable acts of Democratic defiance signal a change.

One is an old-school Democratic senator from West Virginia, surviving and thriving in an increasingly red state; the other is the progressive mayor of San Francisco, a city that is a byword for cutting-edge left-wing politics.

Yet both, in their own ways over the last week, signaled that Biden-era progressivism has reached its high-water mark. Manchin, of course, delivered an emphatic thumbs down to Joe Biden’s signature “Build Back Better” plan, while Breed reversed field on crime in a stunningly frank endorsement of law and order in a jurisdiction infamous for the opposite.

The de facto pincer movement by the wildly different Democrats from wildly different parts of the country — San Francisco is roughly 19 times as large as the biggest city in West Virginia — shows that the progressive tide that built in the Trump years is finally colliding with political reality and the real-world consequences of progressive extravagance.

This doesn’t mean that progressivism is spent, obviously. It dominates the media, academia, and almost all the rest of elite culture. At the same time, Democrats still control the elected branches of government in Washington. But a growing backlash against progressive excess has found expression in two notable acts of Democratic defiance.