Yup, Joe Biden Has Turned Left 

Shortly before the Trump administration exited, I penned an open letter to then president-elect Biden, saying that if he truly thought that it was “time to heal America,” as he’d declared post-election, there was a simple thing to do: “put progressivism on ice for four years,” and only advance measures broadly acceptable to both sides of the aisle.

Democrats, I suggested, could lower the flames, because they were in many ways responsible for turning them up. “Simply put, on social issues, Republicans have mostly stayed the same; Democrats have done the changing,” the piece continued. “Millions of Trump supporters are simply ordinary Americans who resent being told that their social views are antiquated, and their conservative morality bigoted. Stop trying to socially engineer American morals by bureaucratic diktat, and many conservatives will be prepared to hear the sensible policies you propose on any other subject.”

Well, now we know how closely my columns are being read in the West Wing. Because with the honeymoon blush still fresh on this administration’s cheeks, Joe Biden demonstrated his social-engineering prowess with a raft of executive orders.

Sprinting out of the starting blocks with an alacrity belying his years, Biden signed into law progressive orders on climate change, mask wearing, a stimulus bill, and immigration (see Washington Wrap).