WASHINGTON — Among President Joe Biden's most valuable political skills has been a knack for planting himself firmly at the ideological center of the Democratic Party, a trait that helped him win elections amid shifting winds over five decades in public life. In office, that strategy enabled him to cobble together enough lawmakers to pass a large economic relief package and a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
But as he begins his second year, battling a relentless pandemic while navigating the limits of the narrowest of congressional majorities, he has struggled to follow that familiar path for the rest of his legislative agenda.
The desires of the Democratic center — transformational spending on social programs, tackling climate change and combating Republican efforts to limit voting — are not shared by all Democrats in the Senate. Without 100% agreement in the evenly split chamber, Biden cannot accomplish anything, given Republicans' refusal to cooperate.
