Going Big: FDR’s Legacy and Biden’s New Deal

Kuttner (Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism?), cofounder of The American Prospect, underwhelms in this cursory attempt to place in historical context the challenges President Biden has faced in enacting his domestic agenda. Contending that “Biden’s presidency will be either a historic pivot back to New Deal economics and forward to energized democracy, or a heartbreaking interregnum between two bouts of deepening American fascism,” Kuttner details how past progressive policies, most notably FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society, changed millions of lives for the better and harshly criticizes Jimmy Carter and other Democrats for “abandoning the party’s liberal wing” and embracing Republican policies on deregulation, tax cuts, and military spending. Though Kuttner makes a convincing case that bold policies are needed to address the country’s ills, he doesn’t fully reckon with the electoral challenges Democrats face, and he fails to offer plausible hope that their razor-thin Senate majority will allow for passage of New Deal–type legislation. Elsewhere, Kuttner insists that Democrats should make the 2022 midterms a “referendum” on Donald Trump, without seriously considering the arguments against such an approach, and pays only minimal attention to electoral reform. This progressive rallying cry falls short. (Apr.)