The Irish Times view on the US presidency: the radicalism of Joe Biden
The US president has proved to be an energetic and ambitious progressive who has begun to reshape the US, specifically the role of the state, in a fundamental rebalancing of the market economy
Thu, Apr 8, 2021, 19:00
US president Joe Biden has proved, within scarcely two months, to be an energetic and ambitious progressive who has begun to reshape the US, specifically the role of the state. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Joe Biden has surprised friends and foes. He was seen during the election as a cautious centrist, whose Trump-imposed nickname “Sleepy Joe” captured a sense that America might elect a time-server, a cautious, safe 78-year-old to allow the country recover from the previous administration. But the US president has instead proved, within scarcely two months, to be an energetic and ambitious progressive who has begun to reshape the US, specifically the role of the state in a fundamental rebalancing of the market economy. Comparisons with Lyndon Johnson’s 1960s Big Society and Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal programmes are already being made.