The US is in the middle of an ideological paradigm shift. After decades in the political wilderness, progressives now dominate culture and are poised to dominate economic policy as well. To some, this represents a terrifying prospect. But alternating ideological programmes are an important part of how nations advance; the progressives need to have their serve.
The ascendancy of progressivism is naturally generating dismay among conservatives. The danger is that they’ll respond by using undemocratic means to try to halt the Biden Revolution in its tracks. That could include even more severe gerrymandering, electioneering or even further political violence like the January 6 insurrection.
The New Deal, despite its early missteps, ended up creating enduring progressive institutions that transformed American society for the better. Social Security, modern labour law, unemployment benefits and banking regulation were among the programme’s biggest successes. These were followed by Johnson’s Great Society programmes, which were effective in reducing poverty.
Wage growth, which should theoretically have got a boost from both tax cuts and deregulation, ticked up in the 1990s but never attained the levels of the post-war boom.