I wish Joe Biden would be a 'Trojan Horse' for progressive policies. I wish the Biden/Harris ticket was secretly bringing in more progressive policies. The reality is they aren't.
The terms 'liberal' and 'progressive' have been so conflated in our current political discourse as to have no meaningful distinction to many people. Yet the terms refer to radically different philosophies and conceptual policies. Liberal is not the opposite of conservative as is often imagined by some of our populace. In modern US politics liberals are 'left-leaning' conservatives.
Liberals support many conservative economic policies. They staunchly support capitalism and tout 'free markets'. They differ from some conservatives, and some libertarians, in how to regulate those markets and companies within the markets. Their foreign policy is often conservative leaning as well. There are considerable differences in conservative and liberal polices in regards to economic 'safety nets' in the economy, with liberals typically supporting stronger unemployment and disability protections. Liberals generally support workers' rights and unionization that conservatives tend to disfavor. The biggest differences between the typical liberal and conservative values are often social. Liberals tend to hold more progressive social positions. Often couched with reservations, limitations, or hesitations, however.
Progressives support strong, forward thinking, and urgent change. Both economically and socially. The tepid support liberals have for things such as a public health care option is a far cry from calls for universal health care that progressives advocate for, as one example. Progressives often favor either dismantling capitalism, careful systemic economic regulation, or mixed economies. Progressives typically don't trust invisible market forces to magically lead to best economic outcomes or general prosperity.
Despite cries of alarm from the Right Wing reactionaries and Trump, the Biden/Harris administration will be centrist, as often leaning to the right as to the left. Just as most establishment Democrats have been in the modern era. So how can a progressive in good consciousness vote for Biden or other Democrats when there are more progressive candidates available? As long as our system supports 'first past the post' voting a progressive can only really vote 'blue' while advocating and pushing for incremental change. Until we adopt more inclusive systems, such as ranked voting, we are typically stuck with choosing between the two political parties with the most political and economic power currently in the US. In one of the more perverse side-effects of our system a small third party can siphon votes that would have gone to a more progressive leaning candidate from one of the two bigger parties there-by aiding a conservative or reactionary candidate.
I would have preferred voting for Bernie Sanders. I would have preferred voting for Andrew Yang, Elizabeth Warren, or many other candidates who were more socially libertarian. I would have preferred voting for a candidate who was more leftist economically. Alas, those candidates were not chosen by the DNC. And in our current voting system your choice lies with the DNC or the GOP, other candidates and other parties simply will not garner the needed votes to win a US federal election in almost all cases.
I voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I voted for other Democrats. This was not because they harbor a hidden progressive agenda. This is not because they are progressive leftists who mold closely to my own leftist or progressive beliefs. It is because they are the only sane choices in our elections this year who stand any chance of winning office. It is because what the GOP offers is authoritarianism, creeping fascism, and increasingly ignoring the rule of law. I voted this way because four more years of Trump and the GOP will continue to damage and tear at our country.
I could have maintained a veneer of idealogical purity by finding the most progressive, leftist candidate and voting for them. I could have pounded my chest and claimed I was no sucker for the DNC and the center-right candidates they always trot out. But we're in the middle of a class war and I voted strategically to defeat the worst of the worst - Trump and the party that has enabled him. My vote was not for the establishment Democratic Party but against the reactionary fascist party the GOP has become and against the wannabe strongman-dictator Trump styles himself as.
I only wish the mythical progressive Democratic Trojan Horse was real.