Analysis: The coming weeks will define Biden’s presidency and shape

On Sep 7, 2021

The weeks following Labor Day will reveal answers that will set the stage for next year’s congressional elections. They will also help decide whether Biden has the potential for a historically significant presidency or gets swamped by the crises he was elected to conquer.

A crush of challenges and political battles are dominated by a pandemic Biden hoped would now be history. But the crisis is beginning to feel endless, and, as it batters national morale, is denting his political standing. The fallout from a chaotic exit from Afghanistan that encapsulated the ignominy of a US defeat is meanwhile raising questions about Biden’s core promise of competency. The internal Democratic Party tussle between progressives and moderates is highlighting the huge bet of the Biden presidency: That, at a time of national crisis, voters want a multi-trillion-dollar assault on climate change and the remaking of the social safety net.

Reverberations still ring from the conservative Supreme Court’s decision not to block the effective eradication of a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in Texas, which promises multiple political consequences. The House Republican Party’s radical turn to pro-Donald Trump authoritarianism also underscores the deep peril still facing American democracy.

Biden’s critical few months will unfold with his presidency tested as never before. His approval rating dipped over a brutal August, and he often seemed obstinate and impatient at criticism of his performance. But he has the tools of a political rebound at hand. He’s been underestimated almost his entire career — including during a campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination that only his close family and most loyal aides believed he could win. While all presidents endure rough patches, only the most successful pull themselves out of political slumps.

Capitol Hill drama

History sizes up presidents based on the transformative bills they passed. So, Biden’s legacy is on the line as soon as this week, as the battle resumes over a bipartisan infrastructure bill and the $3.5 trillion companion spending blueprint that would transform climate, social care and health care policy. Success on both will allow Biden to claim one of the most significant legacies of any Democratic president for half a century.

Each bill is core to his entire political belief system in prioritizing working and middle-class Americans. They are meant to show government can still work for regular citizens and to answer contempt for Washington democracy felt by many blue-collar Americans who were wooed by Trump’s populist nationalism and his skill at corralling the resentment of millions of Americans against distant elites.

Biden is stoking his own populist sentiment as he calls on the most well-off to bankroll the bills with higher taxes.

“For those big corporations that don’t want things to change, my message is this: It’s time for working families — the folks who built this country — to have their taxes cut,”…