Richard Cohen is arguably America's worst center-left columnist. (Typically, he refers to 1992 in his column, because it's always Reagan's America for guys like Cohen.) However, he wrote that he has concerns about Biden's changed position on the Hyde Amendment. This comes with the standard pundit's bullshit about "flip-flopping" but this time it feels appropriate.
Cohen, again mired deeply in his imagined presence of the 1990s, sees a Democratic Party that has a sizable minority of abortion opponents. In fact, only 4% of Democrats want to overturn Roe, and I doubt they vote Democrat, instead holding on to a vestigial party identification. An additional 19% of Democrats want to see more restrictions on abortion, but that adds up to 25%. Interestingly, Democratic preferences on abortion line up rather closely with Independents.
That Biden couldn't see the Hyde trap coming is what is so worrisome, and Cohen notes that (after some obligatory tut-tutting over Democrats who use Roe as a litmus test). But mostly he's concerned that Biden is abandoning a deeply held principle in his changed position on Hyde. Does he really believe that Biden truly supported Hyde all these years? Biden is much more a compromise for the sake of compromise type of politician. That's one reason the activist base of the party is so deeply suspicious of him. His rhetoric about being able to work with Republicans after Trump leaves office is delusional. Supporting Hyde for all those years is part and parcel of the '80s and '90s Democratic Party that many want to see quietly sidelined.
Biden has been an extremely lazy candidate. He's not doing many fora or town halls. I can't recall him giving long interviews. He's coasting on his association with Obama.
This Hyde thing is simply the first time he's been openly challenged, and it won't be the last. Can a lifelong politician raised during the conservative ascendency of the '70s and '80s really become a fluid politician in the age of the internet?
I'm dubious.
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