Change a means, not an end

AMERICAN politics is based on frustration, leavened periodically with doses of idealism and unrealistic hope.

Future president Joe Biden is going to disappoint the broad and diverse coalition that brought him into office. Every successful president does that – the unsuccessful ones, too. Our mismatched political institutions encourage bold demands and deliver only incremental gains, very slowly.

Biden’s path will be particularly difficult, partly because of the differing ambitions of the social movements that propelled his victory and partly because his position is weak: he’ll enter the White House in the midst of a public health crisis, facing a Supreme Court that is stacked against the sorts of initiatives he’s promised and