Brooks: Biden Is Seen as Too Far Left, Out of Touch on Issues Like Crime and Inflation Because He Tried to Pass Something Big

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks said that there is a perception that President Joe Biden has gone too far left and is out of touch with issues people in the center care about like inflation, coronavirus, and crime, and that perception “was a necessity” if the president was going to attempt to pass big legislation.

Brooks said there are two perceptions Biden needs to address, “and he needs to address them, not with words, but with actions. The first is, he’s become ineffectual. People think he’s not getting stuff done. And that’s because of the last six months, he hasn’t gotten a lot done. The second perception, he’s not in touch with the desires of people in the center, that he’s gone too far off to the left. And I think that was a necessity if he was going to try something big. But those concerns are things like crime. They’re things like inflation. They’re things like COVID. And they’re mostly economic right now. And so, fixating on the issues that are of interest to the center strikes me as the only way to even get 50 votes, let alone 60.”

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