WASHINGTON — This week’s setback of a marquee voting rights legislation is, more than ever before in his 5-month-old presidency, putting President Joe Biden’s relationship with progressives under pressure.
The party’s failure this week to clear a procedural hurdle in the Senate that would have started debate on the For the People Act has brought to the surface once-dormant doubts among progressives that the president — when push came to shove — would prioritize their policy issues. They say his relationship with the left, the next election and his legacy as a statesman are on the line if he is unable to find a way to advance voting rights legislation and other core campaign pledges by summer’s end.
“We will have a lot more information about the legacy of this president by the end of July,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder of the liberal grassroots group Indivisible. “Because by the end of July, we’ll know if he has successfully passed reforms to meet the moment we’re seeing now. And history has not been kind to leaders of countries who, in the face of rising fascism, fail to rise to the occasion.”
