Victor Davis Hanson: Biden a prisoner in a policy paradox that could enrage left-wing base
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Joe Biden has become a "prisoner" in a "paradox," in that he had appeared to unite the moderate and left wings of the Democratic Party until most recently, according to Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson.
Hanson said on "The Ingraham Angle" that Biden took around 90 days to make a forceful condemnation of Antifa and other related violence in cities like Portland, Ore., and Washington DC, while he enjoyed a "steady" lead in presidential polling against President Trump.
"For about 90 days, he was a virtual candidate and he had a steady lead in the polls [and] he looked at that violence in the street, in Portland, and Seattle, as useful -- the anarchy and chaos purportedly reflected badly on the commander-in-chief," said Hanson.
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"Then, as [CNN host] Don Lemon put it, suddenly these things changed. The polls that your prior guests demarcated, there are a lot of other polls, and they see a gradual increase in Trump's support. It suddenly became 'we can't have this devil's bargain anymore with the hard left and we've got to come out and to sort of say something that they shouldn't do this' -- where they were perfectly happy to see a precinct burned down ... willing to tolerate that and now they are not so useful."
Hanson said Biden and the Democrats cannot effectively condemn Black Lives Matter after formerly "embracing ... the socialist agenda [of] the Green New Deal and reparations and the wealth tax."
"This is just the beginning because they have all these contradictions down the road. He has already stepped into fracking. During the primary, we are going to stop all new fracking, we are going to phase out fossil fuels, then he looks at this purple swing state paradigms and he says wait a minute. That is going to be about as popular as supporting BLM and we are going to see the same thing with guns -- and he is in a paradox.
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Hanson claimed that whenever Biden makes a statement that doesn't match a previous campaign platform or comment, the left wing of the Democratic Party is going to take pause.
"His base is going to say 'wait a minute, we were going to use you to carry this agenda through -- 'good old Joe from Scranton' -- you can't renege on this deal," Hanson explained.
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"He's a prisoner."
Hanson added that the "hard left" ideological tent has little support among the average American but holds "enormous cultural and media clout."
"If you are confined in a basement for 90 days and you don't go out to a place like Kenosha, you don't know what's going on in the world -- and they were shocked that these polls started to change and now they are trying to readjust and they are being told by Hollywood and the left, you can't renege on this deal."