Biden needs to resist pressure from within

THERE was a time when someone would identify himself or herself as a member of the "political left", and you would assume that he or she supported narrowing social-economic inequality by redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor; and sustaining a thriving welfare state that provides assistance to the sick, the elderly and the needy. All this while seeking to extend civil rights and build stronger labour unions.

In recent years, the term "left" in the US and the West has increasingly been seen as a way of describing campaigners for social-cultural change. Such "social warriors" call for extending political protection to so-called "oppressed" ethnic and racial minorities, women, LGBTs (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender), and illegal immigrants - in the name of identity politics. In short, they subscribe to the "woke" culture.

The Democratic Party has traditionally been an advocate of the old interpretation of what it meant to be part of the political left - or progressivism. Under presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and most recently, Barack Obama, it helped lay the foundations of the welfare state. The party then mobilised the support of the majority of Americans for those policies.