It’s a Democratic Presidency, not progressive. But Sanders’s influence is continuing.

Rivals and disagreements between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are beyond the COVID relief package.

Xiaodong Fang
4 min readFeb 11, 2021

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Every new President has a hard time working with the Congressional opponents from the other party, as well as with a former adversary within the party. Now that Trump is gone, the electoral alignment between moderate and progressive Democrats’ goes to an end.

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

Senator Bernie Sanders, who was President Joe Biden’s major rival in the 2020 party nomination, offered his different opinion to Biden’s $1.9 trillion dollar COVID-19 relief bill.

Unlike the losses in 2016, the Democrats survived the division between moderates and progressives in 2020 and swept the Presidency, House, and Senate. But, that does not mean the intra-party conflict is over.

Progressives like Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren still have a voice in this government, as well as in the electorate.

President Biden needs Sen. Sanders to paved the way for the legislation to progress

Sen. Sanders is now chair of the Senate Budget Committee. The White House recognizes Sanders’ crucial role in advancing the legislation, and notes that addressing income inequality should become a priority.

“The President and Vice President have been clear we have to work with our allies on the hill and that includes Senator Sanders.”

— One Senior White House official

A 50–50 split Senate with tie-breaking Vice President Kamala Harris signals a fragile majority for Democrats. So it is difficult for President Biden to pass ambitious legislation, advance a massive budgetary procedure, put his appointees and nominees on board, and/or end a filibuster. Democrats…

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Xiaodong Fang

Political Scientist studied and worked at #Georgetown #IowaState #JamesMadison | Observing #Elections and #China