Bloomberg: “The geography of electorally significant places in need of revitalizing is hardly limited to Aliquippa or western Pennsylvania. It encompasses broad swaths of the Rust Belt, none more vital to the election than the triumvirate of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. These states proved decisive in 2016, when Trump, running as a right-leaning populist, swept them en route to an upset victory over Hillary Clinton. They were decisive again in 2020, when Biden’s left-leaning populism helped pull them back into the Democratic fold. If Trump or Biden sweeps them again in November, he will almost certainly win the White House.”
“Today that prospect looks iffy for Biden, who trails Trump in many head-to-head polls. But Biden’s struggles overshadow his radical change in strategy for how Democrats try to help long-neglected areas like Pennsylvania’s steel country. Biden has broken dramatically with the laissez-faire approach to trade and industrial policy taken by the last two Democratic presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Instead, he’s embraced the populist ideals advocated by Democrats to his left, such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, by having the federal government take a direct role in shaping the economy.”
