Liberals who got in line and backed Joe Biden as their best bet to get rid of Donald Trump are now faced with the realism of electing a centrist Democrat to the Oval Office. Biden's priorities are beginning to become clear, both in terms of the people whom he is selecting for Cabinet positions and through leaked audio recordings. Now, progressives are going to need to realize what they bargained for when they threw their full support behind Biden. The result is that progressive policy initiatives may have to wait until the numbers in Congress become more favorable.

In leaked recordings of a Zoom call with civil rights leaders, Biden gave a very close window into his thinking. His first major statement that he made was to excoriate activists for phrases such as "Defund the Police." In fact, he blamed that for the defeats that the Democrats suffered downballot. While this may be a simplistic view that does not capture the nuances of the national political debate, Biden made it very clear that he was going to try to tack to the center of the Democratic Party.

Biden Is Afraid to Robustly Use Executive Orders

The other nugget that was even more important should serve as a start warning to progressives who were expecting Biden to make robust use of Executive Orders to accomplish many policy goals. The problem for the Left is that Biden seems to have a fundamental view that many things cannot simply be done by Executive Order. The example that Biden gave in his remarks was that he could not restrict certain weapons through an Executive Order. He indicated that he would need to expend quite a bit of effort simply undoing all the messes and dumpster fires that Trump left him through his own orders and regulations.

This should be a stark warning to those like Elizabeth Warren who have been urging Biden to issue an Executive Order forgiving some or all of the student loan debt owed to the federal government. While many were speculating whether Biden would go that far, they may have simply overlooked the fact that Biden, at his core, is an institutionalist. He may simply believe that an expansive use of Executive Order would rob Congress of its powers under the Constitution. Biden spent 36 years in the Senate and still believes in relationships there and its prerogatives.

Progressives May Start to Get Restless Very Quickly

The question is how this will play out among progressives who believe that they have IOU's to collect after unifying quickly behind Biden after March. Our guess is that this will not be well-received when the Left has a long wish list after four years of Trump. However, they may now need to be content with the proverbial half a loaf, if they even get that much. While progressives have howled about some of the Biden's personnel picks, they have mostly held their fire. However, some Democrats, including Chuck Schumer, may end up seeing primary challenges in 2022 if the Left believes that they were played by Biden.

The mystery here is whether Biden truly believes that everything major must be done only through Congress. What is definite is that Biden seems to be true to his word about trying first to work across the aisle with Republicans. He will likely do this regardless of the winner of the Georgia runoffs. The question is what will happen when he runs into the human brick wall known as Mitch McConnell. Will Biden be content to have his presidency grind to a halt after over three decades of dreaming about the office?

In any event, we now know Biden's opening position. Much of his early efforts will be devoted to undoing Trump's regulatory and executive lunacy. Outside that, he will make vaccine distribution and leading us out of the pandemic a priority as well as passing some COVID-19 stimulus. Beyond that, the Biden Administration will be a mystery as his hands will most likely be tied by a closely divided Congress. Regardless, Biden's expressed hesitation about using Executive Orders will hurt him when it comes to trying to play ball with McConnell. If Leader McConnell has no reason to believe that Biden will act on his own, he will have no incentive to do anything other than to return to his usual role of obstructionism.