Now that Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, spectators are beginning to wonder what policies he will adopt as he attempts to appeal to the progressive wing of the party. From foreign policy to environmental protection and corruption, Biden will attempt to curry favor with skeptical left-wing voters by creating a unified platform.
Biden’s close ties with banking (he has been derisively called “The Senator from MBNA,” referring to his relationship with the former Delaware-based banking giant), will make a significant leftward pivot on banking policy a politically difficult one. He risks alienating long-time (and deep-pocketed) supporters, and there’s plenty of evidence that he’s an ideological moderate with regards to banking.
So how might Biden appeal to the left without angering his moderate supporters? One potential solution lies, in all places, at the post office. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have long advocated for the re-establishment of the Postal Savings System, which operated from 1911 to 1967 and allowed people to make deposits at local post offices. Its re-establishment has become a popular idea among many policy-makers on the left, and even made it into the 2016 Democratic Party platform.
Read the full op-ed at The Fiscal Times.