Biden will never be liberal enough to energize the new base of Democratic voters enthused by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, and that is why he is the nominee. Democratic voters wanted to defeat Trump, not start a revolution to remake the country. Sanders was twice unable to attract moderate anti-Trump voters. In order to win in November, Biden must appeal to swing voters who despaired an election between Sanders and Trump. If he truly wanted to campaign on a theme of returning to normalcy, Biden should have rejected the extreme left in his own party.

Now that he has secured the nomination, this is when Biden should be moving to the middle to compete for the blue-collar workers Trump converted to his cause four years ago. This is the time to appeal to swing voters, not preach to the base. Yet, Biden is doing the opposite. He is adopting watered-down versions of Bernie’s policies. Where Bernie advocated for “Medicare for all” and “free” college tuition, Biden is now proposing to lower the Medicare age to 60 and expand tuition debt forgiveness programs. Biden will never be pure enough for Bernie’s most enthusiastic supporters, and every step he takes away from the middle is a step closer to Trump winning a second term.