Of all those themes, the student-debt idea may rank among the most dangerous to Biden. The amount of money at stake may be comparatively small, but the symbolism of what’s being done could be huge: a tax on the voters whom the Democratic Party most desperately needs to regain. And all in order to benefit small but internally influential blocs of activists.

Nobody is proposing to forgive $10,000 of federally guaranteed home-mortgage debt. So why student debt? It’s a classic case of opting for strong claimants over strong claims.

In the same vein, student-debt forgiveness also relieves the colleges and universities that drove students into debt in the first place. Instead of pressure on providers to control costs and steady prices, debt relief suggests to colleges and universities that affordability should be somebody else’s concern, not theirs.

The proposed debt forgiveness would also tend to confirm the image of Biden as a president not strong enough to restrain and direct his coalition: The president’s personal reluctance is being visibly overcome by other factions in his party. The move risks repeating earlier politically damaging mistakes of the president’s first term—only this time, a lot closer to an election.