The strongest evidence yet that the neoliberal era is over

Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

Joe Manchin's stance on the filibuster might get a lot more people talking, and negotiations over Joe Biden's spending bills might garner far more attention from the Washington press corps, but a bill poised to pass the Senate on Tuesday by a wide bipartisan margin is arguably a far bigger story than either. The New York Times calls it "the most expansive industrial policy legislation in U.S. history," and it may be the strongest evidence yet that the neoliberal era in American politics is dead and buried.

From the Reagan administration on down through the Obama years, both parties inclined toward favoring free trade. The rationale was two-fold. Dropping barriers to trade — opening markets to goods and labor — would lead to economic growth that would benefit everyone. It would also help to plant seeds of political liberalism in places that had so far resisted the lure of the open society.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.