Biden at risk of putting off cen­trists as he appeals to his left flank

While Pres­i­dent Joe Biden has been mak­ing over­tures to more lib­er­al Democ­rats, he may have under­cut him­self with his party’s cen­trists and inde­pen­dents before Novem­ber.
But Biden act­ing as con­sol­er in chief in Char­lotte, North Car­oli­na, on Thurs­day after the shootout deaths of three U.S. Mar­shal fugi­tive task force mem­bers and a local police offi­cer could mark the start of him mak­ing amends.
Biden won the 2020 Demo­c­ra­t­ic nom­i­na­tion as a self-described cen­trist, but has since adopt­ed more lib­er­al poli­cies, in part as a peace offer­ing to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I‑VT) and his sup­port­ers after the pri­ma­ry. Four years lat­er, the more vocal Left remains influ­en­tial with­in the par­ty, cre­at­ing chal­lenges for Biden as he tries to keep “the dis­parate fac­tions” of his coali­tion togeth­er, accord­ing to North­east­ern Uni­ver­si­ty polit­i­cal sci­ence pro­fes­sor Costas Panagopou­los.
“Biden could con­ceiv­ably alien­ate cen­trist Democ­rats with poli­cies designed to appeal …