Bait-and-switch is not a good basis for building a trust-relationship

From I didn't watch Biden's speech last night by Anne Althouse.  She is making a point I think about with some frequency.  In the 17-person Democratic primary race there were plenty of positions from moderate center to far left (Sanders and Warren).  Democrats went for the center with Biden, pretty explicitly rejecting the far left (though Sanders has always had a small but fervid base.)

There were many positionings and messagings that Biden was the traditional moderate center everyone could trust.  

Democrats ended up going with Biden despite his poor showing in the various state primaries.  He was like a candidate saved because is everyone's second choice but is saved by the fact no one could agree on the many alternative first choices.  

Regardless of how extensive anyone considers the various issues around the 2020 election, most surveys indicate that a solid majority consider the election at least questionable, usually even among those identify as Democrat.

All this suggests that Biden should be governing from the center and through political norms (such as avoiding an overuse of Executive Orders when proper legislation from Congress would be the norm.  That clearly is not happening.  It appears we have an election result, and really a governance and policy platform, not amenable to either traditional Democrats or Republicans.  Our system seems to have failed to keep government policy aligned with national consensus.  In different words and different emphasis, Althouse is expressing something similar.

From Althouse:

I see — reading the NYT this morning — that he made "costly proposals" that "amount to a risky gamble that a country polarized along ideological and cultural lines is ready for a more activist government." Was that something America voted for last autumn? Obviously, not. It doesn't seem fair to spring this on us now.

Invoking the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mr. Biden unveiled a $1.8 trillion social spending plan to accompany previous proposals to build roads and bridges, expand other social programs and combat climate change, representing a fundamental reorientation of the role of government not seen since the days of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society and Roosevelt’s New Deal.

He should have had to run on that plan. Why did he beat Bernie? If this was to be the plan, we deserved a chance to vote for Bernie — or not. But the moderate, Biden, was pushed to the fore, pushed out in front of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who forthrightly represented this kind of government. Maybe one of them would have beaten Trump, but the Democratic Party edged them aside and gave us the seemingly innocuous Biden. It was an offer to get us back into balance, back to normal. It was a con. 

Bait-and-switch is not a good basis for building a trust-relationship.