President Joe Biden scored a major victory on Friday night. For months, negotiations between different factions of the Democratic Party have threatened  to tank his domestic agenda. But after the President stepped up the pressure and urged lawmakers to “vote now,” the House passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill with bipartisan support, sending it to Biden’s desk for his signature. 

House Democrats also moved forward with the larger spending package to strengthen the social safety net and fund environmental programs, with a tentative deadline to pass the legislation by mid-November. 

The deal took place after a difficult week. Democrats have been scrambling for answers after the party suffered several resounding election losses, from the gubernatorial race in Virginia to local contests on Long Island. Many Democrats, convinced they know exactly what went wrong, claim the party moved too far to the left. “Nobody elected [Biden] to be FDR, they elected him to be normal and to stop the chaos,” said Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger. 

But Biden has chosen a more ambitious path. As a veteran legislator, he still believes when voters yearned for competence and normality in November 2020, it didn’t just mean they wanted a President who avoided Twitter and refrained from firing White House staff in dramatic, made for television announcements. He understood Americans wanted a President who could actually tackle the nation’s biggest problems.  

And Biden is on to something important.