Even some of the private sector’s subtler attempts at exploitation have been sniffed out and stopped by the Biden administration in the last couple of weeks. One day after the FTC and DOL announcements, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg eliminated hidden airline fees and now requires airlines to promptly pay out refunds after flight cancellations. This brings America one step closer to the sort of consumer travel protections enjoyed in Europe—and signals to corporations that if they don’t adopt fair, friendly policies on their own, this administration will step in.

Most recently, on climate change, the issue that will determine the course of the global economy for centuries, Biden has restored regulations ripped apart by the previous administration. The National Environmental Policy Act (which was gutted by Trump in 2020) has been fully restored and expanded by President Biden. The law empowers communities to reject fossil fuel projects that would pollute their homes and make them sick.

These reforms don’t necessarily add up to a second coming of the Great Society. But they do put money back into the American people’s pockets, protect them from corporate interests, and signal that if the American people elect the right leaders, their government can make life tangibly better.

But at the same time, if President Biden wants to get voters—particularly young voters—to care about impactful incrementalism in domestic policy, he will have to get out of his own way and shift course when it comes to foreign policy.

This latest wave of campus protests and Netanyahu’s brutal intransigence have represented an opportunity for the Biden administration to reset its approach to the cataclysm in Gaza. Thus far, they’ve yet to take it. Barely a quarter of all voters endorse his leadership on the conflict. And since the fall, his polling among Americans under 34 has dropped by 16 points. Yet his response to a bad-faith effort from the right to discredit those young people has been to take the bait and issue equivocating statements that satisfy no one.

No matter how many more strategically timed domestic policy wins he notches this year, the president could well lose a narrow election on this issue alone. If he wants to reassert control over his own foreign policy—and lift up his domestic achievements—the answer now is the same that it has been for months: using the power of US arms assistance to condition Israeli war policy, calling for a lasting cease-fire, and using every tool at this country’s disposal to secure one.

This outcome would not just be critical from a humanitarian and geopolitical perspective, but also essential to heal the divisions widening daily across the country.

Even as school lets out this month, student activists are showing no signs of backing down from this fight. A Harvard survey found that a strong majority of young Americans support a permanent ceasefire—and that same group supports Biden over Trump by a narrower margin than ever.

Without real change, we could experience an even more troubling case of déjà vu: a chaotic and pitched Democratic National Convention in Chicago, portending a grim November.