There’s a lot you can say about the apparent death of Joe Biden’s legislative agenda, largely at the hands of West Virginia senator Joe Manchin. One thing that should be abundantly clear is that it starkly disproves both Biden’s and the corporate Democratic Party’s entire political worldview.

Biden’s campaign was predicated on the dubious idea that you could forge a political coalition, or at least a temporary alliance, between the superrich and the vast majority of working people. The first time he publicly hinted he would run for president — tellingly, at a Las Vegas hedge fund conference run by one-time Donald Trump comms director Anthony Scaramucci — he outlined this basic vision, pleading with the collection of Wall Street mavens in front of him to see it was in their interest to pay just a tiny little more in taxes to be invested in the country and its economy, for the sake of everyone’s future prosperity. This is how Business Insider recounted his speech:

“Raise your hand if you think twelve years of education is enough in this economy,” he said to the crowd.

Nervous silence.

So we need $9 billion, Biden said. To Wall Street, that’s nothing. Wall Street knows that for America, it’s nothing. But that $9 billion would pay for free community college for people who want it, Biden said. That, in turn, would add two-tenths of a percent to gross domestic product.

“Wake up,” he demanded.