I think the real reason that Machin and Sinema get to hold the party’s legislation hostage is that the party’s legilative agenda is progressive. If the party’s legislative agenda were conservative, then Elizabeth Warren would get to hold it hostage.
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What is the evidence for this? To me it always looked like Biden gave no fucks about the Republicans and proceeded to pass something very close to his original plan.
Seriously, if I’m wrong on this, I’d love to get more info.
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Portman’s amendment and again, two months.
Nope. It doesn’t work that way. Warren and Sanders were never going to hold this up, even with pork barrel going to WV, even if they put defense spending in it. You know why? People need this help, and neither of them (or any progressives) are going to hold that up. The moderates cough Conservatives cough are the only ones who hold this kind of legislation up, and they do it with a gun to the head of the most desperate Americans.
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Everyone benefits from this, unlike the games Trump played.
The Democrats need to learn how to message though and trumpet this victory in 2022 or we’ll be right where we are now, or worse.
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So you agree with me. The reason that “moderates” get to hold up the legislation is because the legislation is progressive.
The reason that progressives don’t hold up legislation is that Democrats aren’t proposing any shitty conservative legislation.
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Yet.
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“If minimum wage had simply kept up with inflation since 1968, it would be $25 per hour now. Sound good?”
“No!”
“Okay, how about $15 an hour, then?”
“No!”
“Okay, well, how about universal health care? My wages would go a lot further if I didn’t have to worry about medical costs.”
“No!”
“How about free college then, so that everyone at least has a chance of getting a job that pays a living wage?”
“No!”
“Can we at least tax the rich fairly so that at a bare minimum our infrastructure and public education aren’t completely broken and shameful?”
“NO!”
What exactly do our politicians want from us? Other than to just lie down and die?
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And DC as well.
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"Sadly, progressives don’t win swing districts. "
SMH. The GA runoff elections were only 2 months ago… FFS.
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Your question might have been rhetorical but the pandemic casualties over the last year provides an answer.
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They want to keep us just one notch above that, so that we can ‘keep the machine running,’ and they can keep reaping all the benefits.
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It’s discouraging to see the triangulation-style approach applied by Biden, Schumer and Pelosi. The “non-partisan” budget parliamentarian’s ruling regarding the minimum wage increase clearly had the blessing of legacy DNC leadership. Nary a feather was ruffled.
That said, I’m surprised as hell this bill didn’t get watered down more than it already was. And I pray to Dog this is a bellwether of more promising things to come. Lets get some chickens in some pots and KEEP ON PUSHING. Without some serious progressive follow up we’re all fucked in approximately two years.
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If the politician is a Republican, that’s exactly what they want.
What good are you once you have outlived your usefulness?
When you get sick, that cuts into profits.
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I really, really need someone to explain to me what the actual point of Joe fucking Manchin is.
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No, not good for them. Good for them would have been holding the line and forcing Manchin to eat crow by voting against (as someone else tried to claim) “the most popular bill of all time.”
No.
I did not vote for conservatives. If Manchin is going to control the party, then the Democrats will be fucked hard in 2022 by an electorate who did not get what they voted for: $2000 relief checks, a $15 minimum wage, etc, etc. Manchin is the loaded gun that will put the GQP right back in charge. And Biden is too “let’s all find compromise” to understand it.
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here are a few points regarding joe manchin:
–he aligns as a democrat.
–he runs in a predominately republican state which went for trump over biden 69%-30%.
–over his career in the senate he has voted against the democratic party 20% of the time. this gives him credibility in west virginia to run as a “different kind of democrat.”
–the last time the democrats had a majority of the senate there were members to the right of manchin like mark pryor and jon tester who were more problematic than he was.
–the current 50 + 1 situation in the senate is what gives senators with the will to go against the majority of the delegation their peculiar power. as i’ve mentioned upthread, the 60 vote majority in the 111th congress (09-11) contained seven or eight democratic senators to the right of manchin. in that congress manchin was irrelevant because there were so many others worse than he was to reduce the stimulus and screw with obamacare.
–i’m hoping no one here wants to force manchin into the republican party or into the position of “independent, caucusing with republicans” because then we have majority leader mcconnell and nothing else the democrats want to do happens, even if manchin were to favor it.
in my opinion, the solution to the problem of joe manchin is to elect more progressive democrats going forward. that is going to take work at the county, state, and national levels.
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