As negotiations continue among Democrats about how to proceed with President Biden’s agenda, the media has once again become obsessed with their “Democrats in disarray” narrative. Leading the pack is, of course, Politico. I would imagine that those kinds of storylines create more clicks than the piece I wrote recently about learning to live with uncertainty.
But even beyond that observation, I am in total agreement with Melanie Sill.
https://twitter.com/melaniesill/status/1443881605194473472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1443881605194473472%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fimmasmartypants.blogspot.com%2F2021%2F10%2Fonly-one-political-party-is.html
We’re watching Democrats hash out their differences. Of course, we all agree with one side more than the other. There have been elected officials who work to breach the divide and those who seem to be intent on making it worse. But that’s always the case.
One of the reasons these kinds of negotiations seem different is that one of the political parties is MIA. The history of our two-party system has usually been one of negotiation and compromise between Democrats and Republicans. But over the last decade, Republicans have made it clear that they don’t care about governing.
Initially, President Biden reached out to Republicans. That is precisely how the infrastructure and Build Back Better bills were split into two. The former passed the Senate with bipartisan support. But now House Republicans are backing off. That is precisely why almost every Democratic vote in that chamber will be necessary for passage.
So Republicans are content to sit back and do nothing while Democrats hash out their differences to get the legislation passed. One party is demonstrating how democracy is supposed to work while the other does nothing but lie and attack, as Sen. Marsha Blackburn did Sunday morning.
You’d be hard pressed to find a media outlet telling that part of the story – which is precisely why the GOP gets away with their abandonment of the democratic process.
Great post, thank-you. In Chris Matthews’ book, Hardball (much better than his TV show of the same name), he tells a story of Sen. Ed Muskie shepherding a piece of major legislation through 44 (iirc) House-Senate conference committee meetings as they negotiated a compromise that both houses could agree on. That’s how politics works—disparate interests compromising their principles to negotiate specific terms they can support.
Unfortunately I think those days have passed. Maybe not, but these days the other party takes their orders from the Donald and no so much logic. Their personal interest is to keep their office and that dictates obedience. But just maybe a few will help out. If not …….
Yep, it’s definitely a problem for our democracy that the Republicans are, for the most part, a post-policy party.
Great post!
Biden was on tv pleading for republicans to live up to their obligations. Nice try Joe. Somehow I doubt they give a damn. You have a better chance to pass the reconciliation bill at $1.5 trillion and incorporate the debt ceiling in it. Of course you have two assholes on the democratic side too but maybe they will see their way clear to prevent a default. Otherwise we are all screwed. You can always pass another bill next year I suppose.
As much as I loathe Manchin and Sinema (and I’ll give Manchin credit as he’s never held himself up as a Progressive like Sinema did before she got paid off) the Democrats need to pass as big of a bill as they can. Then they can start working on the next piece of legislation, namely legalizing/decriminalizing cannabis and commuting all of the cannabis criminal sentences across the country. It might not pass, but let’s get names on records for 2022.
If we have to go it alone, let’s go already. Get what we can get, and work to make Manchin and Sinema’s two votes irrelevant after 2022. Or, we can keep playing the waiting game for Manchin to become a Progressive and for Sinema to get some Soros Bucks and switch back to being a Progressive again.
Oh, and for the love of Christ, can someone tell Breyer to fucking retire before we end up with Associate Justice Ted Cruz.