The Democratic Tent Got Too Big And They Are Now 2 Distinct Parties With Little In Common

As a former music industry executive, I'd like to see the song above by Garfunkel and Oates redone by a grand congressional choir made up of, say, Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Joe Manchin (WV), Scott Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ), Scott Peters (New Dem-CA), Kathleen Rice (New Dem-NY), Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR), Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL), Lou Correa (Blue Dog-CA), Jared Golden (Blue Dog-ME), Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX), Carolyn Bourdeaux (Blue Dog-GA), Ed Case (Blue Dog-HI), Conor Lamb (PA), Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA), Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA), Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA), Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY), Cheri Bustos (New Dem-IL) and a few 2022 candidates like Alex Lasry and Sarah Godlewski in Wisconsin, Cheri Beasley and Jeff Jackson in North Carolina, Abby Finkenauer in Iowa, Nicole Parra, Angel Lara and Rudy Salas from CA-21, Christy Smith in CA-25, Max Rose in NY-11, Fran Conole (NY-24)... you get the point, the crap from the Manchin-Sinema wing.

This morning, just as Pelosi was announcing that there's not enough votes to pass the conservative hard infrastructure bill without also passing the human infrastructure bill (reconciliation) and that she's not bringing it up tomorrow, Sean Sullivan and Tyler Pager, writing for the Washington Post, cobbled together the story everyone outside the Beltway has been worrying about while the damned DC politicians have been busy kicking the can down the road for 6 months: Democrats outside Washington worry party will blow its chance of enacting historic agenda-- a failure with grave political consequences. And grave is right. "Gilda Cobb-Hunter is furious with fellow Democrats. A veteran social worker, civil rights activist and the longest-serving member of the South Carolina State House, she is losing patience with the infighting that has stalled efforts to enact the agenda the party sold to voters. 'I am seething at how Democrats continuously revert to the circular firing squad method of governing,' she said. 'I just don’t understand it. I don’t understand why we continue to do that.'" Maybe she should primary corrupt conservative Jim Clyburn-- or back someone who will.

As Democrats in Washington struggle through contentious negotiations over a sweeping domestic policy proposal, many party activists and officials across the country are watching with a collective headshake and mounting anxiety.

They see Democrats in control of the White House and Congress, yet so far unable to resolve their differences over a multitrillion dollar infrastructure and social safety net package. They see in President Biden a candidate who ran on unity but is now plagued by intraparty divisions. In House and Senate Democratic leaders, they see competing priorities and a reluctance to get their members in line.

While many Democrats believe that in the end, party leaders will find a way to pass their ambitious plan, some have started contemplating a nightmare scenario, in which the talks fall apart and Democrats are left explaining to voters who gave them the keys to the car why they couldn’t get it out of neutral.

“We’re running out of time,” said Sean Bagniewski, the chair of the Polk County Democratic Party in Iowa. “The midterms are almost here.”

Eight months after taking over the reins of government, Democrats face a major test of their ability to capitalize on a once-in-a-generation chance to expand government services that hinges on their capacity to overcome disagreements. Outside Washington, Democrats believe the party’s political fate is inexorably tied to the outcome.

In this instance, Democrats cannot blame former president Donald Trump or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), since they have assembled a plan designed for completion with only Democratic support.

The consequences of failure would be devastating, Democratic officials and activists said, with a recognition that overhauling policing practices and the immigration system have become all but impossible while enacting a far-reaching voting rights bill is a long-shot at best.

Democrats have packed the rest of their priorities-- battling climate change, repairing roads and bridges, expanding health-care and child care, and underwriting the cost of higher education-- into twin proposals that are supposed to be the centerpiece of the party’s governing agenda and backbone of its midterm campaign platform.

Having already passed the infrastructure portion with bipartisan support in the Senate, Democrats can finish the job without a single additional Republican vote thanks to the process, known as budget reconciliation, they are using to pass the spending for social programs. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in a letter to colleagues Saturday that the House will aim to pass both measures this week.

Clinching enough Democratic support to make the whole thing work has proved elusive, putting Democrats looking on from battleground states on edge.

...Biden has emerged as something of a mediator, huddling separately with different factions in search of compromise. Some party activists urged him to dive deep into the talks in the pivotal days ahead.

House Democrats are hurtling toward a self-imposed deadline in coming days to vote on the infrastructure bill, which [corrupt conservative shit-eating Democraps] demanded as a condition of adopting a budget framework last month that made the social policy bill possible. But absent a broad agreement on what the latter bill should look like, House liberals have vowed to block the infrastructure bill favored by [corrupt conservative shit-eating Democraps] from passage, creating a conundrum for party leaders.

In the eyes of Cobb-Hunter, such logjams are the result of broader dynamics in the party and stubborn [corrupt conservative shit-eating Democraps] who she singled out for culpability in the most recent round of talks.

“I think it’s because we are truly are a big tent party and we want everybody to get along and we don’t have a killer instinct like the Republicans do,” she said. “Democrats just don't appreciate power-- what it takes to get to keep it and how to use it.”

...Beyond delivering a historic expansion of the social safety net, Democrats are trying to achieve something they set out to do from the minute they took over: demonstrate that government can work [something corrupt conservative shit-eating Democraps don't believe in anymore than Republicans do and don;'t belong in the Democrat Big Tent].

Failure to do that, would be a cataclysmic development, some Democrats said, reasoning that would it fuel Trump’s declaration that the system is broken and his claims the longtime Democratic establishment figures that ascended to powerful positions in the 2020 election can’t fix it. While Trump isn’t proposing policies to fix the system he says is broken, he was able to win in 2016 by stoking anger and not offering solutions. Democrats said they worry a failed agenda in Washington would be a boost for Trump, who says he’s may run again in 2024, and before that to Republicans in the 2022 midterms.

Inaction on the domestic policy package also presents more immediate perils. With Biden’s approval rating slipping on the heels of his chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and his ongoing struggles with immigration and the pandemic, Democrats in competitive races are starting to feel a drag. The antidote, many feel, is a sweeping legislative victory.

This will work... as long as the bill goes from covering 10 years, as it now does, to just 5 years:

The Democratic Party is either going to be the party of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt or the Party of Thomas Dewey and Dwight Eisenhower; it can't be both... even if the GOP is now the party of Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Ever since Bill Clinton decided to drag the party into the conservatism he adopted after a political defeat in fucking Arkansas, the Democrats have abandoned the working class and embraced... watch the video up top again.

If, for some reason, you're still a "lesser of two evils" Democratic voter and feel frustrated about all this (based almost entirely on corrupt conservative shit-eating Democraps who refuse to allow taxes on the rich to go up), just remember-- if you get a call from someone at the DCCC or DSCC asking for support, just hang up the phone-- or curse them out and then hang up the phone. That's why we're in this predicament in the first place-- Schumer clearing the field for garbage like Sinema and the DCCC pushing crap like Josh Gottheimer, Scott Peters, Cindy Axne and Conor Lamb into office. An antidote-- really: click on that thermometer on the left and help progressives defeat and replace Blue Dog scum.