Democrats: The Good and the Bad
Maybe judge the party by what it does and not what randos say on Twitter?
You guys really stepped up with favorite last lines in the comments yesterday. Thanks. Renewed my faith in humanity.
1. The Democrats Are Captured By the Far Left I’m Ron Burgundy?
By now none of this is new. To date the Biden administration’s most significant legislative accomplishments (including bills likely to be signed soon) are the following:
The American Rescue Plan, which created an important benefit for families with young children.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which will spend a bunch of money on bridges, roads, and internet access.
The Chip Act, which will kickstart domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
A federal codification of same-sex marriage.
A bill which will allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, lowering drug costs for seniors.
A reform of the Electoral Count Act.
You can argue with each of these on the merits, if you like. This one went too far; that one not far enough. Fine. Every law could always be better.
The point is: This list is not the product of a party that has been “captured by the far-left,” as Republicans like to say.
It’s a list of center-left (and also center-center) laws that are broadly popular. That Biden got this done with a narrow House majority, a 50-50 Senate, and buy-in from Republicans in many instances is objectively kind of impressive.
In fact, if you wanted to start trouble, you might look at this list and make the exact opposite case: The neolibs and Democratic centrists have completely pwned the progressive left over the last two years. In fact, the progs have been getting schlonged by the center-left more or less since the South Carolina primary in February of 2016.
So why do people think the Democrats are hostage to the far left?
It’s all the non-government stuff, the ephemera. The stuff in the ether.
Depending on where you live, perhaps your local smoothie shop insists that you be triple masked even while sitting at outdoor tables. Maybe your kids’ school is, in your view, overly sensitive about this or that subject. Maybe you see insufferable leftists on Twitter being insufferable. It’s a big world out there and you can assemble a hundred examples of pretty much anything. Hell, you could come to the conclusion that the entire right wing has a Sonic the Hedgehog fetish, depending on your media diet.
The conservative movement has been captured by dudes who are into Sonic pr0n!
Of course, that wouldn’t be true, either. But you could find a lot of examples to make the argument.
I’m not sure what the best metaphor is here. Forests and trees? Heat and light? But the point is that people tend to give shitposting and Twitter and local problems equal weight—actually, more weight—than the actual laws passed by the actual representatives who win actual elections.
That’s not how you get to good outcomes as a society.
2. Also: The DCCC Sux
This will be the third time I’ve written about Democrats “boosting” MAGA candidates. (Part 1 here, Part 2 here.) Quick recap:
Democrats shouldn’t do it.
Not all boosting is equal.
Depending on the race, the candidates, and what form the “boosting” takes, the practice can range from bad karma to endangering the republic.
Now we have to do it again, because the DCCC is spending $425,000 on the Michigan 3rd District race.
The incumbent is freshman Republican Peter Meijer, who voted to impeach Trump.
The DCCC is running ads proclaiming his primary opponent, John Gibbs, is the True MAGA.
I’d put this way down toward the Endangering the Republic side of the scale.
Here are the relevant facts: