The problem for Biden is that, as the saying goes, you dance with the one that brung you to the dance and two different, opposing suitors are claiming the title. The gap is one of age: a younger, woke Obama cohort from 2018 and an older, moderate Jim Clyburn one from 2020.
I might personally identify more with the latter, but frankly, I …
The problem for Biden is that, as the saying goes, you dance with the one that brung you to the dance and two different, opposing suitors are claiming the title. The gap is one of age: a younger, woke Obama cohort from 2018 and an older, moderate Jim Clyburn one from 2020.
I might personally identify more with the latter, but frankly, I get that we didn't deliver the same landslide margins as in 2018 to claim a mandate. That means the path to actual legislation runs through a dozen or so Senate Republicans looking for a Trump offramp (if they exist, and I say a dozen because none will want to be the 10th vote overriding a filibuster and ending their careers). That leaves Manchin, who has actually proposed plausible legislative solutions, driving the train.
If you're a progressive swept into the House or Senate in 2018, you've already gotten rolled by the establishment on BBB because there just weren't the votes or a clear path to passage and something - infrastructure - was clearly better than nothing. Still, leadership overpromised and then caved. Voting rights, meanwhile, is existential, prompting a further debate on blowing up the filibuster. The problem here is that voting rights is viewed and messaged through the lens of race in the midst of a rightwing coup.
We keep having the wrong debates over bloated bills ticking off the constituency boxes versus nothing. The right blend of ECA reform and John Lewis could address the most dire problems; the rest will take more votes and more seats in both houses in 2022, which at the moment is a long shot. Unfortunately each side has a claim on Biden; he needs the Clyburn side for the Senate and the Bernie/AOC side for the House.
The progressives are understandably tired of taking one for the team, but while the broader public is with them generally on Covid, the economy and the social safety net, it balks at the particulars and the cost. That was the 2020 vote; no on Trump, meh on Dems. The progressives have to blink and serious Republicans have to get off their asses and commit to a democratic future. Period, full stop.
The problem with progressive governance is that when they manage to get a majority they usually try to push through these everything AND the kitchen sink bills that, as you say, check off all the boxes on their agenda.. because everything has to be done NOW, before they lose their majority (and they then wonder WHY they lost their majority).
There is no actual longer view. No understanding that getting a bit today and then a bit tomorrow is more effective than trying to get everything today (and actually getting little or nothing).
There is no understand of or attempt to build a lasting majority through gradual action and actual political LEADERSHIP.
There is no actual unified plan--which is why you get 6 plans that get collapsed into one "must pass" bill--that all Democrats won't vote for unless THEIR little group's thing is there and that other group's thing is not there (or so watered down as to be meaningless).
All of this usually turns into the dumpster fire that we have seen over the last year or so.
Pass functional bills that have necessary things--and make sure understand what necessary means... because apparently progressives have a rather lose definition of that word.
Build a sustained majority on the basis of those accomplishments--making sure that people understand and know about your accomplishments--and the benefits they are getting. make sure those benefits are actual benefits. Beat people over the head with them.
And stop it with the stupid slogans and tone deaf local legislation (like the CA voting law). take a look around you and see where a majority of Americans actually are on those things. If they are not with you, you need to do the groundwork necessary to get them there--and that is not always going to be possible and it is rarely going to be quick.
Learn some effing patience. Yes, there is unjustness and bad things... but it actually takes time and a lot of effort to fix those things (if they ever even get fixed). Slavery existed in this country for almost a century And existed here before the actual country did) before we fought a war to end it. It took another century to get close to actual civil rights for non-whites... and we are still working on it... probably will be for quite some time.
Yes, it is an affront to justice and to morality. It is also simply the way the governance of large diverse groups of people works. People are often neither just nor moral, especially in large groups.
Oh and don't be self-righteous moral a-holes about it--because that won't help your cause much and will probably actually hurt it.
If you want stuff that requires a mandate maybe you should IDK, build an actual electoral mandate? More people would go along if you were smarter about it. Find some central principles and ideas that all "Democrats" are behind and work on THOSE. Keep it simple, direct, and short.
Try some actual salesmanship for a change, don't rely on being a tad less crappy and crazy (arguable at times) than your opponents--because we are already seeing how that is gonna work out.
That was really well said, do you suppose anyone will listen? If there were a few in Congress who thought and acted that way some problems might actually get solved.
The key to understanding why what happens, happens is that most of these politicians do not think much beyond the next election cycle and that they feel free (to a degree) to NOT actually accomplish much of anything, because there is always someone/thing to blame--either the other party (fill in name of scumbag GoP politician here) or other people on their own side (Manchin!!!!!)... or the horrible voters who won't vote for them (those damn deplorables!!!!).
We tried to do this but so-and-so blocked it. With more donations and support from you, dear voter, we could get this done. Please send your donation today!!
And no, no one is going to listen. American politics suffers from the same problem as American policy and American business--very short time frames in which to achieve and judge results before the plug gets pulled by either: the voters; a change in administrations/majority; or stockholders.
More and more I think we need to cut back on the number of required elections, but have a mechanism where you can replace a government if you want to bad enough.... it happens elsewhere, it is something called a parliamentary system.
Maybe we need to shift to a hybrid system (since ours is already a hybrid as it is) and run our legislature more like a parliament.. and cut election periods to like 60 days maximum instead of (essentially) continuously.
If nothing else, at least we should do the last, the current cycle is unending and at least part of the reason many (most?) voters don't pay attention. I completely agree that lack of vision has become endemic in what are referred to as leaders throughout our society.
The problem for Biden is that, as the saying goes, you dance with the one that brung you to the dance and two different, opposing suitors are claiming the title. The gap is one of age: a younger, woke Obama cohort from 2018 and an older, moderate Jim Clyburn one from 2020.
I might personally identify more with the latter, but frankly, I get that we didn't deliver the same landslide margins as in 2018 to claim a mandate. That means the path to actual legislation runs through a dozen or so Senate Republicans looking for a Trump offramp (if they exist, and I say a dozen because none will want to be the 10th vote overriding a filibuster and ending their careers). That leaves Manchin, who has actually proposed plausible legislative solutions, driving the train.
If you're a progressive swept into the House or Senate in 2018, you've already gotten rolled by the establishment on BBB because there just weren't the votes or a clear path to passage and something - infrastructure - was clearly better than nothing. Still, leadership overpromised and then caved. Voting rights, meanwhile, is existential, prompting a further debate on blowing up the filibuster. The problem here is that voting rights is viewed and messaged through the lens of race in the midst of a rightwing coup.
We keep having the wrong debates over bloated bills ticking off the constituency boxes versus nothing. The right blend of ECA reform and John Lewis could address the most dire problems; the rest will take more votes and more seats in both houses in 2022, which at the moment is a long shot. Unfortunately each side has a claim on Biden; he needs the Clyburn side for the Senate and the Bernie/AOC side for the House.
The progressives are understandably tired of taking one for the team, but while the broader public is with them generally on Covid, the economy and the social safety net, it balks at the particulars and the cost. That was the 2020 vote; no on Trump, meh on Dems. The progressives have to blink and serious Republicans have to get off their asses and commit to a democratic future. Period, full stop.
The problem with progressive governance is that when they manage to get a majority they usually try to push through these everything AND the kitchen sink bills that, as you say, check off all the boxes on their agenda.. because everything has to be done NOW, before they lose their majority (and they then wonder WHY they lost their majority).
There is no actual longer view. No understanding that getting a bit today and then a bit tomorrow is more effective than trying to get everything today (and actually getting little or nothing).
There is no understand of or attempt to build a lasting majority through gradual action and actual political LEADERSHIP.
There is no actual unified plan--which is why you get 6 plans that get collapsed into one "must pass" bill--that all Democrats won't vote for unless THEIR little group's thing is there and that other group's thing is not there (or so watered down as to be meaningless).
All of this usually turns into the dumpster fire that we have seen over the last year or so.
Pass functional bills that have necessary things--and make sure understand what necessary means... because apparently progressives have a rather lose definition of that word.
Build a sustained majority on the basis of those accomplishments--making sure that people understand and know about your accomplishments--and the benefits they are getting. make sure those benefits are actual benefits. Beat people over the head with them.
And stop it with the stupid slogans and tone deaf local legislation (like the CA voting law). take a look around you and see where a majority of Americans actually are on those things. If they are not with you, you need to do the groundwork necessary to get them there--and that is not always going to be possible and it is rarely going to be quick.
Learn some effing patience. Yes, there is unjustness and bad things... but it actually takes time and a lot of effort to fix those things (if they ever even get fixed). Slavery existed in this country for almost a century And existed here before the actual country did) before we fought a war to end it. It took another century to get close to actual civil rights for non-whites... and we are still working on it... probably will be for quite some time.
Yes, it is an affront to justice and to morality. It is also simply the way the governance of large diverse groups of people works. People are often neither just nor moral, especially in large groups.
Oh and don't be self-righteous moral a-holes about it--because that won't help your cause much and will probably actually hurt it.
If you want stuff that requires a mandate maybe you should IDK, build an actual electoral mandate? More people would go along if you were smarter about it. Find some central principles and ideas that all "Democrats" are behind and work on THOSE. Keep it simple, direct, and short.
Try some actual salesmanship for a change, don't rely on being a tad less crappy and crazy (arguable at times) than your opponents--because we are already seeing how that is gonna work out.
That was really well said, do you suppose anyone will listen? If there were a few in Congress who thought and acted that way some problems might actually get solved.
The key to understanding why what happens, happens is that most of these politicians do not think much beyond the next election cycle and that they feel free (to a degree) to NOT actually accomplish much of anything, because there is always someone/thing to blame--either the other party (fill in name of scumbag GoP politician here) or other people on their own side (Manchin!!!!!)... or the horrible voters who won't vote for them (those damn deplorables!!!!).
We tried to do this but so-and-so blocked it. With more donations and support from you, dear voter, we could get this done. Please send your donation today!!
And no, no one is going to listen. American politics suffers from the same problem as American policy and American business--very short time frames in which to achieve and judge results before the plug gets pulled by either: the voters; a change in administrations/majority; or stockholders.
More and more I think we need to cut back on the number of required elections, but have a mechanism where you can replace a government if you want to bad enough.... it happens elsewhere, it is something called a parliamentary system.
Maybe we need to shift to a hybrid system (since ours is already a hybrid as it is) and run our legislature more like a parliament.. and cut election periods to like 60 days maximum instead of (essentially) continuously.
If nothing else, at least we should do the last, the current cycle is unending and at least part of the reason many (most?) voters don't pay attention. I completely agree that lack of vision has become endemic in what are referred to as leaders throughout our society.
Well done. Chances right now range between slim and none unless there's a lot going on far behind the public scene.