It goes without saying that these are extremely difficult and trying times for our country, and for the entire planet. The good news is that all across the country working people are standing up and fighting for economic justice and against corporate greed.
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Seriously?
Yes. Seriously.
Hope...
25 January 22
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It would not be surprising if it were just coming from the GOP. But scapegoating progressives is now an increasingly popular sport among Washington-based pundits—and even some Democratic Party strategists—trying to identify who or what to blame for President Joe Biden’s low poll numbers and the myriad struggles of his first year in office.
Unfortunately, these analyses are based on several fallacies. First, Biden’s poll numbers after one year in office, while undoubtedly sagging, are still substantially ahead of Donald Trump’s.
Next is the obvious but somehow underrated truism that poll numbers after one year in office are fairly meaningless. Comparisons to prior decades—when partisan politics weren’t nearly as divisive—are also not particularly useful.
Biden’s poll numbers cannot be attributed to any specific action he has or has not taken. In fact, it is highly likely that a combination of factors beyond his control—such as the emergence of a highly contagious and vaccine-resistant strain of COVID-19, and the GOP campaign to reject essential public health measures—has had more of an impact on his numbers than anything for which Biden is personally responsible.
President Biden’s achievements, in fact, outweigh his struggles. On his watch, more than 6.5 million new jobs were added to the economy. Over 200 million Americans got vaccinated. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Package lifted half of America’s poorest children out of poverty. The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill was passed with bipartisan support. Biden appointed more judges than any previous president and ended America’s longest war. He’s brought a semblance of stability back to the White House after four years of chaos, irrationality, and corruption.
Yes, the president’s Build Back Better (BBB) spending bill and voting rights reform have stalled. But there is no reason to define Biden solely in the areas where he has faced opposition, especially given the very slim congressional majorities he inherited.
Furthermore, the argument that Biden’s legislative agenda has been co-opted by progressives at the expense of the support of centrists is based on a fallacy.
Nearly everything Biden has done in his first year has been supported by either all the Senate’s Democrats, or all but one or two of them. Does this mean that 48 out of 50 senators are “far-left” and that Biden needs to tailor his policies to suit the other two? And does it mean that the president should be adjusting his policies in a futile attempt to win the votes of so-called “centrist” Republicans who have voted as a bloc of opposition on nearly everything Biden has sent them?
When it comes to elections—and the politics of the nation as a whole—there is, of course, a center.
Look at polling. Look at the “progressive” ideas discussed or supported by Biden—from protecting the climate to providing child care, from better health care to fairer taxation, from gun control to voting rights, from a woman’s right to choose to education reform—they are all supported by a substantial majority of Americans.
Biden is not advancing a “left” agenda, he is fighting for a majoritarian agenda, for goals sought by the vast majority of us that would, in turn, benefit the vast majority of us.
But the grim reality is that D.C. is a donut. There is no “center” in Washington politics. There are two parties and a tiny handful of people caught between them. The only way for Biden to win legislatively in the nation’s capital is for Democrats to win bigger majorities this November.
The problem is that D.C. politics are increasingly unresponsive to the majority of Americans. The system protects and super-empowers a right-leaning minority. Legislators represent states or congressional districts that either lean toward extremes or are gerrymandered to behave that way.
Some ideas associated with progressive causes haven’t been great for Democrats. Defunding the police is one such idea. This was not a good framing of the need for police reform. It may have done some damage, electorally. But it’s not an idea endorsed in any way by Biden, his administration, or Democratic leadership.
However, many of Biden’s biggest triumphs were seeded by the progressives, and thus should be praised as essential to his success. Conversely, many of the things opposed by the GOP—as well as the centrist Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema—actually transcend politics. Ensuring the right to vote or combating the climate crisis or granting families and working mothers protections every other developed country in the world gives them are all broadly popular with Americans, and not at all “leftist” initiatives.
But advancing those policies does not require a more centrist president. What’s needed is fewer Republicans and their “centrist” allies in the House and Senate. That will mean embracing Democratic candidates who share the values and goals that are in tune with their states and districts. Once you’re outside of D.C., one size definitely does not fit all in politics. In some states that will mean candidates that are more centrist, though it just as likely could mean turning out more of the left-leaning Democratic base.
Of all the national leaders in the Democratic Party, the reality is that there is one who is best positioned to lead the campaign to achieve that kind of success in November. It just so happens to be the one whom Democrats chose as their candidate for president in 2020 and who, by virtue of his broad national appeal and his commitment to a majoritarian agenda, won by eight million votes.
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This is a pivotal moment for the planet, our country, American democracy and the future of the Democratic Party.
For six months the President and the Democratic leadership have "negotiated" with two conservative Democrats, Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema, to win their support for addressing some of the major crises we face. That strategy has failed. After endless backroom discussions the only thing we've achieved is the recent defeat of the voting rights legislation and no action on the extremely popular Reconciliation bill. Meanwhile, the Democratic base has become demoralized and polls show that the Republicans stand a good chance to win the House, the Senate and more governor's seats in 2022.
We need a major course correction. We need to stand up for working families and force the Republicans to vote on wildly popular issues that working families want and need. When the overwhelming majority of Americans want to lower prescription drug costs, expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and eye glasses, greatly improve home health care and child care, demand that the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes and combat climate change, we need to make Republicans vote on these issues. We need to show the country how reactionary and out-of-touch that party is.
Attached is an op-ed I recently wrote for CNN.
The time for Senate talk is over. We need to vote.
By Bernie Sanders
Thursday, January 20, 2022
The Republican Party is working overtime to suppress the vote and undermine American democracy. It is a party which ignores climate change, the existential threat to our planet and represents the interests of the wealthy and the powerful while turning its back on struggling working-class families. The GOP is the party that gives tax breaks to billionaires while pushing for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other programs desperately needed by ordinary Americans.
And yet, despite the outrageous behavior of leading Republicans and their reactionary and unpopular agenda, recent polling suggests that Republicans stand a strong chance to gain control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate and pick up additional seats in state legislatures throughout the country.
Why is this happening? Why, despite the horrendous Republican record, are Democrats losing support among Latinos, young people and African Americans? How does it happen that a party that is supposed to stand for working families was rejected by over 75% of White voters without college degrees in the most recent gubernatorial race in Virginia?
Democrats cannot ignore these realities and continue traveling down a failed road which will only lead to disaster.
Now is the time for a major course correction. Now is the time for Senate Democrats to put legislation on the floor that addresses the needs of working families and challenge Republicans to vote against these important and popular initiatives. Now is the time to rally the American people around an agenda that works for all, not just the 1%.
The Democratic Party, with very slim margins, controls the House and the Senate as well as the White House. And we should be very proud of what we've managed to accomplish this past year, including the enormously successful American Rescue Plan and the bipartisan infrastructure bill. But the reality is very little has been achieved in the past several months and the American people know that. And they are becoming demoralized.
The good news is that the House and an overwhelming majority of the Senate Democratic Caucus — as many as 48 out of 50 members — are prepared to pass strong and popular legislation that addresses the long-neglected needs of the working class. At a time when the top 1% is doing phenomenally well, we are ready to reform our regressive tax system and demand that the very rich and large corporations pay their fair share of taxes.
We want to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and substantially lower prescription drug prices, expand Medicare to cover hearing, dental and vision, address the crisis of childhood poverty and a dysfunctional child care system, improve the quality of home health care, build the affordable housing we desperately need and create millions of good jobs by combating the existential threat of climate change.
The bad news is that two members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have withheld their support. For six months, President Biden and many of us have engaged in endless negotiations with these senators. These never-ending conversations, which have gone nowhere, must end. The time for voting must begin.
In my view, we must schedule a vote in the immediate future on a version of the Build Back Better bill that strengthens, not weakens, what the House has already passed. Surprising things occur when a bill comes to the floor and I am not convinced that we cannot get the 50 votes we'd need to pass the Build Back Better bill when the roll call takes place in the light of day.
If, however, we cannot pass a comprehensive piece of legislation, we should then divide it up into separate bills and members of the Senate should have to vote on the very popular agenda that we are fighting for.
To my mind, in a democratic society, constituents have a right to know how their senators vote on some of the most important issues facing the country.
If Manchin, Sinema and Senate Republicans want to sink the Build Back Better package and then go on vote against individual bills that do exactly what the American people want: lowering prescription drug costs, demanding the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, expanding Medicare, improving home health care, extending the Child Tax Credit, building affordable housing, addressing the crisis of childhood poverty, making a wildly expensive child care system affordable and combating climate change, they should have that opportunity. And then they can go home and try to explain their votes to their constituents. That's what democracy is supposed to be about.
Democrats will not win in 2022 with a demoralized base. There must be energy and excitement. Today, in these difficult times, the American people want to know that their elected officials have the courage to take on the powerful special interests and fight for their needs.
And, when we do that, the fundamental differences between the two parties will become crystal clear. That's how you win elections.
Bernie is organizing our movement across the country to create the kind of nation we know we can become. But the truth is that he cannot do it alone – it is going to require all of us.
Please make a $27 contribution to stand with Bernie in fighting for an agenda that works for ALL of us, not just the one percent.
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By Chris Van Buskirk with help from Keith Regan and Matt Murphy
12/28/2021
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Help Lucas Kunce defeat Josh Hawley in November: https://LucasKunce.com/chip-in/ Josh Hawley has been a proud leader in the fight to ...
