Centrist Democrats can either stage a tantrum, or accept political reality and work within its confines. jonathanchait writes
Congress’s failure to hold a vote over the bipartisan infrastructure bill last week set off a wave of media hyperventilation and whining by Democratic centrists. “This far left faction is willing to put the President’s entire agenda, including this historic bipartisan infrastructure package, at risk. They’ve put civility and bipartisan governing at risk,” raged Representative Josh Gottheimer.
That dynamic was clear to me two months ago, when I urged progressives to leverage the infrastructure bill to force centrists to support President Biden’s much larger social spending agenda. That’s what caused a handful of centrists, led by Gottheimer, to try to make their counter-ransom attempt. Their plan was to force the House to vote on infrastructure, which they assumed would pass, stripping progressives of their leverage.
What would have happened if the bill came to the floor is that liberals would have defeated it, and the entire party would have looked terrible. That’s why Nancy Pelosi never brought the bill to a vote. Gottheimer extracted a promise that was not only worthless, but had negative value. Of course, the tactic of threatening to walk away to gain leverage over your fellow party members is one moderate Democrats have been using forever. They’re using it right now, in fact; a Sinema puff piece announces she is “prepared to walk away” from Biden’s agenda if she doesn’t get her way. Moderate Democrats are so used to holding all the walk away leverage that the novelty of a negotiation where the opposing side also has some leverage strikes them as an intolerable offense.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Arizona GOP official says majority of state Republicans know election fraud claims 'all BS'They 'know it's all BS, but need to be seen doing something,' said Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer.
Read more »
A New Way to Expose a Liar and Cut Through the Cover-Up'Liars do everything they can to cover up their lies if someone threatens to expose them,' swhitbo explains. Here's what you can do to encourage greater honesty.
Read more »
Inside The Most Elite Club In America: How The Forbes 400 Has Gotten $4 Trillion Richer Since The 1980sForbes published its first list of the wealthiest Americans all the way back in 1918, but we’ve been tracking the subject full-time since 1982, when we debuted The Forbes400. Read more history of the list's covers:
Read more »
Is It Versace by Fendi or Fendi by Versace?Is it Versace by Fendi or Fendi by Versace?
Read more »
Mogul PM tipped to win as Czech vote gets under wayBabis's main rivals are two groupings, one comprising the anti-establishment Pirate Party with the centrist Mayors and Independents, and the other being a three-party centre-right coalition called Together.
Read more »