Now that Moscow Mitch McConnell has made it clear he will marshal his Senate minority to filibuster Joe Biden's legislative agenda, Democrats will have to hunt with the dogs they have, including, but not limited to Joe Manchin.
Early on, it was fashionable for pundits to zero in on Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema as the only roadblocks to Democratic dominance of this Congress. Manchin seemed to enjoy the attention and Sinema seemed only too willing to aid and abet his performance. Their defense of the filibuster fell in with McConnell's plan to stymie any remotely progressive legislation.
The thinking of many of the talking heads has evolved over the past couple of weeks and now the groupthink is there is a rump "moderate" caucus of Dems in the Senate who are quietly cheering Manchin's antics in the hope nothing of note passes this session. Many of these Senators are once liberal icons such as Diane Feinstein who have devolved in their time serving in "the world's greatest deliberative body", into do nothing hacks who represent safe seats. They campaign as liberals, but govern as the neocons they have become.
Chuck Shumer needs to either speak to these members confidentially but forcefully or else call them out by name. S 1 and the John Lewis Voting act need to pass to save our democracy and the administration's agenda must go ahead in order to convince voter's we have a system worth saving.
No comments:
Post a Comment