They aren't the only ones, you know.
I have to vent.
The past few weeks have been a shitshow for the Democratic Party, to say the least. We have a fragile majority government, but are unable to pass an agenda that our President supports and successfully ran for election on. Even worse, they can’t seem to agree on a voting rights plan that will stop the Republicans from legislating the Democrats out of power permanently, ushering in tyrannical minority rule. As people who pay attention to the news more often than once every 4 years, we know that this is not what happens when Republicans get into office. What’s going on? Well folks, this is the result of “Big Tent” politics. The Democratic Party does not have clear ideological goals and it is literally going to be the death of us.
I remember when Sinema was really showing her true colors with the infamous “thumbs down” to the minimum wage. At the time, many rank-and-file Democrats like the ones that frequent this website justified her actions with “She’s in a red state”, and that she cannot be “progressive” if she wants to be reelected. This is often deployed in defense of right wing Democrats. I cannot help but think back to the story of Cory Gardner, a Republican that barely won a plurality in the 2014 Colorado US Senate election. This man barely won in a state that was trending highly blue even before his election. Despite this, Mr. Gardner voted time and time again for Trump’s agenda and for every last one of his Supreme Court picks. His last vote for Amy Coney Barret was about a week before his general election that he went on to lose by nearly 10 points. What gives? Why didn’t he play the “moderate” role at any point to try to win over liberals and independents in a blue state? The answer is that he actually has policy goals he wants to see enacted, and he achieved those goals for his voters. In the Democratic Party we tolerate careerists who have no agenda beyond their own personal ambitions.
Democrats ran on Medicare drug price negotiations in 2006, and won. They expanded to a large majority government in 2008, and yet this still did not become law. In 2018 the party again ran on Medicare drug price negotiations and won. In 2021, the proposal is once again dead in the water. Why? Because many elected Democrats don’t want it to happen. At some point, wont voters stop believing this lie at election time?
I understand why the rank-and-file defends these people. They don’t want a Republican government and they are scared of what will happen if we use the one mechanism to punish dissent, the primary. We all agree that Republicans will be the death of us. However, we see now why it is important to end the careers of these right wing Democrats, even if it is initially painful; even if we do lose seats. Because when push comes to shove and we have a majority government, these right wing Democrats will destroy anything good that we want to do. They don’t see a need to work with their President because they don’t share our policy goals, and they never will. If we have their seats, but we don’t have their votes, what is the point? Why did you donate, phone bank, knock on doors, if these people wont have your back when the time comes? This is a question the rank-and-file needs to ask themselves going forward. Do we want a united party that can get behind the most basic Democratic agenda, or do we want the Obamacare 2.0 trainwreck we are seeing today with the BBB agenda? Do we want a party that will use the power voters have entrusted to them to protect the rights of the majority with the For The People Act, or do we want to allow the Republicans to permanently rule as a tyrannical minority? These are the choices, and they really are that black and white.
The only option we have is to utilize the primary election to defeat these people and whip the rest of the party into shape, because trust me, Manchin and Sinema are also running cover for plenty of other Democrats that also do not want Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan to pass. If we want to govern like the Republicans and actually pass our stated agenda, we need to start by making the party afraid of us, and we need to make it clear that we have basic expectations for our elected officials. This may mean primarying someone and losing the general election for one reason or another. This happens often to the Republicans, as we all well know. This may be a painful process to whip the party into shape, but it is necessary. What the Republicans have over us is unity, and an expectation that when in power they will vote for the right wing agenda. As we see today, if you elect people that don’t share your goals, it doesn’t matter if you have a majority: You still lose, in the end. Now, with the Republican declaration that only they can win legitimate elections, the clock is ticking for the Democratic Party. If we cant even get people behind voting rights, they need to go.
If you want good things to happen, then it’s time to start having higher expectations and showing the careerists that we will not tolerate their greed, nor will we help them get a cushy retirement on the board of an oil company for killing Biden’s climate plan. I really hope that what we are witnessing today is a wake up call for everyone. The clock is ticking, and Republicans are eager to use their new voter suppression laws to lock us out of power forever. The careerists in the Party do not care, because the end result of Republican rule still works out for them. We need people who want to use the power of the federal government to stop the tyrannical Republican minority, and to pass OUR agenda. We clearly have to make them do it, and kick them out of the Party if they refuse.
The unknown is scary. Defeating an incumbent and having to face a tough election with a low name recognition Democrat in Republican territory is scary. But I think it’s undeniable that the feelings of helplessness and depression at watching our majority fail to do anything is much worse. I’ll take what’s behind door #2, thanks.
