Here is something an alarming number of policymakers still do not understand:
Identifying the poorest, most economically depressed, and least white neighborhoods in a region, and cramming a bunch of subsidized housing into those neighborhoods - that’s racial segregation.
Policymakers think this doesn’t count as a discriminatory, segregative practice if they do it while talking about “Helping cost-burdened families” instead of “Protecting white suburbs,” but they’re doing exactly the same thing either way.
American cities have a 70-year history of putting subsidized housing where poor and black people live, so it doesn’t trouble white, affluent residents.
They’re still doing it, they’ve just made up a bunch of progressive-sounding excuses these days.
Supposedly liberal scholars will say “We’re fighting gentrification!” - and then recommend the introduction of many new subsidized units to completely nonwhite neighborhoods with 100% segregated schools, the highest unemployment, and the most affordable housing in the region.
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Wow it is almost like DEMOCRATS SHOULD HAVE IMMEDIATELY MOVED TO IMPEACH AND CONVICT TRUMP, rather than RECESSING CONGRESS AND GIVING REPUBLICANS AND FOX NEWS TIME TO BUILD UP AN ALTERNATIVE MYTHOLOGY AROUND THE CAPITOL ATTACK
"We'll try Trump in February and March, because that will give us time to bUiLd A cAsE aGaInSt TrUmP" says the theoretically wisest minds in the Democratic Party, who apparently spent the last four years in some kind of catatonic fugue state
Who could have possibly predicted that the initial Republican outrage and trepidation over the Capitol attack would eventually diminish and cohere into a vague sense that Trump himself was the victim, except literally everyone who has read a newspaper since 2016
I am so tired of people saying this. Joe Manchin’s greatest asset is people declaring that Joe Manchin will block the entire Democratic agenda, so that no one ever puts Joe Manchin to the test!
Is Joe Manchin really going to stand athwart the Biden administration and his own party’s entire domestic agenda and shout “Stop”?
No, he is probably not! It would doom him electorally!
Joe Manchin doesn’t want to be the sole public holdout (or one of a tiny few), drawing the ire of the entire party base. He is precariously perched in a red state and this would result in political catastrophe for him. He wants to be invisible.
Step One: "We'll make the case to American voters!"
Step Two: ???
Step Three: "Republicans will cave to massive public pressure!"
This has been their approach on everything from the filibuster, to covid relief, to blocking Amy Coney Barrett, to Trump's impeachment. It fails every time.
It's just a form of outsourcing all the work of politics to random members of the public, while elected officials get to take on the inoffensive role of "educating the public." As if we elected our leaders to explain things to us, instead of to, you know, take votes and lead.
SPOILER ALERT: The big Democratic plan to beat Mitch McConnell's obstructionism is.....
MeSsAgE BiLlS
"We'll wait until Republicans block a popular message bill, and then public pressure to end the filibuster will ramp up!" is a strategy that has worked a grand total of NOT ONCE
You have 51 votes, which is enough to end the filibuster right now. END IT RIGHT NOW. Stop dithering!
This is actually not the puzzle people think it is. Manchin doesn't want to do anything dramatic to call attention to himself. If you make him the deciding vote, then suddenly it's REFUSING to end the filibuster that is the dramatic stand.
The best possible situation, for Joe Manchin, is people saying "Don't bother: Joe Manchin will never support it." He gets to veto stuff without ever having to be a deciding vote!
It's actually really rare for senators in the middle to single-handedly sabotage their whole party's aspirations, which is why it was shocking when John McCain and few others torpedoed ACA repeal.
Once you start noticing how much Democrats have internalized the idea that the only way to legitimately govern is with Republican approval, you can't stop seeing it. You have the majority! You don't need their permission!
It's not just the insistence on doing everything with bipartisan votes. It's also how so much of what Dems say takes the form of "I hope my Republican colleagues can support this" or "My Republican colleagues, if they were being consistent, would support this."
If you're elected into the majority, you can do something because YOU want it. It doesn't matter what the minority party thinks! Govern for yourself, not for them.