Mitch McConnell is trying to extort Dems into unilateral disarmament. He claims the filibuster facilitates bipartisan cooperation. The reality is the opposite: He cynically weaponizes it to *deny* bipartisan cooperation. The history is clear. New piece: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
McConnell is exploiting a twisted journalistic convention.
Media will place the onus of achieving bipartisan cooperation on Biden, while allowing Republicans to cast their own withholding of bipartisan cooperation as proof of his failure to achieve it:
McConnell doesn't use filibuster to facilitate bipartisanship. He uses it to deny cooperation for the express purpose of casting Dem presidents as failed conciliators.
Media gets snookered by this, even though he explained this scam in his own words:
The press coverage of McConnell filibustering the organizing resolution is already confirming that his bet on his ability to exploit this media convention is proving correct:
@SenSchumer@maddow 2) Schumer vowed that this time, Dems won't get snookered by GOP bad faith.
But Schumer also framed the stakes in a good way. He said Dems are united behind the idea that *delivering in a big way* is key to restoring faith in government and democracy:
@SenSchumer@maddow 3) Schumer also said a failure to go big will risk disillusionment and another Trumpist demagogue.
If so, restoring faith in government/democracy isn't about achieving bipartisanship for its own sake. It's about the scale of the program Dems deliver on:
While Republicans are running their "unity" scam in the media, Biden just rolled out new policies that would channel large amounts of resources into rural America -- into Trump country. I looked at how these policies constitute *actual* unifying efforts: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Biden's Covid blueprint beefs up protections for workers, many in meatpacking plants in rural areas.
His use of Defense Production Act will employ industrial policy to channel resources to non-metro areas in a way conservative populists want.
Trump used coronavirus to relentlessly stoke civil and regional conflict.
Biden is offering a national Covid strategy that channels resources into helping all Americans, including or especially in rural areas, i.e., Trump country.
Don't get snowed by fake GOP outrage about Biden's criticism of right wing extremism. It's a sucker's game, a bad-faith effort to redefine "unity" as agreeing to absolve Republicans from blame for enabling Trump and his attack on our country. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
It's bizarre. Biden called out racism, white supremacy, and domestic terrorism.
Republicans promptly decided that in condemning those things, Biden was actually talking about them.
This may seem like standard bad faith. But there's a deeper ploy here:
Because Biden was 100% correct. The real threat to unity in this country — to civic peace, to democratic coexistence, to mutual acknowledgment of the legitimacy of the opposition — absolutely is right wing extremism:
It's a fitting end to this disaster that Trump is boasting about his corporate tax cut while pardoning the architect of his "economic populism" to protect him from charges that he literally ripped off Trump's own supporters.
Senate Dems will introduce a sweeping pro-democracy bill today as the first bill under their new majority. Includes automatic voter registration, rehabbing Voting Rights Act, and more.
It's the Dem answer to Trump's assault on our democracy:
One quick correction: The bill will be announced today, not introduced. It's the first honorary bill of the new Senate, S1. Dem aide says Schumer will ensure it gets a vote, though unclear when.
Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are playing a slimy game: They're disowning the insurrection without retracting their support for the big lie that incited it. But they have a problem: New video shows unambiguously that the lie did drive the assault. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…