There’s another dimension of this story worth addressing. It’s largely a press failure. But Dems have done too little to correct it. Again and again this battle has been portrayed as between “progressives” and “moderates”. So AOC and Bernie vs Manchin and Sinema.
2/ Thats almost totally false. Maybe not every last thing in the recon bill. But the package actually has overwhelming support in both caucuses. Overwhelming. It is literally the Presidents agenda. There are some quibbles over the SALT tax. There are some differences over …
3/ the exact scope of the climate package. There are some Dems quibbling over whether some of the social safety net programs will be made permanent. Those are real disagreements. But they’re mostly negotiable and they mostly don’t touch the scale of the package.
4/ The actual situation is that the package has overwhelming support among Democrats in both chambers and pretty much across all factions. It’s those people - which is to say virtually everyone - and then two senators and about a dozen house members.
5/ Now the reality is that Dems margins are so narrow they need all of those people. That’s the reality. But portraying it as “progressives” vs “moderates” is not only demonstrably false. I mean just in the sense of pure numbers. It’s also REALLY DAMAGING FOR THE DEMOCRATS.
6/ if it’s between two wings I’d the same party what the left wingers want must be kind of extreme. If it’s aoc’s bill versus what the moderates want well hell she’s a democratic socialist. And Fox says she’s definitely crazy.
7/ If it’s her bill or Bernie’s well it must be out there. This is a case where bad press coverage has real political impacts. But bad press coverage is like the weather. Assume it will be bad. It’s up to the Dems to be a better job correcting it.
8/ As an epilogue to this, some are referencing the Obamacare debate back in 2009/10. There are some key parallels. But mostly there are differences. Back then, especially in the senate but in the house too there were lots of members who for all the problems with the label …
9/ were fairly labeled “moderates”. And there were a bunch who were kind of floating between the two camps. “Moderate” is mostly a self-serving label in any case. But at least a third of the caucus in the senate was basically in that camp. Arguably more.
10/ Most of those folks are gone and even more have shifted. We here a lot about “DLC Democrats” and “Third Way Dems”. This is again an illustration of a big shift that is really lost in the coverage. The DLC doesn’t exist any more. But my friend Ed Kilgore was the long time …
11/ political director AND policy director for the DLC. And he’s saying Biden has to bust heads and pass the package. He’s at least broadly supported it all along. Meanwhile the head of the actual group third way has been on Twitter for months cheerleading the package.
12/ It’s truly the consensus Dem position.
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