Thread by @ZhiZhuWeb

"What if it’s the ideologues who are able to get things done, & it’s the centrists who stand in the way of solving problems while they knuckle under to special interests who don’t have the welfare of the country at heart?"
~@paulwaldman1

#BuildBackBetter
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

"Joe Biden wasn’t [the progressives'] preferred candidate in 2020, but they worked tirelessly to get him elected, and now they’re laboring to pass his agenda.

The centrists... might want to see the bills pass, but for them, failure is an option."

#BBB
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

"That’s because from where centrists sit, the status quo is not so bad...

That’s why progressives haven’t been able to get the centrists, especially Sens. Joe Manchin III and Kyrsten Sinema, to say specifically what they want"

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

Centrists are "much more susceptible to influence by special interests, whose primary goal is often to keep change from happening.

While a lack of ideological rigidity is often portrayed as a virtue, it’s also just the kind of open-mindedness corporate lobbyists are looking for"

"Perhaps [centrists] find the lobbyists’ arguments persuasive. Perhaps all those donations just give them a gentle nudge in that direction. In the end, it doesn’t really matter."

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

"we need legislators for whom the status quo is unacceptable, who actually care about whether bills pass and progress is made on urgent problems.

... the idea that the centrists are the ones who get things done is plainly wrong."
~@paulwaldman1

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…