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Greg Sargent Profile picture
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23 Nov, 4 tweets, 3 min read
These are strange times for liberals. With BBB we're nearing the most transformative victory in decades. Yet the GOP is entrenching minority rule, political violence is rising, and authoritarianism is on the march.

Some dark thoughts about this moment:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
We're in a really strange split screen moment for American liberals. On one side there's cause for celebration. On the other there's cause for deep despair:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… Image
I tried to go really big picture here, putting BBB in the context of the last 50 years of liberal advancement, retrenchment, and, now, equal parts optimism and despair:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… ImageImageImage
Here's the dark truth: Once again, Democrats are likely to have only a two year window to clean up a disastrous GOP mess.

It's hard to see how this is tenable over the long term for building on liberal priorities or averting climate catastrophe:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… ImageImage

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More from @ThePlumLineGS

Greg Sargent Profile picture
19 Nov
Passage of BBB is a big victory, but let's not forget this:

Virtually every Republican just voted against a $1.4 trillion tax hike on the rich and corporations.

I talked to tax experts who went deep on what this says about the two parties' priorities:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Republicans are seizing on the SALT provision to argue this bill shows Dems are the party of plutocrats.

Let's talk about how ridiculous this is.

Here's what Republicans just voted against:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
The SALT provision is a serious issue, and not just substantively. It also points to a real coalitional problem Democrats face, with some House members coming from wealthy suburban districts:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
18 Nov
Amazing: Georgia Gov Brian Kemp may now face a primary precisely because he wouldn't steal the election for Trump.

Oddly, Kemp's "election integrity" bill wasn't enough. It's as if GOP voters want people in office who will overturn elections.

My latest:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Trump-backed primary challenges are often framed as retaliation against Republicans who were personally disloyal to Trump.

It's worse than that: They reflect an apparent desire among GOP voters to elect officials who are willing to subvert elections:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Kemp bent over backward to audit the 2020 results and then signed one of the most onerous "election integrity" bills.

It didn't assuage Trumpists' anger in the slightest.

Weren't we told GOP voters merely needed "confidence" in our elections restored?

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 5 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
17 Nov
Here's my proposal in the wokeness wars: Let's ground our response to the right in egalitarian liberalism. This provides a way to recapture the center, articulate a real vision of our own, and unmask the ugly truth about the right's real goals. My latest:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Chris Rufo tweeted that "it's time to clean house in America" and "lay siege to universities" and "overturn school boards."

This messianism about purging subversive cultural leftism creates an opening for liberals to occupy the center of this debate:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
We should say what we stand for in the wokeness wars. I propose restating our core commitment to egalitarian liberalism.

Here's what that is:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 5 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
15 Nov
Instead of cowering defensively and screaming for purges of "wokeness," Dems should make Republicans pay a political price for their ugly anti-CRT tactics, the deeper aims they embody, and the degradations they’ve inflicted on our national life. My latest:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Important:

DCCC chair Sean Maloney tells me emphatically that in 2022, Dems will avoid the pitfall of non-engagement that cost them in VA.

“Children need to learn their history — all of it — without censorship or politics limiting what they can learn."

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
There's a lot of new reporting today on Dems worrying about the lack of an answer on CRT.

But their deliberations seem limited to *only* options for course correction that placate White voter concerns through defensive maneuvering.

There's another way:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 5 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
5 Nov
I call BS on the idea that Dem losses were caused by the BBB agenda straying too far left. This is entirely out of touch with how electoral politics works. And Biden *ran on* the BBB agenda. My response to that bad NYT editorial and other centrists:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
The @nytopinion editorial and some centrists are saying Dem losses are partly due to the overreaching ideological ambition of BBB and its alleged departure from Biden's 2020 platform.

Here's a thought experiment that, in my view, blows this idea up:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
@nytopinion It's just empirically the case that the current BBB agenda reflects what Biden ran on.

The scope of his agenda and its basic ideological ambition were undeniably communicated to voters.

I went back and looked at TV ads, speeches and campaign blueprints:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
3 Nov
I confess to being shocked and unsettled at how quickly the Dem coalition fractured after ousting Trump. This leads to an ugly possibility: For the third time, Dems may have only a two-year window to clean up a big national mess left by GOP rule.

My wrap:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Awful but true:

Republicans appear to be benefiting from changes Trump inflicted on our politics (educational polarization) without paying any price for his legacy of white nationalism, mass covid death, or trying to overthrow democracy.

w/@EricLevitz

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… ImageImage
Democrats need a better response on CRT. They need to more frontally engage genuine parental concerns about curricula. But this cannot entail backing off holding Republicans accountable for the conflict and chaos their race-baiting demagogy has unleashed:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… ImageImage
Read 5 tweets

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