Lobbyists and dark money certainly create a disconnect between popular support for legislation and what can be passed into law. For instance, gun reform is pretty popular according to surveys but the NRA has managed to kill any attempts to pass sensible restrictions. Trying to wean the US off fossil fuels is likewise exceedingly difficult. The Koch brothers have been GOP megadonors and their money comes from fossil fuels. Senator Joe Manchin is a Democrat but he’s also a coal baron from a pretty conservative State (West Virginia). He’s able to single-handedly shoot down any Bill that comes before the Senate as McConnell will line up 50 Republican Senators behind him. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t like Biden’s energy policies or a raft of progressive policies.
Unfortunately, the Democrats have to deal with the reality that they can’t get popular legislation through Congress. As well as the problems of dark money and lobbying, they also have to face a rigged electoral system distorted by gerrymandering and voter suppression at state level and a conservative Supreme Court that stands ready to kill progressive White House action (for example, it ruled that Biden couldn’t use existing powers to phase out coal-fired power generation and as mentioned above there’s no way the Congress will give him that power).
I would love to see more progressive policies being pursued, but everyone in the US knows Congress is broken and campaigning on those policies is almost dishonest. Biden argued that he could break the deadlock in Congress by reaching out to Republicans. He had a history of doing so in the Senate back in the day. But his hopes of bipartisan deal making have been dashed. He was so desperate to get some cooperation that he reached a highly dubious deal with Mitch McConnell. He agreed to nominate an anti-abortion judge in Kentucky if McConnell agreed to let Biden’s judicial appointments go through. This was lunacy as McConnell would have broken his promise after pocketing the judge he wanted. This caused consternation amongst Democrats as this deal was revealed in the wake of the Supreme Court reversing Roe v Wade and would have undermined Democrats campaigning on pro-choice policies. As it was, the deal was blocked by McConnell’s fellow Republican Senator for Kentucky, Rand Paul, who threw a hissy fit because he wasn’t kept in the loop.
I guess if you’re going to be impotent if you win elections as a Democrat, you might as well offer the Sun and the moon to inspire the voters, but you have to be extremely pragmatic and crafty once you are elected. And progressive voters have to be satisfied with small successes here and there.
Perhaps Bernie might have won in 2016, but remember that Hillary won the popular vote handily and she probably would have become President if FBI Director James Comey hadn’t delivered his October surprise by announcing he was reopening the investigation into the emails only to shut it down a few days later. Bernie wasn’t as popular with black voters as Hillary and it’s the black voters who delivered victory for Joe Biden in 2020. Picking Joe Biden as the candidate in 2020 was a pretty reasonable choice as he was the guy who was going to cause Trump the most problems. Trump had identified him quite early as the guy he needed to kill off. He went after him in particular at his rallies and we now know he had been trying to get dirt on him well before he was nominated as the Democratic Presidential candidate. Given how important it was to beat Trump, I can certainly understand why Democrats went with the safe option.
There’s some small hope coming out of Georgia. Stacey Abrams is a star and is spearheading a voting rights campaign which seems to have helped the Democrats win both Senate seats in Georgia and she’ll be running for Governor come November. If she can win support in such a ruby red State, anything is possible.
Unfortunately, the Democrats have to deal with the reality that they can’t get popular legislation through Congress. As well as the problems of dark money and lobbying, they also have to face a rigged electoral system distorted by gerrymandering and voter suppression at state level and a conservative Supreme Court that stands ready to kill progressive White House action (for example, it ruled that Biden couldn’t use existing powers to phase out coal-fired power generation and as mentioned above there’s no way the Congress will give him that power).
I would love to see more progressive policies being pursued, but everyone in the US knows Congress is broken and campaigning on those policies is almost dishonest. Biden argued that he could break the deadlock in Congress by reaching out to Republicans. He had a history of doing so in the Senate back in the day. But his hopes of bipartisan deal making have been dashed. He was so desperate to get some cooperation that he reached a highly dubious deal with Mitch McConnell. He agreed to nominate an anti-abortion judge in Kentucky if McConnell agreed to let Biden’s judicial appointments go through. This was lunacy as McConnell would have broken his promise after pocketing the judge he wanted. This caused consternation amongst Democrats as this deal was revealed in the wake of the Supreme Court reversing Roe v Wade and would have undermined Democrats campaigning on pro-choice policies. As it was, the deal was blocked by McConnell’s fellow Republican Senator for Kentucky, Rand Paul, who threw a hissy fit because he wasn’t kept in the loop.
I guess if you’re going to be impotent if you win elections as a Democrat, you might as well offer the Sun and the moon to inspire the voters, but you have to be extremely pragmatic and crafty once you are elected. And progressive voters have to be satisfied with small successes here and there.
Perhaps Bernie might have won in 2016, but remember that Hillary won the popular vote handily and she probably would have become President if FBI Director James Comey hadn’t delivered his October surprise by announcing he was reopening the investigation into the emails only to shut it down a few days later. Bernie wasn’t as popular with black voters as Hillary and it’s the black voters who delivered victory for Joe Biden in 2020. Picking Joe Biden as the candidate in 2020 was a pretty reasonable choice as he was the guy who was going to cause Trump the most problems. Trump had identified him quite early as the guy he needed to kill off. He went after him in particular at his rallies and we now know he had been trying to get dirt on him well before he was nominated as the Democratic Presidential candidate. Given how important it was to beat Trump, I can certainly understand why Democrats went with the safe option.
There’s some small hope coming out of Georgia. Stacey Abrams is a star and is spearheading a voting rights campaign which seems to have helped the Democrats win both Senate seats in Georgia and she’ll be running for Governor come November. If she can win support in such a ruby red State, anything is possible.