I won’t call it a civil war anymore…
But?
It’s certainly a rebirth of the push/pull that was apparent in the Presidential nomination run…
Progressives trying hard to pull the party to the left and moderates in the party trying push things to stay in the middle ….
Everybody pushed to row together to get Joe Biden the into the White House…
But now the old efforts to get Biden to lean hard left in causing some progressive Democrats to go public with unhappiness…
Democratic leaders are well aware that they have a very narrow majority in the House and Senate and are looking past todays politics to the November midterm elections next year…
They do NOT want to lose the House and Senate back to the Republicans who could politically ‘weaponise’ some of the lefties ideas that no chance of getting anywhere in the Congress…
Democrats want to stay behind the popular Biden program’s of stimulus and infrastructure and not branch out all over the place….
Democrats are distancing themselves from high-profile progressive priorities as they threaten to push the party off message.
Progressives’ decision to bring two issues back into the national spotlight this week — defunding the police and expanding the Supreme Court — have forced other Democrats to go on defense as they field questions about ideas that suck up a lot of political oxygen but get little legislative traction on Capitol Hill.
Democrats have been quick to tamp down the chatter, arguing that they are focused on issues more in line with the party’s top message: infrastructure and coronavirus relief…
…
Democrats have found themselves threatening to be pulled into a discussion on the progressive policies twice this week: First, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) tweeted, “No more policing, incarceration and militarization. It can’t be reformed.”
Her tweet comes amid the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the death of George Floyd, coupled with a fatal shooting of a 20-year-old Black man by police in a Minneapolis suburb during a routine traffic stop.
Tlaib added on Thursday that to SiriusXM’s The Joe Madison Show that it “doesn’t matter what terminology we use … it’s just not working.”
But her tweet revived questions about “defunding the police” — a phrase that some Democrats have warned is over-simplistic and hurts their candidates down-ballot — for others in the party….
…
The break between progressive lawmakers and their Democratic colleagues comes as ascendant liberals have gained newfound political muscle in the party, putting pressure on lawmakers to shift to satisfy their base. But some of the buzziest policy goals— defunding police, expanding the Supreme Court, a $15 per hour minimum wage, “Medicare for All,” the Green New Deal — don’t have the votes to pass in the Senate, with or without the 60-vote legislative filibuster.
Republicans, who have struggled to gain traction against Biden, view the detours offered by progressives this week as prime political fodder.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wasted no time hounding Democrats over the Supreme Court expansion bill, arguing it was the latest sign of the party’s interest in changing the rules.
“The left wants these swords dangling over the Senate and state legislatures and independent judges. The threats are the point. The hostage-taking is the point. And responsible people across the political spectrum have a duty to denounce this,” he said.
The White House immediately distanced itself….
Note…
The American Congress does NOT have ability to handle too many things at once…
“I won’t call it a civil war anymore.”
A small grain of logic and sanity returns to your posts on this subject.
Having said that ?
A tug of war as you describe it is a natural part
Of the political system.It simply exists .
It always will.