Democrats are fighting internally between their progressive and centrist wings over infrastructure bills, one for actual buildings, the other one for actual human beings. Interestingly, two right wing senators control what comes out of the US Senate even though they are only a tiny minority. Over in the House of Representatives, on the other hand, the small minority progressive squad is dismissed as the small minority that they are. What both assumptions have in common is that right wing politics are always considered normative.
Democratic Arithmetic
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
4 Comments. Leave new
Well, at this point it’s all pretty much academic. The democrats — sorry, the ruling elites at the dnc/Joe Biden’s owners and operators — are scaling back on the $3.5 trillion bill (originally $6 trillion, IIRC). There is, still, despite all the science, a whole lot of people who simply don’t get it — the “it” being that the climate is about to enter a catastrophic phase that will cause global-level disruptions that will affect/kill hundreds of millions, maybe even billions. In 10 years, $6 trillion will look like a bargain equivalent to buying Bitcoin at eight cents.
Well, I think you’re being unfair. In the senate, it’s 52 conservatives versus 48 liberals (or 49, counting VP Harris).
It’s all Free! Zero Cost! Congress is where, “We tax the other guy and pass the benefits onto you!”
OK, if you won’t, I will … define “liberal.”
Yes, I’ve said it before: A “liberal” is a registered Democrat who sincerely thinks that “the end of welfare as we know it” proves that the Clintons really care about poor black women and their children. Any, or all, of the myriad other Dem identity-politic sub-groups are consisitently and uniformly shown this same, warm, D-party contempt with corressponding Frank Luntz-equivalent word-play that obscures horrific Dem legislation/policy/inaction 180° against them.
Distributed as they currently are in the houses of congress, the enumerated 262 “liberals” can’t accomplish anything of actual importance but the tragedy is that this outcome wouldn’t change even with 535 liberals in congress. Never underestimate the Dems ability to employ internal identity politics to divide any accidentally acquired, unassailable majorities into powerless, bickering sub-groups, exactly as identity politics it is intended to do and accomplishes admirably for the population at large.