Members of the Democratic Caucus insisted on linking passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill not just with the Build Back Better bill, which focuses on welfare programs and climate change, but also with the Freedom to Vote Act and The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, both of which focus on protecting voting rights (for Black folks).
They insisted because they feared not just Republicans but certain members of their own party (most notably Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona) would willfully renege on promises to support all of the other bills once the prized infrastructure bill becomes law.
Yet, despite all their efforts – complete with daily TV coverage of their sausage making, hand-wringing, and naval gazing, Democrats have realized their worst fears: the infrastructure bill has become law, but none of the other bills seems likely to.
Of course, nobody should have expected any support from the Republicans. After all, the men who lead that party – like Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham, and Ted Cruz – all decided long ago to redefine what it is to be not just a good Republican but a real man based solely on loyalty and subservience to Donald J. Trump.
So think what you will of them but, by their definition, they feel every bit as entitled to call themselves proud and strong Republican men as Trump does to call himself the proud and rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election. Sick and pathetic, but there you have it.
On the other hand, it seems like, from the outset, Manchin has been behaving like a Manchurian Democrat, and Sinema like a McCain maverick (wannabe)…
But only latent racism explains their lost-cause championing of the filibuster. Because it makes no sense for them to insist that Democratic partisanship to protect the voting rights of Blacks is a vice. But that Republican partisanship to suppress the voting rights of Blacks is a virtue.
In any event, if/when the self-fulfilling prophecy of civil war breaks out between red and blue states, Manchin and Sinema should harbor no illusions about who the first Democratic casualties will be …
Related commentaries:
Manchin-Sinema Dem dysfunction… Manchin betrays Dems… Civil War II…