Grandstanding or renewed commitment

Biden and Congressional Democrats, like it or not, will have to make some hard spending decisions as it appears that Manchin, Sinema, and a few others are dug in in their opposition to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. How to do this in a way that maintains the unity of Democrats and the larger coalition that elected Biden will be a challenge.

Hopefully we won’t see a lot of posturing and grandstanding from leaders and activists that militantly, but, in the end opportunistically, insist that the full package could have been won. A far better response would be a renewed commitment to win larger Democratic Congressional majorities in next year’s elections and an acknowledgement that the coalition that elected Biden – not least the left broadly defined – stood largely on the sidelines during this struggle.

Religious liberty

Under the banner of “religious liberty,” christian/evangelical nationalists do a lot of “unchristian” things. They have become a ruthless opponent of a secular, democratic, and egalitarian state. This term the Supreme Court will make decisions that could well expand the “rights” and facilitate the aims of this very undemocratic political bloc in the language of, you guessed it, “religious liberty.”

Factually wrong, politically counterproductive

The suggestion that the progressive/left wing in the Democratic Party is the “Squad,” plus Bernie and a couple of other Congressional Democrats is factually wrong and politically counterproductive. It’s small circle thinking – a mode of thinking that still is found on the left even though reality doesn’t treat it kindly.

No surprise

The resistance to vaccines by tens of millions of Americans reflects, among other things, a weak sense of social and human solidarity. And, I guess, that should come as no surprise. Social and human solidarity is anything but a continuous and definitive thread in the country’s history.

Empty abstraction

Any notion of a cross class coalition against white nationalist authoritarianism – the MAGA crowd – that doesn’t include vigorous support for the many positive initiatives of the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats – first and foremost, the Reconciliation bill – is vacuous. It is an empty abstraction, devoid of the politics of this moment and what it will take to win at the midterm elections next year and then two years later. (Preparing a longer article on this subject)

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