CT Blue

Shortly after the election, I expressed my confidencein the ability of the Democrats to turn this thing around, and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at the earliest opportunity. They haven’t even officially taken over the House, and already they’re hard at work to do just that.

I’m no fan of Nancy Pelosi, for reasons I’ll make clear later, but the current attempt by a “micro caucus” of relatively right wing white males to interfere with her election to the speakership, without even putting forward a candidate for the position, is a prime example of Democrats trying to destroy Democrats. The Republicans have tried to turn Pelosi into a demon. Predictably, a number of Democrats have bought into that demonization, and are insisting that she not return as speaker. It wouldn’t be so bad if they were doing it in order to advance a truly Democratic agenda, but the opposite is the case. They are doing it as part of the eternal Democratic quest to appease the unappeasable Fox-addled voters, and to advance their own personal agendas. (Looking at you, Seth Moulton)

The net result will be a party riven by internal conflict from which no good can come.

Meanwhile, Pelosi is doing her best to make sure that this Democratic Congress can pass no progressive legislation for Trump to veto, or the Republican Senate to reject, and to make it almost equally impossible for a future Democratic President and Democratic Congress to do so.

In a nutshell, Pelosi wants to deny the Democrats the tools they would need to advance a progressive agenda. I’ve noted before that she insists on imposing “pay-go” requirements on the Democrats, meaning that Democrats can’t run deficits to do worthwhile things, while Republicans are free to run deficits to line the pockets of the rich. Now, she wants to add another fiscal restriction to the mix, which you can read about in detail here. In a nutshell, she wants to require a super majority to raise taxes on the lower 80%. Sounds reasonable, but if we want things like Medicare for All, that might require some tax increases, in exchange for which the American people would be getting a health care system that, for once, might work in their best interests. Read the linked article for a detailed explanation of why this is a “staggeringly bad idea”.

If we ever get control of the government, Pelosi, if she gets this rule on top of “pay-go”, will have effectively handcuffed a progressive Congress. In order to get anything decent to pass, they will have to change their own rules, giving the Republicans a great talking point about deficit spending which, in the interests of both siderism, the media will amplify to the hilt, never mentioning the hypocrisy inherent in any Republican concerns about the deficit. It will also give the Republicans a great talking point about the Democrats taxing hard working Americans, and again, in the interests of both siderism, the media will amplify that complaint, never noting the Republican history of transferring money from those hard working Americans to the .01%.

All this in order to demonstrate to a gaggle of beltway pundits that the Democratic Party is the party of fiscal responsibility, when, time and again, it has been proven that this does them absolutely no good. In the short term these rules will prevent them from passing legislation in the House, that would fail in the Senate, that would show the American people what they could get with Democrats in control. In the long run, it will, if we manage not to lose in 2020, prevent meaningful legislation in 2021 if we do get control, which will lead to the same backlash Obama experienced when he pushed for a pallid stimulus package in order to get a positive vote from at least one Republican.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Those who listen to beltway pundits by definition fail to learn from history, because beltway pundits do not remember any portion of the past that undermines their both siderist ideology. (Some good examples of strategic forgettery here.) The disheartening thing is that Pelosi is still our best choice for speaker, given the nature of the opposition. 

Only the Democrats could blow a majority before they even take charge.