Morning Joe<\/em>) Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut is it really \u201ccalamitous\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0Is the Democratic Party, my Party, so ruinously divided that 2022 will mark a return for Congressional Republicans to power. Will McConnell and McCarthy triumphantly taking the leading roles?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Short answer for that long question:\u00a0\u00a0nope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Big Tent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
We are a \u201cbig tent\u201d party.\u00a0\u00a0A \u201cbig tent\u201d means there\u2019s lots of room for lots of different views, ideas, and beliefs.\u00a0\u00a0In the Republican\/Trump Party, dissenters are driven out. But since we are Democrats, we all feel very free to voice our views.\u00a0\u00a0All of that action and conflict, can lead \u201coutsiders\u201d to believe that the Democratic Party will self-destruct.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we have managed to do that in the past. In 1968,\u00a0\u00a0the critical issues were civil rights and the war in Vietnam.\u00a0\u00a0Almost every Democrat was in agreement on continuing Democratic President Lyndon Johnson\u2019s efforts to expand civil rights.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But more than half of the Party was opposed to the war in Vietnam, a war that President Johnson was committed to continuing.\u00a0\u00a0That opposition came to a head at the Convention in Chicago. The leadership, committed to Johnson and his Vice President Humphrey, used the Chicago Police to physically put down anti-war opposition.\u00a0\u00a0That division ultimately cost Democrats the general election in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Establishment Dems<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Hakeem Jefferies in the Democratic Congressman from New York, representing part of Brooklyn. Jefferies is also a party leader in the House of Representatives, the chairman of the Democratic Caucus. That makes him an \u201cestablishment\u201d Democrat, a supporter of Speaker Pelosi and the \u201cmain\u201d Party. But on all of the key issues: minimum wage, health care, student loans, traditional and human infrastructure improvements; Jefferies agrees with the \u201cleft\u201d wing of the Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, most of the Democratic Party agree on most of those issues.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s an issue of degree:\u00a0\u00a0Joe Manchin\u2019s $11 minimum wage versus Bernie Sanders $15.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And what about President Biden? Biden is definitely from the establishment part of the Party, a career politician who has always been near the center of Democratic political thought. In fact, many of the White House\u2019s current stands are surprising \u2013 Biden has taken a more \u201cprogressive\u201d stand than expected. Need proof? There\u2019s nothing really moderate about spending $3.5 trillion on \u201chuman\u201d infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clocks and Calendars<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Doug Collins, the former Congressman from Georgia and now the next in a long line of Trump lawyers, coined a phrase in the first Russia Hearings \u2013 \u201ca clock and a calendar\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And that\u2019s what the Biden Administration is up against.\u00a0\u00a0The clock is ticking on the 117th Congress.\u00a0\u00a0Sure, they will be in office until January of 2023.\u00a0\u00a0But the reality of Congressional life is that once February 2022 rolls around, the entire House and a third of the Senate stops worrying about legislating and focus on re-election.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Certain agenda items have to be dealt with: renewing the debt ceiling, budgets and getting Biden appointees into the Federal Court system. But for everything else, it will get increasingly difficult to get anything to a vote as the election grows nearer. The President and Congressional leadership have already established the \u201corder\u201d so far. First it was the COVID relief package, now it\u2019s the bipartisan infrastructure bill, quickly followed by the \u201cbig\u201d totally partisan infrastructure bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What comes next?\u00a0\u00a0Probably the voting rights legislation.\u00a0\u00a0And as that will also be a wholly partisan action, it will surely be a compromise proposal designed to the needs of the most moderate Democratic Senators and Congressmen.\u00a0\u00a0Expect that the fall of 2021 will be about that.\u00a0 Congressional Majority Leader Jim Clyburn said it best:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t let the perfect be the enemy of the good\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One More Chance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
And what about environmental concerns, and the minimum wage, and student debt, and all of the other items on the Democratic list? Well that\u2019s where the arguments begin \u2013 if there is one item left that might get done before the New Year, which is the most important. All \u201cwings\u201d of the Party are going to loudly advocate for their most important issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Expect that \u201cright-wing\u201d media will misinterpret that advocacy into a \u201cParty of self-destruction\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0But the vast majority of Democrats are still in our \u201cBig Tent\u201d, and recognize the need to expand our leads in the House and the Senate, instead of consuming the moderates who created those majorities in the first place.\u00a0\u00a0In short, if you don\u2019t like where Democrats from West Virginia and Arizona stand \u2013 then elect more from Wisconsin or Florida (or North Carolina).\u00a0\u00a0Or maybe even elect one from Ohio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Division Our national political obsession is division.\u00a0\u00a0The Republican Party divides (unequally) between Trumpers and Never-Trumpers.\u00a0\u00a0The Nation (supposedly) splits between Black Lives Matter and \u201cBlue\u201d Lives Matter, and for sure fractures into vaccinators versus anti-vaxxers.\u00a0\u00a0 We are rural or urban, north or south, classic rock or country.\u00a0\u00a0And of course, there is the \u201ccalamitous\u201d division of the … Continue reading “We Are Democrats”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWe Are Democrats : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reports that the Democratic Party is self destructing are greatly exaggerated. 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