Dear Moderate Senate Dems: Please help America, it’s our last shot
Moderate Senate Democrats are living in the 1990s and need to wake up to the reality that Americans elect majorities to govern, not to stay in neutral to avoid any perceived future offense. If the senate filibuster gets in the way of progress, wave it or kill it all together but for god’s sake, get things done while you still can.
The Republican Party has no plans on moderating, and a lack of significant Democratic accomplishments today will make it harder for Americans to replace them should they ever seize power again. A large percentage of Republican voters believe the Big Lie and would support a military overthrow of our current duly elected government; that’s their policy. Nuking the filibuster is a lawful way of using political power to carry out a policy agenda to empower Americans economically and at the ballot box. There’s no comparison.
At the same time, polls are clear that a vast majority of Americans support the Biden Covid Relief Plan, including nearly 60 percent of Republicans. While moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has winced at the price tag, his home state, pro-former guy Republican Governor Jim Justice believes the big package is what his state needs and said so publicly.
Even in Florida, a nominally red state with an anti-mask mandate and vaccine pay-for-play where Trump won over 50% of the vote, a ballot measure increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour passed with more than 60% of the vote! Can Democrats in other places like Florida take back a Senate seat or the governorship if our new senate majority can’t increase the minimum wage, which must be popular in other red states too?
So why do moderate Senate Democrats balk at the idea?
Ever since the Tea Party seized the GOP in 2010 to prepare it for hand-off to the former guy, their game plan has been all about moving their far-right extremist agenda, no matter how unpopular. They succeeded in ramming extremist judges into every court and passing unpopular tax policies to comfort the comfortable and tax the middle class right down the throat of Americans. Still, they have faced little consequence for their deeds, as they have also gerrymandered the congressional map. Hence, they are never far from being in the majority, no matter how unpopular their agenda is, so long as their propaganda machines keep whirring with the lie or distraction of the day.
The clock is ticking for Democrats. If they can’t deliver key policy victories, then 2022 will be brutal. It is vital that moderate Democrats like Senators Manchin and Kirsten Sinema (D-AZ) do whatever it takes to move their party’s agenda now to show their supporters they are serious and can deliver. Otherwise, they’ll come home with nothing to provide their constituents except principles in their empty hands while their unprincipled Senate Republican colleagues can at least say they brought home massive tax cuts for the wealthy backers of their party.
There’s no constituency for neutral. It’s forward or backward. To be progressive is to move forward. America’s future depends on Democrats getting it in gear.
When you work on Capitol Hill, and you insist on staying in neutral, then you’re bound to roll backward and go back down to the bottom. Yet there are some Democrats in Congress that believe this is good politics. They’re wrong.
When Democrats come to power in all three branches of government, as they are now and previously in 2006, they will quickly give it back when a few “moderates” insist on staying in neutral, refusing to enact the policies that brought them the hard-fought majorities.
But it’s not too late.
Let me make a personal appeal to my moderate friends in the Senate and, more importantly, to their staff. I know you see where this is going. Past results are a clear indication of future performance. Getting nothing done spells certain doom for the Democratic party’s Senate majority status.
I’m asking the staffers for Senators Manchin and Sinema: How can we help you move your bosses forward so we can save the nation from a Republican Party that has no real agenda anymore? I know you see it even if they don’t.
We have one shot to save the Republic. We need to take it now.
Christopher Hahn is a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the most aggressive Liberal commentator on Fox News. Follow him on Twitter, @ChristopherHahn.
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