There are so many things with which I agree in David Brooks’s most recent New York Times column, I wish that I agreed with his premise. Here are his opening paragraphs:
If Joe Biden stands for one idea, it is that our system can work. We live in a big, diverse country, but good leaders can bring people together across difference to do big things. In essence Biden is defending liberal democracy and the notion that you can’t govern a nation based on the premise that the other half of the country is irredeemably awful.
The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is skeptical: The Republican Party has gone authoritarian. Mitch McConnell is obstructionist. Big money pulls the strings. The system is broken. The only way to bring change is to mobilize the Democratic base and push partisan transformation.
If all you knew about politics was what goes on in the media circus, you’d have to say the progressives have the better argument. Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene — healthy bipartisan compromise seems completely hopeless with this crew.
But underneath that circus, there has always been another layer of politics — led by people who are not as ratings-driven, but are more governance-driven.
What’s working?
So over the past 20 years or so, while the circus has been at full roar, Congress has continued to pass bipartisan legislation: the Every Student Succeeds rewrite of federal K-12 education policy, the Obama budget compromise of 2013, the Trump criminal justice reform law of 2018, the FAST infrastructure act, the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, the Trump-era ban on surprise billing in health care. In June the Senate passed, 68 to 32, the United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, which would devote roughly $250 billion to scientific projects.
Note that this “other layer” was also functioning during the presidency of He Who Must Not Be Named. Here’s what Mr. Brooks says is the difference:
The Biden administration has moved to separate government from the culture wars. It has shifted power away from the Green New Deal and Freedom Caucus show horses and lodged it with the congressional workhorses — people like Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Mark Warner, who are in no danger of becoming social media stars.
and here’s where we get to the problems:
The moderates are suddenly in strong shape. The progressives say they won’t support this Biden infrastructure bill unless it is passed simultaneously with a larger spending bill. But if the Democrats can’t agree on that larger bill, will progressives really sink their president’s infrastructure initiative? In the negotiations over the larger bill, the moderates have most of the power because they are the ones whose seats are at risk.
I think that’s almost completely backwards. That just isn’t the way Congress works. Safe seats are, well, safe. And, yes, progressive’s may well sink Joe Biden’s infrastructure initiative because they’re radicals. For them half a loaf is not better than none. No loaf is better than cooperation with evil. That is the way that Marcusists think.
And Mr. Brooks gets to the core of the problem:
As former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel notes, the problem with the progressive base mobilization strategy is that progressives think they’re the base. But a faction that keeps losing primaries can’t be the base. Joe Biden is the base. And Biden, and the 91 percent of Democrats who view him favorably, want to make the system work.
Every time I’ve seen Rahm Emanuel quoted recently I think “We had a guy with the same name as mayor for two terms here. Where was this guy when that guy was mayor? Progressives probably account for less than half of the Democratic Party—a higher proportion among Millennials. That means they account for 10-15% of the electorate. Equal and opposite to many of today’s conservatives they think that there are hosts of “shy progressives”, longing to come out and vote for a candidate who’ll deliver their agenda. There are no such shy conservatives or shy progressives.
But I’m not as convinced as Mr. Brooks that most Democrats are moderates. I think many of them are more, like, “what’s in it for me?”
Almost every politician makes more sense after they leave office. Anyway, my sense is that there are not as many hardline as we saw with the Tea Party where failing to compromise was seen as a virtue, but it is enough to obstruct everything if they want.
Steve
Mr Brooks needs to lay off the hallucinogenics.
Every sentence in the Brook quotes is exactly backwards. He, like every other writer for the NYT, is literally insane.
Unfortunately, he is a shill for our psychotic Ruling Class, and he pretty much conveys their views.
Glad I am old. I won’t have to live in the coming Mad Max country.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you, bob, but could you provide one example of that from the quoted passages? My pick might be:
I think he’s moving to govern on the basis of narrow majoritarianism on the premise that the other half is irredeemably awful.
“The Republican Party has gone authoritarian…†is a quote making me nauseous. Considering how the progressives are using COVID to twist anyone’s arm who disagrees with them, most of Brook’s piece, like this one inflammatory assertion, is pure projection. Essentially, most everything the left flings at their opposition is nothing more than a flagrant mirror of their own behavior, which is simply an overreach of power they constitutionally don’t have.
He is governing on the basis of past experience. The other team is not going to cooperate.
Covid? Who are we forcing to do stuff? All of the GOP lead states are doing what they want, including holding rallies to cheer on not getting vaccinated. Indeed GOP governors are forbidding cities, businesses and municipalities from taking actions specific to the needs of their area. (Note that the supposedly pro-business people here wont say anything about this.)
Steve
I’m pro-business but I’m also pro-letting other states do anything darned fool thing they choose to. IMO President Trump was remiss in not restricting interstate travel—such restrictions would need to come from the federal government. States can’t legally impose restrictions on travel from other states and at least to my knowledge there has been little to no active enforcement of self-quarantine guidelines.
Remember, I live in CA – the state that uses emergency powers and slapping mandates on everything like some people use salt and pepper. We will be the 1st state now to mandate all health providers be vaccinated or be fired. Considering that I’ve seen upwards of 40% of health care workers rejecting the vaccine, will a good percentage of that figure just leave the profession – in the midst of a shortage in health care personnel?
IMO, the assertiveness of many of the red states, in issuing defiant counter mandates to the blue states insistence on keeping this virus in the headlights of people’s fear- laden psyche, is how they are able to reassure people they will not be following in the strident footsteps of CA, MI, NY.