In An Upset, I Disagree With Bill Maher

Can someone, somewhere, please introduce Bill Maher to the concept of the Overton Window? In what was only a small portion of Friday evening's Overtime- a sitcom episode better named "Three Men Without a Clue," the conversation among Maher, journalist Sam Stein, and linguist John McWhorter turned to the benefit the guys believe the third party of Andrew Yang would be. Maher argued (at 4:28 of the video below)

Well, I think what would happen= my prediction is you could have it like a sensible middle party. And then what would happen is it would force the Democrats to go back to being the sensible middle party. And they would because they would see that's where- you know, Biden reminds me of some grandfather and when AOC and the woke people come into his office, he just goes along. He doesn't really understand it. It's like "grandpa, can we have money to go play Fortnite? And he's like "I don't know what Fortnite is. I don't know what Tik-Tok is, just get out of my hair."

The only good part of that is that, as Maher prepared to say "because they would see that's where most people are politically," he stopped himself, perhaps aware that would be inaccurate. Instead of trying to emulate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Cori Bush, President Biden has tried to emulate Lyndon B. Johnson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Instead of trotting out his public relations team to excoriate Joe Manchin, Krysten Sinema or any Republican, he oversaw White House communications director Kate Bedingfield remarking "Joe Biden's goal in responding to Dobbs is not to satisfy some activists who have been consistently out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party."

And that is where Joe Biden is: the mainstream of the Democratic Party, and not only the mainstream of the Democratic Party today, which Maher believes has gone dangerously left, but the mainstream of FDR, LBJ, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.  The President recently struck (but not enacted) a deal on climate, taxes, and health care, the deal was struck not with the dreaded "AOC' of New York City but with centrist Joe Manchin of robustly conservative West Virginia.  The Biden Administration confirms the critique "Republicans refer to their most involved voters as 'the base,' and deliver for them, while Democrats refer to theirs as 'some activists' and ignore them. That is why they lose."

That "breakthrough" deal includes a 15% minimum corporate tax, when most Americans pay more in federal income tax; environmental reform with little resemblance to the Green New Deal; and severely limited health care reform in a nation whose ongoing coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the need for universal health care.  That's not nothing but it is not sweeping, historical change, and nothing which will set Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's heart atwitter. 

Democrats seem liberal, even progressive; but that is only because Republican Party officials have lurched rightward.  Now, Democrats hail the daughter of Dick Cheney for her integrity, seemingly accepting a congressional voting record 92.9% in support of President Trump.

When President Biden proposed the ambitious Build Back Better plan, it included the following:  universal and free pre-school; investments in child care and eldercare; expansion of Child Tax Credit; promotion of clean energy, especially in disadvantaged communities; initiatives to combat climate change; reduction of prescription drug costs; strengthening the Affordable Care Act; expansion of Medicaid; promotion of affordable housing; extending the Earned Income Tax Credit; increasing access to higher education, academic and vocational; immigration reform. 

That was the President's major, arguably only, bold initiative. And yet, Bill Maher and other liberal or center-left individuals unnerved by what they perceive as a rush to the left were noticeably silent on components of Build Back Better. Often, they failed to identify even one component of the proposal with which they disagreed. And yet, they're apoplectic that Joe Biden is morphing into Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or, in Maher's case, unwilling to resist any of the congresswoman's demands.

Nuances, details, even sometimes mere facts are to be avoided in favor of the broad, sweeping generalization. Honest and thoughtful disagreement should be encouraged, but has become unfamiliar territory for individuals criticizing Joe Biden from the right.  Nuance, detail, sometimes mere facts are avoided in favor of the broad, seeping generalization. We should expect more from our professors of linguistics, journalists, and comedians.

 

  

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The Three Free Votes

Credit should be given to Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitt Romney of Utah for deciding to vote to confirm the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US Supreme Court. The Washington Post noted that 47 Republicans had voted against confirmation

But to three Republican senators, the narrative that Jackson was a partisan extremist did not ring true. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Jackson had the “experience, qualifications, and integrity” to merit confirmation and, in backing Jackson, appealed to her colleagues to step back from the partisan brinkmanship that has increasingly dominated Supreme Court confirmations.

 Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said much the same, decrying the “corrosive politicization of the review process for Supreme Court nominees, which, on both sides of the aisle, is growing worse and more detached from reality by the year.” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), meanwhile, declared Jackson to be “a well-qualified jurist and a person of honor.”

You can be forgiven if you believed those GOP votes were pivotal, or even significant.  Collins made her announcement on March 30, thereby, as The Post noted, "becoming the first Republican senator to publicly back President Biden’s nominee and all but guaranteeing Jackson will become the first Black female justice in history. "

The following Monday, Senator Murkowski announced that she would vote for Jackson and Senator Romney followed a couple of hours later.

That was all for show.  The real news had come five days before Collins' statement when on March 25 Senator Joe Manchin announced

that he will vote for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be confirmed to the Supreme Court, clearing the way to an all-but-certain confirmation.

The West Virginia Democrat has become a pivotal vote in the evenly divided Senate, as he often sides with Republicans, and his opposition could have blocked Jackson from becoming the first Black woman to sit on the bench.

President Biden needed support from all fifty Democrats, thus ensuring approval of the nomination with the tie-breaking vote of Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Harris was present on Wednesday to preside over the Senate but her vote would not be needed because of support of the three GOP senators. However, their vote became moot once Joe Manchin gave his thumbs-up. It was only then that Senator Collins, followed by senators Murkowski and Romney, decided to throw in with the majority and be on the winning side.

Republicans don't suffer apostates gladly. Of the GOP House members who voted to impeach Donald Trump after January 6, 2020

in the year since the deadliest attack on the Capitol in centuries, none of the 10 lawmakers have been able to avoid the consequences of a fundamental miscalculation about the direction of their party. The former president is very much the leader of the Republicans, and it is those who stood against him whom the party has thrust into the role of pariah.

Since they cast their impeachment votes on Jan. 13, Representatives Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois have announced their retirements amid death threats from voters and hostility from colleagues. Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming has gone from a star in the House Republican leadership to an exiled party gadfly and truth teller.

Representatives Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, Peter Meijer of Michigan and Fred Upton of Michigan have Trump-endorsed primary challengers on their heels and uncertain political futures. Four others — John Katko of New York, Dan Newhouse of Washington, Tom Rice of South Carolina and David Valadao of California — have gone to ground, silent if not silenced, in the apparent hope that the entire episode will be forgotten.

But what has been the reaction of politicians or voters of the Republican Party? Thus far, at least: crickets.  Confirmation of Judge Jackson was, as Joe Biden would have put it at a younger age, "a big f-"- well, you know the rest. For the media and much of the Democratic base, it was a big deal because Ketanji Brown Jackson thus became the first black woman on the Supreme Court.  For those less impressed by an individual's pigment or chromosomal makeup, it is because the Court has gained another liberal voice, and a highly impressive one at that.

Nonetheless, senators Collins, Murkowski, and Romney have not incurred criticism for breaking ranks with their party colleagues and the betting here is that they will face little or none. Those 47 other Republican senators and the GOP members of the House- including such luminaries as Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and Paul Gosar- know the score. So does Donald J. Trump, who generally tolerates no disloyalty. They knew the die was cast when Joe Manchin decided to back Jackson.

It's likely that had Manchin declared opposition to the nomination, neither of the three Republican senators who voted for the judge would have done so.  Any Republican who dared to cross the GOP leadership would have provided the Democrat's crucial 50th vote in the Senate, and none would have done so. Senator Manchin ultimately was responsible for three votes aside his own.

Having cast their irrelevant votes, Collins, Murkowski, and Romney will return to voting as right-wing party loyalists.  Joe Manchin will continue to be Joe Manchin, who is no prize. But in the matter of filling out the Court with someone so worthy, the West Virginia senator did come up big as the 50th Senator Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe Biden, and the country needed.

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50 To 2

On Sunday, West Virginia's Democratic senator, Joe Manchin.came out against Build Back Better, stating in part "This is a 'no' on this piece of legislation. I have tried everything I know to do." Manchin's definitive stance begged for a rebuttal from the White House and it was delivered, eloquently and emphatically, by Press Secretary Jen Psaki. 

As President Biden was about to sign into law the Infrastructure and Investment Act in November, Democratic Representative Abigail Spanberger lauded the legislation as "the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (which) will pave the way for real improvements to Virginia's physical infrastructure." Similarly, Spanberger responded to Manchin's remarks about the social infrastructure bill by asserting

During this process, we should not ignore that Members of the Republican Party have wholly refused to work with Democrats on these priorities. But after months of negotiations, one Democratic U.S. Senator has now summarily walked away from productive negotiations.

The congresswoman neglected to mention that it is not "members" of the GOP who are blocking Democrats on Build Back Better, but all members of the Senate GOP caucus. Hailing from a swing district whose House seat was held by a Republican from 1971 until she was elected in 2018, she refers to the approved legislation as "bipartisan" and emphasizes Democrat Joe Manchin as the roadblock to Build Back Better.

This is apiece with a passage from Sunday's Politico article written by an MSNBC show host in which Jonathan Lemire wrote

The stunning decision by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Sunday to announce his opposition to Biden’s Build Back Better legislation handed the president a stinging defeat. And unless the White House can turn the senator around, the result will not just be a profound failure to combat climate change and expand the social safety net, but also undermining the president’s central premise of competence and the vow that he could forge consensus in times of partisanship and tribalism.

And  unless the White House can turn the senator around, the result will be a profound failure....

Joe Manchin is only one Democratic senator, though at 6'3", a rather large one. There are 50 Republican senators. None has spoken in favor of Build Back Better and every one will vote against it.  There are at least 48 Democratic senators, or 96% of the caucus, who will be voting for the proposal. Forty-eight beats zero by a factor of- well, infinity.

Senator Manchin is working against the interests of his state and of the country. However, he can at least claim- perhaps disingenuously- that he "has tried everything I can do" and has "tried everything humanely possible. I can't get there." Negotiations, however fruitless, have taken place, which explains why his claim of victimhood (below) is bogus.

There are 50 Republican senators who will not admit even to have seriously considered the legislation and Senate Minority Leader has not proposed discussions with Majority Leader Schumer. There is no chance they will "get there" because their strategy is "just say no." They were always assumed to be opposed to this Democratic president's initiative, and that has been treated as expected, even normal.

Lemire argues the President must "turn the Senator around" so Biden can uphold his "vow that he could forge consensus in times of partisanship and tribalism." The impediment to achieving bipartisan peace and love thus becomes the Democratic Party, with its two holdouts (Manchin and Senator Krysten Sinema), and not the Stepford Republicans.

Representative Spanberger and other Democrats must not continue to assist the media in framing failure of this initiative. Voters are hearing about Joe Manchin and, to a lesser extent, Krysten Sinema, and the inability of Democratic leadership to knock sense into them.  Hearing far less about Republicans, they are prone to believe it is Democrats who are the stumbling block to the valuable benefits in the bill. Worse, if the bill goes down, they will conclude the Democratic Party is responsible for nothing being accomplished in Washington.

Ironically, as- and because-  the GOP is steadfastly negative and partisan, it is the Democratic Party which is fingered as being the primary agents of partisanship and failure. The media shouldn't aid them, and neither should Democrats.

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