Democrats Need to Use the Power They Won

 

I understand Joe Biden's desire to bring some level of unity back to the nation, but if he expects Mitch "Moscow Mitch" McConnell and the sedition caucus in Congress to act with a similar sense of compromise both he and Senator Chuck Schumer are dreaming.  McConnell showed over the last dozen years that he is arrogant and will use power to further his reverse Robin Hood agenda and frustrate Democrat goals and programs supported by a majority of Americans.  Thus, we are at a point where Democrats must forge forward and, if need be, force votes in the Senate.  Meanwhile, Biden should continue to use executive orders to get things done to rein in the pandemic and attendant economic damage.     Two columns in the Washington Post look at where we find ourselves.  The first argues what I just stated,  The second argues for the potential use of a "mini-nuclear option" to intimidate McConnell to cease his obstruction. McConnell has done immense harm to the nation and he must be confronted and defeated.  Here are highlights from the first column:

Democrats worked long and hard to win power. Now, for the good of the country and the world, they need to use it — with determination and without fear.

Republican calls for President Biden and the Democratic majorities in Congress to settle for half-measures in the name of “unity” would be laughable if they weren’t so insulting. The GOP’s definition of unity would require not doing anything the GOP opposes. To accept that would be a betrayal of the citizens who voted in record numbers — some of them braving a deadly pandemic in the process — to put the Democratic Party in charge.

A better way to seek unity is to vigorously pursue policies that have broad public support — and that begin to clean up the shambles the Biden administration inherits. Democrats may have slim majorities, but they have been given a mandate to lead. They need to remember the past four years when Republicans controlled the White House and Senate. The GOP grandly pronounced that “elections have consequences” and treated the Democratic minority like a doormat.

I’m not advocating payback for payback’s sake, tempting as that might be, but just being realistic. Look at where we are: More than 400,000 Americans have died from covid-19 — a higher number than any other nation. There has been such chaos in the rollout of lifesaving vaccines that the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn’t been able to find out how many doses are available or where they might be. We’re in a “K-shaped” recovery from the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. The wealthy are seeing their stock portfolios soar while the poor and working class face hunger and fear. Calls for a reckoning on racial justice have gone unanswered and there were ridiculous Trump-era energy policies that ignored the existential crisis of climate change.

So yes, President Biden, if Republicans won’t help, you should continue to do as much as you can through executive action. And yes, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate should be prepared to abolish the filibuster — and should pull the trigger sooner rather than later if Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) continues to block the chamber from even getting organized to do its work.

Republicans have a choice. They can wail about the dangers of an “imperial” presidency and lavishly bemoan the abandonment of hallowed Senate tradition. Or they can face reality and work constructively with Democrats toward a national recovery, and give even the proposals they disagree with fair hearings and votes.

The GOP could shake free of Trump’s grip by confining him to private life, thus taking away his ability to raise money and maintain grass roots. Most Republican senators surely realize the opportunity before them — but also fear Trump’s wrath and that of  the GOP base he transformed into a cult of personality. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) embodies this pathetic haplessness. He says a trial will be “like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire,” ignoring that Trump, as arsonist in chief, lit the fire in the first place.

As Republicans refuse to even mount a struggle for the soul of their party, the country will need Democrats to take the helm and resolve our overlapping crises.

The most urgent matter of business is passing a new covid-19 relief package, providing desperately needed help for individuals, small businesses and state and local governments. Republicans who hardly batted an eye at Trump’s free-spending ways, and who blew a huge hole in the budget with a massive tax cut for the wealthy, have suddenly — and predictably — rediscovered their deep concern about the national debt.

GOP senators can have a voice in the outcome if they engage in good faith. But they have to realize that “compromise” doesn’t mean “Republicans win and Democrats lose.” Not anymore.

The second column again argues that Democrats need to play hard ball with McConnell and, if need be, call his bluff and move to end the filibuster if McConnell doesn't stop the obstruction.  Here are excerpts:

McConnell is demanding that Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democrats agree in advance to never nix the legislative filibuster.

Democrats are refusing to make that commitment. While they likely won’t actually do away with the filibuster — moderates Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) are opposed — they want to preserve the option of doing so, as leverage against McConnell abusing it with abandon. McConnell’s position is utterly ludicrous, and Democrats should not cave.

But Democrats could end McConnell’s blockade now. Sarah Binder, a congressional expert at the Brookings Institution, says Democrats could devise a procedural motion to create a new precedent that would apply only to organizing resolutions.

“Technically, yes, Democrats could with 50 votes and the vice president detonate a small nuke that only hits organizing resolutions,” Binder told me.

However, Binder added, this would in effect push the Senate further into procedural warfare.

[W[hat McConnell is doing is simply intolerable. And there almost certainly will have to be a full blown confrontation at some point. As Carl Hulse puts it:

The feud reflects a challenging dynamic in the 50-50 Senate for Mr. Biden. By holding out against Democrats eager to take charge, Mr. McConnell is exercising what leverage he has. But he is also foreshadowing an eventual clash in the chamber that might otherwise have taken months to unfold over how aggressive Democrats should be in seeking to accomplish Mr. Biden’s top priorities.

Democrats say they must retain at least the threat that they could one day end the filibuster, arguing that bowing to Mr. McConnell’s demand now would only embolden Republicans to deploy it constantly, without fear of retaliation.

In other words, McConnell is almost certainly going to filibuster as much as he can of Biden’s agenda, and Democrats will have to confront this at some point. McConnell is just forcing the issue early: He’s demanding that Democrats give up their leverage over him now, so that he can proceed with maximal obstruction.

McConnell is literally holding up the transfer of control of the Senate — temporarily nullifying the outcome of the elections — to try to force them to do this. Democrats can’t allow that.

So other than waiting for McConnell to cave (which might happen, but also might not), what other options does that leave for Democrats?