The Way Forward

Remember that under our political system these federal legislators are almost all utterly dependent on big money donors, and are instructed by 'consultants' as to how to behave correctly in order to get the money they need to run their next campaign.

Then there is this decades long 'third way'/ 'democratic leadership committee' ideology that is pervasive in the party that political success requires 'capturing the center'. This is the legacy of the Clinton, Obama, and to a lesser extent Biden presidencies that rejects left economic populism (for example medicare for all), views itself as 'pro business' (supporting deregulation, for example), and grudgingly accommodates social issues in order to shore up support from the left.

Since the emergence of Trump and the more or less acknowledged failure of the neoliberal economic system, this position has simply been reduced to defending institutional traditions from the past (e.g. 'bipartisanship') in the face of a radical fascist Republican Party that is actively trying to destroy not only the traditions but the institutions themselves.

So we have the comic farce of centrist Democrats proudly boasting that they are reaching across the aisle 'to get things done', when the people they are reaching out to basically want them in prison or dead.

It is fucking infuriating.