Mitch McConnell Has Done Us A Service-- Democratic Centrism Is Dead
July 1, 2021
The German Mathematician and Philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (a figure who inspired both Franklin and Hamilton, and many years later the martyred Anti-Nazi student group, "The White Rose") once wrote "we live in the best of all possible worlds". He wrote this not out of a naive or delusional state of mind in which it was convenient to ignore suffering, injustice, lies, and violence. He stood for a concept of Natural Law which asserted that "no evil exists which cannot in some way contribute to a higher good". He based this concept on his reasoned argument that the Universe had a Creator, and that human beings were made in the Creator's likeness and image. Therefore he argued that the world in which we live, our people, and the future we aspire to are intelligible and susceptible to reason.
At moments of confusion or despair, when nearly overcome with the oppressive feeling of being powerless, I have hung onto and fought to keep this idea present in my mind. Conversely, I try to see each unfathomable individual act of senseless evil as an opportunity to defeat the systemic evil behind it, which gave rise to it and perpetuated it. When a great evil is committed and tolerated, those responsible always violate the laws of the Universe, as well as the most enlightened written laws of society. The perpetrators render themselves potentially vulnerable and expose their weak flank, which if exploited can become their undoing. That is, if we are cognizant and not passive observers of events.
So I must say that Mitch McConnell has presented us with a gift, and out of the purest form of Olympian arrogance has done some of our work for us. He has proven to the President, some amongst his inner circle, and the Democratic leadership that bipartisanship, unity, cooperation, and joint initiatives are not only a thing of the past, but that anyone still hanging on to that orientation has pronounced themselves to be irrelevant ballast, to be tossed overboard if they persist in dragging the whole ship down.
Joe Manchin has had this reality shoved down his throat with the force of the heavy machinery and explosives used to mine coal in his home state. He has nothing, and is coughing up soot as he attempts to salvage some part of his career long charade of being a Democrat. Kyrsten Sinema, whose Cranium could serve as a functional Lab for doing Biology experiments in a vacuum without achieving orbit, will now be isolated and follow Manchin's lead, which is to conform to Democratic unity against the openly fascist GOP. They will both do their impersonations of a Chameleon which wanders onto a swatch of scotch plaid material, and huffs and puffs while attempting to blend in.
Joe Biden could not have arm twisted either of them to get their act together. It took the recent atrocities of McConnell and McCarthy in defending the January 6th insurrection, the attacks on voting rights and Democracy, the sandbagging of the infrastructure plan, their defense of the fillibuster as a tool of reviving Jim Crow, and lastly their shameless capitulation to the evil Donald Trump to force the Centrists "off center".
Regardless of whether Manchin and Sinema have honestly shifted and will sustain any serious effort to rejoin the Democratic Party, the actions of the GOP in the recent months have cut the legs out from those in the White House misadvising the President, such as Anita Dunn, who have been the principle stumbling block marginalizing the input of the Progressive Caucus, Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, and FDR Democrats such as Warren and Sanders.
Maybe now the White House will properly avail themselves of VP Kamala Harris political leadership instead of setting her up to fail by dumping on her those issues the White House is reluctant to follow through on. How many people are aware that Harris has been assigned a Chief of Staff who has set up a "Palace Guard" that will not allow phone calls to come through from the VP's oldest, dearest, and most trusted political collaborators outside of the administration? Not only is she underutilized, but she has been isolated from her own allies. (Link here)
This is what the Biden administration Centrists have been doing in the name of bipartisanship, keeping out controversy and minimizing the GOP extremist's "talking points", by keeping Harris under their thumb.
They have suppressed and therefore squandered the leadership qualities of the Vice President, and prevented aggressive actions by other members of the Cabinet on behalf of many policies associated with the Party's Progressives. Lip service and public posturing has been the substitute for political courage. By avoiding any serious fight that could be used to fuel the "Socialist Democrats" narrative by the GOP, they have attempted to hold back the efforts waged by Pelosi and Schumer in Congress.
That is all over now, finally. The GOP actions to sabotage a January 6th Commission were the last straw. Many of these Democratic leaders were seconds away from being zip tied, put on mock trial and summarily executed. They are simply fed up with the continuing lies and sabotage. Not by the GOP, that is expected. They have had enough of the Centrists.
There is a new sense of fighting spirit, combativeness, and determination in the Democratic Caucus. McConnell accomplished what AOC and James Clyburn, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer could not. He united the Democratic Party for a no holds barred war to defend our Democracy. And in doing so, he has proven for those doubters that the great Leibniz was right. There IS no evil which cannot in some way contribute to a higher good. I've bet my life on that idea. Try it out, and see how it works for you.
We are in a whole new ballgame. It will be ugly, but at least it will be real.
