It appears there’s trouble in paradise for Democrats. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez openly called out Joe Biden today for breaking his promises, noting that he told the progressives in the House he could deliver the Senate on the “Build Back Better” bill. But with Joe Manchin signaling he’s a no-go and the bill now shelved until next year, that didn’t happen and the consternation has begun.
Is AOC taking a swipe at Pramila Jayapal, who led the progressive negotiations with the White House, as well in her comments? You be the judge.
To start, I’m not sure what tools she’s speaking of. Yes, Chuck Schumer could force a vote, but that vote would fail. So what exactly would be the point of that? If she’s talking about the filibuster, that requires Manchin’s support as well; though, a favorite game of the far-left is pretending they actually do have the power to abolish the filibuster but leadership won’t let them. It’s a calculated insinuation that more than enough uninformed radicals have bought into.
Perhaps she means putting more pressure on Manchin by threatening his committee assignments? But all Manchin would do is make a deal with Mitch McConnell if it came to that. Pretty soon, you’d have a Republican majority in the Senate without an election even having to take place. As for the president, there’s absolutely nothing he can do — despite AOC’s insistence otherwise.
Given those realities, this seems like more immaturity from the New York congresswoman. I guess she thinks she can whine her way to having a filibuster-proof majority, but Twitter bluster never did accomplish much. In that sense, her musings are rather pathetic.
Still, it’s interesting that AOC would be so forward here in going after Biden. She’s essentially calling the other progressives suckers for believing the president, while at the same time lauding herself for not falling for his lies. In that sense, I suppose she’s right. They were suckers for thinking that Biden was some legislative genius that would pull Manchin over to the dark side by mumbling sweet nothings into his ear.
Of course, AOC only voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill in the House because Republicans stepped in to make up the difference. If she had been the deciding vote, I believe she would have fallen in line because she always falls in line. Her entire persona is one big act. She plays the communist revolutionary on Instagram while consistently doing what benefits her career in the end, and that typically means not offending Nancy Pelosi.
Anyway, I say let them fight. The Democrat coalition has been crumbling for a while, and things are only going to get worse after 2022 when the progressives insist they lost because the party wasn’t woke enough. That will be another gift for Republicans going forward into 2024