Unrepresentative Policy of the Week: Stop Playing to Lose Democrats!
Is everyone excited for Chuck Schumer’s Loser-Palooza June? This June, Schumer has promised to put up one major piece of legislation after the other, from paycheck fairness, gun control, LGBTQ equality, to major voting rights legislation HR1/S1. This veritable torrent of legislation appears like a welcome sudden downpour, after a drought of any policy, let alone major, popular policy. Finally votes will be taken on major, needed policy measures! Just look at how popular some of the upcoming policies are, this could be the Democrats moment to secure no just lasting change, but lasting political power! Paycheck Fairness Act Do you support “a new law that would provide women more tools to get fair pay in the workplace? The law will also make it harder for employers to justify paying different wages for the same work and ensure that businesses that break the law compensate women fairly,” Support: 84% Strongly Support: 72% Gun Control Do you Support or Oppose stricter gun control laws? Support: 64% Oppose: 28% Support for HR1/S1 Support: 69% Not so fast. Before we get excited or give credit to the Democrats, we need to step back and see if this is a real effort to pass legislation, or merely a political exercise for some other purpose. Of course, we all know it’s the latter. First, not a single Republican has expressed an iota of interest in passing any legislation with Biden, leaving any bill dead on arrival, without the elimination of the filibuster. Second, Joe Manchin (and other, quieter, corrupt Democrats) has loudly and repeatedly claimed he will kill legislation before changing the filibuster, around some notion of bipartisan governing. Whether he is a complete idiot or a bald-faced liar is yet to be entirely determined. Perhaps it’s both. Regardless, every bill being put up this June will fail. The Democrats knew this before even proposing the legislation. So, what is going on? The charitable interpretation, is that Democrats believe they can demonstrate to Manchin, or perhaps his base, that Republicans just can’t be worked with, no matter how hard Democrats try. This convinces Manchin and other purple seat Democrats that there is no choice but to go it alone and reform the filibuster for the sake of the country. The less charitable view, is that Democrats don’t really want to pass any of the bills they are putting up in June, and this guaranteed death of the bills, provides cover for them to avoid passing legislation they promised their voters. Note that the Infrastructure bill, the one piece of legislation Biden seems to care about, has not been put on the docket for June. Whether it is naivete, hopeless optimism, or Machiavellian maneuvering, the job of the people remains the same. We cannot let our legislators off the hook, letting them claim they tried to pass legislation, but just couldn’t do it. Our government officials need to feel the same urgency the people do, so they stop playing games with people lives, and start improving this country. To do that, we need to speak their language: political donor money. Money and power is all the masters of these politicians care about, and until their money and power are threatened, the people will continue to be at the mercy of callous rulers. To get the donors and the politicians attention, and compliance, it’s going to take sustained organizing and people power, not just around issues, but directed at the political economy! We need to build an economic cudgel that can force the donors to the negotiating table, and get our politicians back to representing us! So join us each Tuesday as we build our economic power! #DSOT Don't Shop on Tuesdays!
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