Bernie Sanders Is Fed Up With Republican Obstruction - and Democratic
Caution
By John Nichols, The Nation
07 June 21
"If Republicans don't want to cooperate," he says, "then, yes, we have to
move forward without them."
Bernie Sanders ran for president promising a political revolution. When he
did not secure the Democratic nomination, the unapologetic progressive
immediately threw in as a supporter of a more moderate Democrat, Joe Biden,
and became an ardent advocate for his former rival.
But that does not mean that Sanders has lost his revolutionary zeal.
In recent days, the independent senator from Vermont has become the
highest-profile and most enthusiastic congressional champion of the argument
that Senate Democrats must use their narrow majority to enact a
transformational agenda. Sanders has made it clear that he is pleased by the
ambitions of the White House when it comes to strategies like those outlined
in the president's initial proposal for an American Jobs Plan. But he has
been equally clear in recent days about his frustration with the deference
many Democrats continue to show to Republicans who are delaying and
disrupting the governing process.
The Biden administration has been engaged in a delicate dance of
negotiations with a small group of Republican senators, maintaining the
faint hopes of reaching an agreement to approve the president's
infrastructure proposal. Republicans, some Democrats, and many pundits who
are unable to get over the delusion of "bipartisanship," have suggested that
compromise is necessary to enact a more modest proposal.
But Sanders isn't having it.
"If Republicans don't want to cooperate and help us seriously address the
many crises we're facing today," he says, "then, yes, we have to move
forward without them to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and create
millions of good-paying, union jobs."
This is about much more than the usual wrangling between Democrats and
Republicans. Sanders has a longer and more ambitious history of working with
Republicans who really want to get things done-on issues ranging from fair
trade to protecting civil liberties and auditing the Pentagon-than the vast
majority of congressional Democrats. But the senator is unwilling to play
the fool. If Republicans fail to bargain in good faith, he is prepared to
abandon negotiations and start governing.
That's an emerging view on the part of progressives, who argue that the
handful of Senate Republicans who are talking with Biden-and who have
proposed weak-willed alternatives to the president's agenda-are not taking
the discussion about the American Jobs Plan seriously. Activists with the
Sunrise Movement gathered outside the White House Friday to call for
approval of "the boldest version of the American Jobs Plan." "No Compromise,
No Excuses," declares the group. "Democrats must take their power seriously
and stop negotiating with a GOP who is not serious about climate action or
delivering for the American people."
Sanders is delivering a similar message with interviews, statements, and
social media messages that suggest the time to act has arrived.
When CNN's Wolf Blitzer floated a case for continued negotiations and
compromises on the part of Democrats, the senator shot it down.
"The Republicans say they're on board with a lot of President Biden's plan
when it comes to 'traditional' infrastructure-roads, bridges, airports,
stuff like that," argued Blitzer. "Are you and other progressives denying
President Biden potentially a bipartisan 'win' by including all of the other
issues that you're labeling infrastructure that Republicans say is not
really traditional infrastructure?"
The Senate Budget Committee chair answered with facts, rather than wishful
thinking.
"According to the experts in our country, the American Society of Civil
Engineers, what the Republicans are proposing for 'traditional'
infrastructure is only a fraction of what we need," said Sanders. "I think
every American understands that our roads, and our bridges, our water
systems, all of that, is really crumbing before our eyes. I'm a former
mayor, and what I know is that, unless you invest in infrastructure, it's
only going to get worse-and it's only going to be more expensive. We now
have the opportunity to create millions of good-paying, often union jobs
rebuilding our infrastructure. What the Republicans are talking about is
totally inadequate."
Totally inadequate. And totally antidemocratic.
As Sanders and his fellow progressives note, Democrats won the presidency,
control of the House of Representatives, and control of the Senate in the
2020 election cycle. Now, under any reasonable measure of how the system is
supposed to work, the Democrats ought to be governing. And if filibuster
reform is required to jump-start the process, so be it.
Echoing the urgency of more than 100 groups that on Thursday declared, "We
cannot allow the filibuster to stand in the way of progress or imperil the
health of our democracy," Sanders says, "The U.S. Senate is the only
institution in the world where a vote of 59-41 can be considered a defeat
instead of a huge victory. Enough is enough. Let us change the outdated
rules of the Senate, end the filibuster and pass a bold agenda for working
families with a majority vote."