In his successful bid for the presidency, Joe Biden ran on a policy platform that while markedly conservative relative to the rest of the Democratic primary, was considerably more progressive than the politics of Senate Democrats, who are now key to turning campaign promises into legislative realities. General election presidential candidates typically serve as standard bearers for their party’s slate of candidates at all levels of government; Biden was no exception, and nowhere was his strain of milquetoast centrism reflected more than in the array of Democratic Senate candidates both up for reelection and contesting Republican-held seats. Read the campaign websites of Cal Cunningham, Sara Gideon, John Hickenlooper, and Theresa Greenfield (all Democratic challengers to incumbent Republican Senators) and you’ll find
In 2019, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took a stand against would-be progressive insurgents within the Democratic Party by blacklisting consultants and vendors working for primary challengers to House Democratic incumbents, and this not only runs contrary to the veneer of democratic idealism the party has worked so hard to develop, but it also constitutes a serious error of judgment when the legislative backbone of the 2020 Democratic Party agenda has been an array of policies that, while nowhere near sufficient to combat the death grip of inequality that is ever apparent in modern America, would uplift millions of Americans and herald a marked shift in legislative policymaking in a clear progressive direction.
Nowhere is this lack of cohesion in vision so apparent as in the continued presence of such anachronisms as Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who in lieu of any ideological backbone or political dexterity has sought to entrench his place as kingmaker in a Senate where every Democratic vote is needed to pass any piece of even somewhat positive legislation. A Republican in all but name, Manchin now masquerades as a traditionalist whose commitment is not to helping people, but to carrying water for conservatives who believe that undemocratic institutions like the filibuster should be preserved.
It came as no surprise, then, when Manchin, along with seven other Democratic Senators and the entire cohort of Senate Republicans, voted against an amendment to read a federal minimum wage increase to $15 an hour to the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill after Vice President Harris declined to overrule the advice of the Senate Parliamentarian to initially remove an equivalent provision. With what was effectively a direct Senate vote on a $15 federal minimum wage failing, it is hard to imagine a path forward for this cornerstone of Biden and Harris’s policy agenda.
Likewise, as Republican strategists cling to the dying embers of the Southern Strategy, the modus operandi of the GOP has shifted toward voter suppression and exploitation of a Senate and Electoral College skewed to favor states that lean conservative. Adhering to his charade as a lone champion of bipartisanship in a sea of extremists, Manchin has said he will not vote for HR1 (also known as the For The People Act), a bill passed in the House that would be the greatest expansion of voting rights since the 19th Amendment, including provisions to end voter roll purges, automatically register everyone eligible to vote, and establish independent redistricting commissions to end gerrymandering, unless it garners at least some Republican support, which in combination with his posturing about retaining the filibuster will make passing it effectively impossible.
In a Senate split 50-50, Manchin’s vote is more powerful and coveted than perhaps any single Senate vote in recent memory, but there is still a viable path forward to abolish the filibuster and pass the policy cornerstones of Biden’s campaign. In terms of policy preferences, the political zeitgeist is firmly behind health and childcare expansion, student debt relief, and raising the minimum wage. Instead of treating progressive ideas as something to be ashamed of when courting the supposedly ‘moderate’ average American voter, Biden and the Democratic Party can proudly wear the badge of progressivism and channel these overwhelmingly popular policies into lasting electoral successes evocative of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal.
If Manchin is only the most offensive of a large cadre of centrist Democratic Senators who are consistently reassured by party institutions that they will not be pressured into supporting progressive policies, since after all, progressive policies can’t win in contested, purple states, and the continued reelection of these Senators is a necessary evil to prevent Republicans from winning overwhelming control of the Senate and becoming an even greater obstacle to progress. These fears have little basis in reality, since an election in which Democrats actually prioritize popular policy in messaging is overwhelmingly likely to claim victory against a party whose most significant policy achievement during the Trump administration was the 2017 tax cuts, which generate an ignominious 34 percent approval rating. If Democrats put their record-breaking fundraising toward highlighting policy differences
In pursuing a bold progressive agenda, these Senators- and indeed any elected Democrat who opposes our movement- must be reminded that they are not indispensable and can and will be replaced if they stand in the way of reform.
Biden now has the opportunity to leverage the American people’s support for his platform against.
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