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Reports have come out that Manchin has threatened to leave the Democratic party if he doesn’t get the cuts to the infrastructure bill that he wants. Manchin could cost the Dems control of the Senate if he chooses to caucus with the Republicans. Since his policies regarding Fossil Fuels and taxing the rich are indistinguishable from Republicans it is somewhat of a mystery why he hasn’t done this already.
I am put in mind of a bit of dialogue from the movie ‘Speed’ with Keanu Reeves. They discuss the insolubility of the hostage dilemma. Keanu says the solution is ‘shoot the hostage.’ Taking the leverage out of the hostage taker’s hands. I say, therefore, Bernie should threaten the exact same thing.
And the squad should make a similar threat. Does Pelosi fancy the idea of losing control of the House? Schumer like the idea of no longer presiding over the Senate? Maybe that would motivate Dem leadership to take the demands of the Progressive wing as seriously as they do Manchin and Sinema.
And it shouldn’t be that onerous for Bernie and/or AOC. After all caucusing with Republicans is exactly the same as caucusing with Sinema, Manchin and other Blue Dog democrats.
In addition to being a lawyer and a writer for Medium I write novels and perform stand up comedy as Doug X. My latest novel is Succubus Schemes.
