Democrats and the Big Tent

I am as frustrated as anybody that Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema stand between us and passage of a very large, very valuable legislative program.  

It's not completely clear what kind of compromises it would take to get them on board, but they need to be brought on board - and neither will yield to coercion.  If they say it needs to be reduced to $2.0T, or $1.9T, it's time to trim to that, get the legislation passed, get shovels in the ground, and begin healing the party ... and the nation. 

Manchin and Sinema were not elected by the Democratic Party, but by the majority of voters in two fairly conservative states.  Their push-back on this spending bill is not a sudden change of course for either of them - but is consistent with their record, and the stated positions that got them to the Senate. we should consider the possibility that those who angrily complain that these two are not 'real' Democrats might convince them that that is the case ― leading them to look for a new home outside the party.  If either of them does that, Mitch McConnell would overnight retake his former seat as Senate majority leader, and the $3.6T package will be reduced, not to $1.9T, but to zero.    

This will be a victory for ideological purity, and not settling for 'half a loaf', but a devastating, long-term setback for the progressive agenda I value, and which is the stated goal of those who most strongly oppose compromise.