Working people want to see the Squad stand up to the establishment. Progressive leaders and leaders of major labor unions need to harness that desire and publicly urge that the Squad use their numerical balance & refuse to vote on the MUST PASS stimulus bill unless $15 is in it.— Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) March 6, 2021
This might be worth a shot, but the odds are heavily stacked against it. Here's what would happen if the squad tried this:
Succeeding would mean getting 8 Democratic senators to switch their votes. Many of those senators aren't up for reelection in 2022, so this whole saga might not even register when there's an opportunity to hold them accountable. Pretty sure there's more money spent on Senate races than on House races, so it's harder to primary them than it is to primary a member of the squad.
Succeeding would also mean getting Democrats to overrule or fire the parliamentarian -- they just showed us they're willing to use that as an excuse for not passing this.
If the squad announced they were sticking to their guns, mainstream media would attack them 24/7 on the parliamentarian thing. The line would be "we can't even pass this if all 8 senators get on board -- these unrealistic socialists have no idea what they're doing and are needlessly holding up your stimulus check, unemployment funding, etc."
That said, this might be worthwhile. Unlike the Force the Vote deal, there's actually something material to gain here (a win would mean raising the minimum wage; a win on the prior FTV deal would have meant seeing Medicare for All get voted down). But I'd say there's a single-digit percentage chance of it working, and it could easily be used to direct all sorts of public anger at the left.
Either way, the odds of success are so low we shouldn't be getting pissy at each other over this. That was the real takeaway of the FTV thing -- that we have to learn the difference between a situation where we have a real chance and it's worth going to the mat over vs. a situation where we're picking different flavors of losing and we shouldn't poison the well over it.
"We're fighting for the promise Joe Biden was elected on, even if Joe isn't willing to. In this pandemic working people deserve a living wage. Let's treat them like Heroes by treating them like people first."
You can always make a counter argument, but that's not going to get 24/7 airtime like "these unrealistic socialists are holding up your stimulus check" will.
That's unrealistic. You'd just hear "we can't pass this anyway, the parliamentarian said so" nonstop. And most Democrats would buy it, like they bought the parliamentarian bullshit when it first was floated, and like they bought the $1400+$600=$2000 garbage.
There's a slight chance delaying the bill would lead to talking points like that falling apart, but this isn't anything close to a "press this button and win" scenario.
If the Squad were to stand their ground here, they would be foolish to not point out that the parliamentarian is not elected and has no actual power over this, their opinion only advisory at every moment they're on TV.
Their slogan should become "Kamala Harris does not want to give you a $15 minimum wage." until it causes a ringing in people's ears.
Who's going to get more media exposure: the folks calling bullshit on the parliamentarian, or the folks who've already sold the line that the parliamentarian said we can't go forward with this?
Do rank-and-file Democrats, who were fine voting for Biden, really give a shit about the minimum wage?
In the best case scenario this is nowhere close to a guaranteed win. I'm not even sure there's a 50% chance at this succeeding.
Presumably these networks would like to have AOC on to berate her, which is when she would say these things that make it obvious who has the power to do what.
It's actually 100% a guaranteed win, because they can't pass anything without it. And Biden desperately needs to pass this. But like all things the left has won in US history, it takes being willing to withstand pain in the moment.
Go read about Women's Suffrage or the pressure the Communist party put on FDR before you account for what is reality.
Biden has no choice here, it's pass this stimulus or see the entire economy collapse and people blaming him. A real Left coalition would use this to secure the $15 minimum wage he ran and was elected on.
This might be worth a shot, but the odds are heavily stacked against it. Here's what would happen if the squad tried this:
That said, this might be worthwhile. Unlike the Force the Vote deal, there's actually something material to gain here (a win would mean raising the minimum wage; a win on the prior FTV deal would have meant seeing Medicare for All get voted down). But I'd say there's a single-digit percentage chance of it working, and it could easily be used to direct all sorts of public anger at the left.
Either way, the odds of success are so low we shouldn't be getting pissy at each other over this. That was the real takeaway of the FTV thing -- that we have to learn the difference between a situation where we have a real chance and it's worth going to the mat over vs. a situation where we're picking different flavors of losing and we shouldn't poison the well over it.
"We're fighting for the promise Joe Biden was elected on, even if Joe isn't willing to. In this pandemic working people deserve a living wage. Let's treat them like Heroes by treating them like people first."
You can always make a counter argument, but that's not going to get 24/7 airtime like "these unrealistic socialists are holding up your stimulus check" will.
Airtime doesn't matter if they get $15/hr passed. Which they would, because they'd have Biden by the balls.
That's unrealistic. You'd just hear "we can't pass this anyway, the parliamentarian said so" nonstop. And most Democrats would buy it, like they bought the parliamentarian bullshit when it first was floated, and like they bought the $1400+$600=$2000 garbage.
There's a slight chance delaying the bill would lead to talking points like that falling apart, but this isn't anything close to a "press this button and win" scenario.
If the Squad were to stand their ground here, they would be foolish to not point out that the parliamentarian is not elected and has no actual power over this, their opinion only advisory at every moment they're on TV.
Their slogan should become "Kamala Harris does not want to give you a $15 minimum wage." until it causes a ringing in people's ears.
Who's going to get more media exposure: the folks calling bullshit on the parliamentarian, or the folks who've already sold the line that the parliamentarian said we can't go forward with this?
Do rank-and-file Democrats, who were fine voting for Biden, really give a shit about the minimum wage?
In the best case scenario this is nowhere close to a guaranteed win. I'm not even sure there's a 50% chance at this succeeding.
Presumably these networks would like to have AOC on to berate her, which is when she would say these things that make it obvious who has the power to do what.
It's actually 100% a guaranteed win, because they can't pass anything without it. And Biden desperately needs to pass this. But like all things the left has won in US history, it takes being willing to withstand pain in the moment.
The media is smart enough to know that blacking out a leftist position is more effective than arguing against it. We just saw that with Bernie.
This is totally out of touch with reality.
Go read about Women's Suffrage or the pressure the Communist party put on FDR before you account for what is reality.
Biden has no choice here, it's pass this stimulus or see the entire economy collapse and people blaming him. A real Left coalition would use this to secure the $15 minimum wage he ran and was elected on.
Things that are highly relevant in 2021
The squad would obviously be blamed for this, not Biden.
And lol at Biden voters giving a shit about some insincere promise he had on his website. They voted for "nothing will fundamentally change."