Or has the moment passed and the House already voted on the bill?
Lol what did you people think they were going to do? Their job is literally to trick you
No, and the "Squad can force $15 into the bill" crap is magical thinking.
Yeah so was women's suffrage until women died for it, and civil rights with desegregation until people died for it, and getting the New Deal until the socialist party stood their ground and forced FDR to support it.
"Magical" is the word liberals tell you when it's outside of their desires, not when it's outside possibility.
All this would take is the progressive block actually standing their ground for the first time.
I did not say $15 was outside possibility. I said the idea that four people in Congress can click their heels together and raise everyone's pay is magical thinking, because it is. Dressing that magical thinking with references to the civil rights movement or women's suffrage doesn't make it any less magical.
Ten people, the deciding votes on a must-pass bill, trying to get a policy with massive popular support that the president ran on into a bill that it absolutely should not be excluded from by any logical conclusion.
Your concept of magic is exceedingly banal.
I agree with that (minus the last edit)! It shouldn't be excluded, and the fact that Biden and 16% of the Democrats in the Senate spiked it speaks to the limits of electoralism as a whole, not some conspiracy theory that the Squad is selling us out. We should focus on the corporate Dems that are actually selling us out, not doing their bidding by punching left at the Squad.
If the Squad said "no $15, no vote", the Dem leadership would look for moderate GOP support. Dems would cut a deal with Lisa Murkowski (who almost voted for the bill) or five Republicans in blue districts to water the bill down even further. The "moderate" GOP would chomp at the bit to water down the bill further to stick it to the left.
And they absolutely could not find that, because there is NO ground to be gained. Denying Biden his stimulus is something the Republicans would not budge on, it's key to 2022 for them to make him look as bad as possible.
It is not punching left to expect our progressive block we tried so hard to get into office to actually stand for something. This is the moment for them to do that and they didn't take it, again.
The bill has already been passed, Bernie tried a last ditch effort to add $15 min wage as a separate amendment but it was voted down by every Republican and 8 democrats.
That was the Senate, this would concern getting only 10 progressive Democrats in the House to refrain from voting for it until they put the $15 minimum wage back.
Ah, right. Technically they could reject the senate bill, but they won't.
And if they did, the Democrats would be forced to change it to either appeal to win Republican votes (which it wouldn't in any scenario) or put the $15 minimum wage back in, which is completely within Biden and Harris' powers.
completely within Biden and Harris’ powers.
There's your problem. These ghouls would much rather defend bullshit arcane Senate rules than lift a finger to push for anything good.
are you talking about manchin? i didn't know he was in the kkk.
The rule was made by Robert Byrd (Manchin's predecessor), who was an officer in the KKK before becoming a Senator.
If I'm understanding correctly, they could have put the minimum wage increase back into the bill, but it would then go back to the Senate, where it likely would be rejected.
Don't get me wrong here, I think the left should have done more and put the onus on people like Manchin, but I also don't see a scenario where they win.
What they could do is refuse to vote to pass it without a wage raise. Then that leaves Biden to either let his stimulus die, which he can't and won't, or actually fight for the thing he promised when running.
This would get the left blamed for delaying checks and unemployment funding, and would hurt working people right now.
Biden wouldn't be forced to do anything -- he ran and won on "nothing will fundamentally change," and his supporters and the media are happy to hurt people and blame the left for it.
The slim chance of Democrats seeing the light and reversing course on everything they've done to tank the minimum wage increase thus far is likely exceeded by the chance of them further slashing checks or unemployment funding to attract a handful of Republicans.
Everything the left does they get blamed for as some negative. This is the exact same argument made against Sanders, that they'd call him a communist.
Biden WON running on $15 minimum wage as his main policy, hold him to it. People won't be very mad for long after we have a $15 minimum wage thanks to them.
Biden WON running on $15 minimum wage as his main policy
His main policy was "I'm not Trump, let's forget about all that and go back to the Obama years." He was by far the most conservative candidate in the field.
He put a bunch of progressive stuff on his website solely for the purpose of browbeating the left into voting for him -- he never believed it, his supporters never cared about it, and no one who isn't already on our side is going to be bothered by him blowing all that stuff off.
But if anyone could name a single policy of his, it was $15 minimum wage. It's the one he talked about the most, after simply, winning the presidency.
The folks who voted for him didn't care about his policies. Before he won the nomination all they talked about was his electability, and afterwards all they talked about was how shitty Trump was.
Whatever they did think about his policies, they're not going to hold him to. Look at how obvious the promise of "$2000 checks" was, and how many rank-and-file Democrats are fine with means-tested $1400 checks (and lower unemployment funding). There's no way to hold Biden accountable to his campaign promises period, and that goes double for policies his supporters knew to be insincere, to the extent they knew about them at all.
I kind of feel like there are some people who voted for him because he promised an improvement in their material conditions.
And even more people who would understand the progressives actually holding him accountable for it.
Who cares if the left is blamed by the media. Force Biden or the Senate to not vote on $15.
They didn't though, the $15 minimum wage was stripped out of the Covid Stimulus because the parliamentarian said a higher wage wouldn't have an affect on the budget therefore it cannot be a part of reconciliation.
Edit: Sorry, I meant $15 attached to Covid relief. Senate rejected $15 outright (thumbs down heard round the world), but dare them to reject the Covid Bill over $15/hour.
I gave three or four other reasons this won't work. "The left will get blamed for it" is just a counter to the idea that Biden would take heat for the squad very prominently holding this up.
I can't say who will or won't get heat, but imo the only purpose of electoralism is to heighten contradictions by showing the Democratic Party cannot pass any kind of non means tested redistributive policies. Democrats political power comes from immiserating people, Pelosi/Biden/Kamala ect aren't going to do something that hurts their political power. The sooner this fact is drilled into people's heads the better.
If we're assuming from the start that Democrats would never ever pass a $15 minimum wage, than we can't really blame the squad for not somehow forcing it through. It was never a realistic possibility to begin with, per our initial assumption.
If the goal is to highlight who does and doesn't support the $15 minimum wage, we already know that.
The goal should be radicalizing as many people as possible by showing what the Democratic Party's true colors are. The $15 min wage vote didn't get much media play, rejecting the Covid bill would suck up all the oxygen in the room.
Force Manchin/Sinema/Tester to reject $15/hour by killing the Covid bill. I doubt AOC/Ilhan ect would do this because they see some redeeming qualities in the party, but I'm well past that point.
The $15 min wage vote didn’t get much media play, rejecting the Covid bill would suck up all the oxygen in the room.
Then we're back to the issue of who gets blamed in the media. The answer, of course, would be the left. Here's what you'd get non-stop from corporate media:
We were all ready to get you checks and unemployment funding, but the socialists threw a fit and blew the whole thing up. We already addressed the issue of the minimum wage. Not only will it not get past the Senate, but it couldn't get through the Senate even if all 50 Democrats got on board with it -- the parliamentarian already ruled on this. These socialists are in over their head, and their incompetence is keeping $1400 and unemployment funding from you. If they don't get with the program soon enough the adults in the room will have to cut a deal with Republicans to try and get some relief out.
Now this is all horseshit, and you can make all sorts of great arguments against it, but this is where the narrative will start and where the weight of the media will try to keep it. If we're focused on how this will play in the media, this is a bad fight to pick.
I'm sure the corporate media will blame the left, but no one can spin the optics of voting against Covid to prevent a $15 min wage increase. Preventing checks AND a $15 min wage would be a true sight to behold. And it would basically give the 'left' of the party swag to do it again.
Th spectacle of Sanders awakened so many people politically, the spectacle of the party refusing to improve people's lives beyond a single check would push people left. Worrying about minutiae at this point or who wins or loses the day's headlines is putting the cart before the horse.
no one can spin the optics of voting against Covid to prevent a $15 min wage increase
Which is why we would never come close to getting such a vote. The vote we had was up or down on the Covid bill without the minimum wage increase. So it would be the squad voting against the Covid bill, not centrist Democrats. And they would get all the blame for it because they're the reason it didn't pass.
Worrying about minutiae at this point or who wins or loses the day’s headlines
I'm not seeing a coherent position here. Is the media narrative we'd get from this important or not?
Which is why we would never come close to getting such a vote. The vote we had was up or down on the Covid bill without the minimum wage increase. So it would be the squad voting against the Covid bill, not centrist Democrats. And they would get all the blame for it because they’re the reason it didn’t pass.
It would be the squad voting against stripping the $15 min wage.
I’m not seeing a coherent position here. Is the media narrative we’d get from this important or not?
You're being a little pedantic here - Sam Seder is that you? Spectacle is important, winning the media headlines as decided by corporate media is not. You are basing this argument by the rules set by corporate media.
It would be the squad voting against stripping the $15 min wage.
No, the bill as-is includes Covid relief but not the $15 minimum wage. There was an up/down vote on that. The squad would have had to vote against the Covid relief bill and then make the case that this was justified because it lacked the minimum wage increase.
There is not a bill with Covid relief and the minimum wage increase that other Democrats would have to vote against.
You are basing this argument by the rules set by corporate media.
Corporate media does in fact play an enormous role in the overall media landscape. Ignoring their role is foolish.
We're just arguing semantics on the first point.
Corporate media does in fact play an enormous role in the overall media landscape. Ignoring their role is foolish.
Sure, they play a role, but they aren't all powerful. Look at the success Trump and Sanders - both hates by corporate media.
The left can't do anything to Manchin. He's not up for re-election until 2024.
If anyone could, it would be Biden or Democratic leadership, but they agree with him.
Even then, Manchin will probably run to Governor rather than Senator in 2024.
I mean they did put the onus on Manchin, he and 7 other Democrats told us to fuck off.
