Monday open thread: Oh what a beautiful morning!
Yesterday, not even in the dead of night, Democrats got the Inflation Reduction Act across the line. Now it heads to the House, and then to President Joe Biden's desk.
Look, there's no way around it: The wind is in our sails.
The conservative-leaning press has been on a mission to destroy Pres. Biden and Democrats ever since he removed us from the forever war in Afghanistan. Extricating us from that pointless war was anathema to a media conditioned to root for war, even if it was a war in which it had lost interest a decade or more earlier.
The media had written the Democrats' epitaph. Even on Sunday, useless pundit Maureen Dowd wrote that Pres. Biden shouldn't seek re-election. (No, not linking to that fucking churl.) Far from a "liberal media", we have what we've always had: a media predisposed to parroting right wing memes when Democrats are in power.
But the past two weeks have been a shock and awe display from Democrats. From the CHIPS Act to the IRA, from Ayman al-Zawahiri being iced to Democrats taking the lead in Senate and House polling, we have been on a roll. And no one saw this coming. No pundit saw the string of victories Democrats under Joe Biden would put together. And that's because they didn't want to. They were so locked in on their Narrative™ that any evidence to the contrary would be dismissed haughtily, the ravings of mere partisans, compared to their judicious analysis as impartial arbiters of truth.
We need a free press. A free society cannot function without one. But the political press we have now is populated by pettifogging time servers who don't report reality, but seek to create its own reality. Re: Afghanistan: It was going to be a shitshow no matter what. The idea that Donald Trump would have done the evacuation any less messily is laughable. He couldn't organize a clam bake, nor could his lackeys. The bandage had to be ripped off. And the withdrawal didn't limit our ability to strike, as the al-Zawahiri killing showed. That the press made this decision its casus belli is both laughable and informative. Pres. Biden was too popular at the time; he had to be brought down.
A lesser man would have given up, or pivoted. But not Joe. He just kept plugging on, ignoring the natterers, doing what he had been sent to Washington to do. The younger set kept braying that these old fossils like Pres. Biden and Nancy Pelosi had to step aside and let youth take over. Could youth have accomplished what has been accomplished in the past two or three weeks? I submit that the answer is "no". Now that I'm a man of a certain age, I know there is wisdom which comes with age, sometimes. Those who are truly wise learn from years of experience, and put that experience to use. The idea that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could pull off what Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin did is laughable. She cares only for her Instagram clout. Her and the man who never grew up, Bernie Sanders, have done nothing of note legislatively because they have no idea how to do anything legislatively. Meanwhile, old souls in young bodies like Lauren Underwood move the needle of progress forward.
We are at escape velocity now. We have a more than 50-50 chance to expand our majorities in both the House and Senate. Before the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, obituaries were ready to go in November. But when you have leadership which keeps its eye on the prize—and when the opposition foolishly squanders the advantage it had—this is what happens.
We keep doing the work. If we do, we win.