5 Lessons from the Week’s Budget Wars: How Progressives Went From Doormats to Power Brokers;
What we can learn from the Failed CA Recall + Occupy Wall Street
In this issue:
Five lessons from this week’s dramatic budget debate.
We’re thrilled to announce two live, in-person events to promote the paperback release of Immigration Matters: Movements, Visions, and Strategies for a Progressive Future. The first will be held on October 8th at Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C. (14th and V St. location; come mingle at 5:30 p.m., event starts at 6 p.m.). Information here: https://thenewpress.com/events/immigration-matters-busboys-poets. And in New York City, we’ll do a live event with several of the authors on October 19th at 7 p.m. at McNally Jackson, 52 Prince Street. Information here: https://thenewpress.com/events/immigration-matters-mcnally-jackson. Because of space limitations for the N.Y. event, you should register your interest by emailing publicity@thenewpress.com.
In the Delights section, we elaborate on the aforementioned five lessons to suggest a surprising mentor who might teach Senator Schumer how to more effectively wrangle holdout votes for the Build Back Better agenda. We also rave about some amazing art and music.
And in Provocations, we feature a couple of organizing stories that delighted us: one profiling the role of Latinx organizers, and specifically Angelica Salas, in saving Gavin Newsom in the recall election, and the other a profound reflection by Yotam Marom about what we should learn from Occupy 10 years later.
Friends, if you appreciate the delights, provocations, and insights of The Platypus, we hope you’ll share it and encourage your friends to subscribe.
Doormat to Powerhouse: 5 Lessons From This Week’s Budget Wars
The New York Times headline described Speaker Pelosi’s decision to pull the $1 trillion infrastructure bill from the House floor as a “Setback for Biden’s Agenda” and went on to characterize the delay in reaching a deal as “a humiliating blow to Mr. Biden and Democrats.” Quite the opposite is true. It was a remarkable show of strength that likely saved the president’s Build Back Better program. Progressive Democrats have been losing showdowns to conservative Democrats in Congress for decades due to marked asymmetries in organization, money, and strategic ruthlessness. This time, though, the progressives won. Here are five quick takeaways from the week:
Organizations and organizers matter.
While the mainstream press has noted the effective muscle-flexing by Congressional progressives, it has generally ignored the role of organization and organizers in making that happen. Little covered by the press, the decision by the Congressional Progressive Caucus to change its rules at the beginning of this term has proved momentous. Essentially, being a member now requires you to vote for Caucus priorities more often, giving the 96- member CPC enormous potential leverage in a narrowly divided house. Organization matters. And the leader of the CPC, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who we’ve featured often in The Platypus, is a long-time grassroots organizer. After 9/11, she founded a grassroots immigrant rights group in Washington state, now called One America. Her strategic and tactical brilliance is a huge part of this story – as Brian Fallon put it, “Jayapal is providing a master class these last few weeks in how to wield power.” Unlike too many progressives who focus only on being right, she knows how to fight and win. She’s an organizer. Together with Rep. Ilhan Omar (the CPC whip) and many more, she did #HoldtheLine as the Twitter hashtag suggests.
Likewise, credit goes to the phalanx of national and state-based progressive organizations that exerted constant pressure in members’ home districts and stayed united on all of the issues at stake, from building the care economy to immigration to climate. (The AFL-CIO’s position was notably out of tune and disappointing). Ferocious home-state campaigns in Arizona and West Virginia helped bring Sinema and Manchin back to the table — proof that grassroots pressure works. For the most part, the movement rowed in the same direction, and that mattered a lot. And all those primary challenges against corporate Democrats over the last decade? It turns out they have made a huge difference in creating a cadre of progressives ready to shake things up. (This week, one of those new progressive members, Rep. Cori Bush, delivered an astonishing six minutes of testimony to the House Oversight Committee, describing her rape and decision to get an abortion as a teenager and giving a passionate defense of women’s right to choose.)
Even a few zombies can cause a lot of mayhem.
Last week, we discussed the rise of Zombie Authoritarian Racist Neoliberalism (ZARN) on the right. A countervailing, new social democratic paradigm has quickly gained ground — with 95% of Democrats in Congress supporting Biden’s larger Build Back Better program. But the remaining 5% are a formidable obstacle in a 50/50 Senate and a narrowly divided House. To hear Joe Manchin rail against an “entitlement society,” “vengeful tax increases,” and “handouts” was evidence that neoliberal zombies, while now a minority among Democrats, still shamble along, feasting on progressive hopes. (We are excited, therefore, to see the Way to Win Action Fund launch an effort to primary Sen. Krysten Sinema, one of the very worst players in this debate, who is spending her weekend at a donor event at an upscale spa in Phoenix after spending the week raising money from corporations opposed to the bill she is negotiating. You can check out Deepak’s reflection on his history with the very strange senior Senator from Arizona here. The Platypus would love nothing more than to see Sen. Ruben Gallego take her seat in 2024).
By the way, a fascinating below-the-radar story is what appears to be the conspiracy between conservative Democrats in the Senate and House to tank the president’s agenda, dating all the way back to the early summer. These zombies may be intellectually bankrupt, but they can swarm effectively. Adam Jentleson connected the dots:
Wow. In July, Manchin secured a signed agreement from Schumer to delay reconciliation until 10/1. That explains Gottheimer's desire to pass BIF through the House by 9/27 and it sure feeds the idea that their goal is to pass BIF then bail on reconciliation. https://static.politico.com/1e/ef/159cabd547868585f9b1a8f06388/july-28-2021.pdf
Democracy Reform is Essential to Economic Justice.
The most sobering takeaway from this week may be the extent to which a transformative economic justice agenda depends on unrigging the rules of democracy. Gerrymandering in the House, the outsized influence of rural, predominantly white states in the Senate, and the bias of the Electoral College towards Republicans make it very hard for Democrats ever to win a “trifecta” (control of the Presidency, House, and Senate). When they do, their majorities will be so narrow that the filibuster will strangle much of their agenda while a few conservative Democrats have the power to hobble the rest.
This has put in stark relief the foolishness of Biden’s relegation of voting rights to a second-tier issue and his continuing opposition to filibuster reform. Without those two things, even a brief social-democratic renaissance will prove short-lived.
Democrats have a serious and growing immigration problem. But they can solve it.
Another crazy rule of the Senate allows an unelected Senate staffer, the parliamentarian, to decide what legislative provisions can make it into the “budget reconciliation” bill. The current parliamentarian has ruled against measures to provide a path to citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants. As Cecilia Muñoz argues persuasively, the Parliamentarian makes weak arguments that ignore precedent and invokes bi-partisan support (a criterion almost nothing else in the bill would meet) as a criterion for deciding what should be allowed in the bill. The Democrats now face a major test that will have outsized political consequences.
Nate Cohn reported a precipitous drop in support for President Biden in recent weeks among core constituencies, including this stunner:
At the same time, the polls show Mr. Biden’s ratings among Latino voters slipping close to or beneath 50 percent. A new Quinnipiac poll in Texas even showed Mr. Biden’s ratings in the 30s among Latino voters in the state. It’s not what Democrats want to see after Mr. Biden’s disappointing performance among the group last November.
Moreover, a number of vulnerable Democrats up for reelection in 2022 depend on the Latino vote — not least Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Sen. Mark Kelly. (There’s a fascinating new academic paper here by Marcel Roman about how harsh enforcement and deportation policies have shaped the identity of native-born Latinos).
The backdrop is Democrats’ failure to pass immigration reform when they had the power to do so in the early Obama years while simultaneously pursuing harsh deportation and enforcement policies. (The Biden administration’s brutal mass deportation of Haitian migrants is a continuation of this pattern.)
There are a variety of paths for Democrats to deliver for immigrants in Build Back Better, including overruling the parliamentarian. As president of the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris does not have to take the advice of the parliamentarian. And Harris’s ruling can be sustained (or overturned) by a simple majority vote. So yet again, Democrats hold the future of millions of people in their hands and can’t blame Republicans for inaction.
The immigrant rights movement has mounted a massive, little-covered pressure operation designed to win a path to citizenship that has targeted, among others, Vice President Harris and Sen. Schumer. We wouldn’t bet against them, and unlike most beltway pundits, The Platypus thinks the dynamics have shifted in such a way that this year the movement will prevail. You read it here first.
We need to win the narrative war.
Deepak has been struck by how many of his smart and generally well-informed students don’t know what’s in the bills being debated by Congress now. The mainstream media’s coverage of this debate has been predictably terrible, focusing on the drama surrounding Sinema and Manchin and intra-party tensions. So little of the substance of the bills has been conveyed that many people are unaware of the sweeping care, health, climate, anti-poverty, education or other provisions. And unfortunately, Manchin masterfully seized control of the narrative — making the debate about the overall spending number, not the policy. (Also: Biden’s major legislative proposal is sometimes referred to in the press as a “reconciliation bill” – no one knows what that means. And “Build Back Better”? Really? That’s the best that legions of well-paid communications consultants could come up with?). To win the debate, which looks like it will now extend over weeks, and to harvest the political gains from policy accomplishments, progressives are going to have to find new ways of dramatizing the content and its impact on human beings, which remains enormously popular. There is little evidence that most Democrats have learned any lessons about storytelling, so outside groups may have to do that work for them.
Delights
Senator Schumer’s very strange, one-page signed agreement with Joe Manchin, presumably leaked to Politico this week by Manchin in an evil but brilliant tactical gambit, suggesting that Schumer could use some mentoring on vote wrangling. We suggest a tutorial on strategy from this Florida man:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2021/09/29/alligator-trapped-trashcan/
Also, we love Johnny Marr, best known as the guitarist for The Smiths, but an exceptional solo performer now. In this article, he described how Trump and Brexit inspired the creation of his album, Call the Comet, which envisions an “alternative society” in the “not-too-distant future.”
For New Yorkers, we urge you to visit the David Zwirner Gallery on 19th Street for exhibits of paintings Jesse Murry and Frank Moore, two artists who responded in very different ways to the AIDS crisis that ultimately took their lives. Wondrous work.
Provocations
We were moved by Jean Guerrero’s article in the Los Angeles Times, “How Latino voters in the recall election set up a winning model for the midterms,” featuring a profile of one of the best organizers of our times, Angelica Salas. The article ends with a spot-on analysis of how voter turnout depends on politicians who deliver on issues.
If anyone will close the curtain on Trumpism, it will be people like Angélica Salas. She’s a 50-year-old Latina matriarch and immigrant rights activist who helped save Gov. Gavin Newsom in the recall election. . . .
[W]hile [former governor Gray] Davis rarely and reluctantly supported Latinos, Newsom acted boldly on behalf of the community, nominating Latinos for key leadership positions and securing numerous benefits for the undocumented.
For Salas, there was no question: Latinos had to rescue Newsom. The CHIRLA Action Fund, a political arm of her immigrant rights group, began organizing Latinos against the recall in April — months before Newsom’s campaign kicked into full gear. The takeaway would be simple, Salas told me: “Politicians who stand with immigrant communities, with the Latino community, are going to be rewarded at the polls.” . . .
The recall election’s Latino-mobilizing efforts provide a roadmap for organizers nationwide come the 2022 midterms. The results were clear: When Democrats show up for Latinos, Latinos show up for democracy.
We were also inspired by Yotam Marom’s brilliant reflection on Occupy Wall Street in Organizing Upgrade, “Revolutions Are Won By Those Who Intend to Be Powerful.” The whole article is worth reading and studying.
I came up in a Left that was defined by never-ending wars, by Bush and Cheney, by a seemingly impenetrable empire. We saw it as Orwell’s 1984 in real life, felt it was our duty to resist. But we never even whispered about winning, never so much as dreamt it. We got our asses kicked, and were used to it. We adapted ourselves to being righteous losers. And then there, during Occupy, standing on that trash can, watching this sea of people, I thought: We can be powerful. We can be popular. We can win. It was a defining moment. That feeling, which spread throughout the occupation and across the country allowed for an unbelievable surge in momentum and energy. I believe it ultimately produced the decade of social movements we’ve seen since.
Movements that are hopeful and aware of their power sometimes lose. But groups that don’t believe it’s possible to win always lose. They prioritize style over strategy, protection of in-group culture over inclusion of everyday people, the tastes and desires of small groups over the needs and dreams of masses of people. They become used to being on the margins, and adopt behaviors that enforce that marginality, which makes it even less likely that they will ever leave the margins (after all, the margins, harsh as they are, are at least safe in a way). The margins are shaped by fear of the power being exercised against us, and we learn there to be afraid also of the power we might have, the power we are ultimately supposed to be seeking.
Occupy had both kinds of moments. We had the big, expansive, inclusive moments in which we saw ourselves as legitimate, in which the circle of belonging grew and grew to include people we didn’t know and would never have been friends with, moments in which we aimed to really lead the whole country out of its own destruction. And we had the dark, hopeless, holier-than-thou moments in which we felt small and embattled and righteous and misunderstood, in which we scorned the public we were supposed to organize, and even turned on one another.