Centrist Democrats Need to Suck It Up and Negotiate

Congress's failure to hold a vote over the bipartisan infrastructure bill last week set off a wave of media hyperventilation and whining by Democratic centrists. "This far left faction is willing to put the President's entire agenda, including this historic bipartisan infrastructure package, at risk. They've put civility and bipartisan governing at risk," raged Representative Josh Gottheimer. "Canceling the infrastructure vote," complained Senator Kyrsten Sinema, "betrays the trust the American people have put in their elected leaders." The delay does nothing of the sort. It saves Democrats — all of them, moderates included — from an embarrassing debacle. And it forces the whole party to hold a negotiation that one side, the centrists, was trying to prevent. The outpouring of emotions stems from the unusual circumstances of this negotiation. In most cases, a party's centrists hold all the leverage, because walking away from the table with no bill is more acceptable to them than it is to more ideologically pure members. On this issue, however, the left has real leverage. Centrists care inordinately about the success of the bipartisan infrastructure deal, mainly because of its political symbolism: since their political brands are built around working with Republicans, they desperately need the… Read full this story

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