by Jake Johnson
January 10, 2022
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/ ... p-takeover
Introduction:
caltrek's comments: Sanders is right. The time for negotiations is ended, and they should have ended a long time ago. Better to have votes and be defeated. At least it becomes clear who supports what, and forces opponents to publicly explain themselves. Instead, we have these rope a dope tactics carried on by folks like Senator Manchin who now seem to have been negotiating in bad faith. One suspects that he never intended to compromise, but always intended to torpedo the negotiations. I am greatly disappointed and frankly had hoped for a better outcome.(Common Dreams) Sen. Bernie Sanders said in an interview published Monday that too much of the Democratic Party has "turned its back on the working class" and is in need of a dramatic shift as central elements of its agenda—from voting rights to climate action to social spending—face possible collapse thanks to corporate-backed lawmakers.
In the conversation with The Guardian, Sanders (I-Vt.)—a two-time contender for the Democratic presidential nomination and the current chair of the Senate Budget Committee—said the party must immediately undertake "a major course correction" if it hopes to advance its popular agenda, reverse its falling support among key constituencies, and prevent the increasingly authoritarian GOP from seizing power.
"We have tried a strategy over the last several months, which has been mostly backdoor negotiations with a handful of senators,” Sanders noted, referring to talks over Democrats' $1.75 trillion reconciliation package and other pressing issues. "It hasn't succeeded on Build Back Better or on voting rights. It has demoralized millions of Americans."
"It is no great secret that the Republican Party is winning more and more support from working people," he said. "It's not because the Republican Party has anything to say to them. It's because in too many ways the Democratic Party has turned its back on the working class."
With the entirety of the Build Back Better Act verging on failure largely due to the persistent obstruction of one lawmaker—fossil fuel industry ally and coal profiteer Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)—Sanders called on President Joe Biden and the Democratic leadership to force floor votes on highly popular individual components of the legislation.