"It is what it is."
I first heard those words years ago after a large sale I'd been working my ass off for went south. A fellow sales person saw I was clearly upset and wanted to make sure I didn't let it get to me. Because in sales, you don't have the luxury of wallowing in self pity. Like a kid who falls off a bike, you pick yourself up and get back on.
Democrats can be pissed all they want at Joe Manchin for killing HR1 - the For the People Act. It won't make a bit of difference. Like my colleague would say if he were here, "It is what it is." My advice to them would be to get over it. What's done is done. Stop gritting your teeth. Stop trying to figure out what Manchin's motives are. It's irrelevant. He's not voting for it. Period. Full stop!
If Democrats are looking for a villain in all this, they need look no further than their reflection in the mirror. That's right, people, we have met the enemy and the enemy is us.
It was Democrats failure to flip North Carolina, Maine and Iowa last November that gave Manchin the power to upend Joe Biden's agenda. Thom Tillis, Susan Collins and Joni Ernst were all beatable incumbent senators who at one point or another were trailing in their respective races. Of the three, Tillis was the most vulnerable. But his Democratic opponent, Cal Cunningham, became embroiled in a scandal involving an extramarital affair that deeply wounded his candidacy. When the story broke, Cunningham had a six-point lead. But it was the late vote which broke heavily for Tillis that proved to be decisive. Once more, Democrats snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Imagine a Senate where Democrats have 51 seats instead of 50. Like John Lennon would say, "It's easy if you try." With such a majority, Manchin would simply be an irritant. Yes, Krysten Sinema would still be a thorn in Chuck Schumer's side, but having one headache is better than having two. And Sinema strikes me as more opportunistic than Manchin. While West Virginia is a deep red state, Arizona is purple and trending blue. Of the two, I suspect Sinema would be easier to deal with.
But that's water under the bridge now. Bemoaning what could've been is like crying over spilled milk. In the end, you still have to wipe up the milk and pour another glass.
So what do Democrats do about their spilled milk? Well for starters, blaming Manchin isn't going to work. The man comes from West Virginia. You think he gives a shit about progressives? You can fit all the progressives in that state into a single Starbucks and still have enough room leftover for a Cappuccino maker.
And doing nothing, like some progressives are suggesting, is not an option either. It would be akin to a toddler holding his breath and counting to a zillion because his mother wouldn't give him a cookie. And it would be the gift of a lifetime for Republicans going into the 2022 midterms.
Think about it: the GOP has no policy objectives, no agenda, no plan for governing. In short, it's a frat house looking for a toga party. Democrats passing zero legislation would be the equivalent of them showing up with a couple kegs of beer and Otis Day and the Knights.
If the best Biden and Democrats can get on infrastructure is a trillion dollar deal that is mostly paid for by using leftover stimulus funding and imposing a minimum tax on corporate America, then grab it. Next year, when the voters go to the polls, they aren't going to ask where the money came from to pay for the roads and bridges that need repairing. They will, however, remember which party was in charge the next time they get a flat driving over a pothole, and they will not care in the least about how much of a dick Joe Manchin was.
If Democrats can't get HR1 passed, then what about the John Lewis Voting Rights Act? Manchin says he'd vote for that; so would Sinema. Yes, the Lewis Act doesn't go far enough, but HR1 was hardly without its flaws. For one thing, some of the provisions most likely would have been successfully challenged in the courts. Also, and this is hard to believe, there was no provision in the bill that would've outlawed the most egregious elements of the Georgia law and the Texas bill, namely the ability of both states to override local election officials and overturn the results. What good is a voting-rights law if the voters will can still be nullified?
Regarding police reform, Tim Scott is currently working on a bill that while it doesn't eliminate qualified immunity, does have most of what Democrats are calling for. Getting half a loaf is better than no loaf at all, and if it prevents the killing of one African American at the hands of law enforcement, it's worth swallowing some pride.
If Republicans don't want an independent commission to look into the events leading up to the January 6 assault on the Capitol, then Democrats must form their own select committees to find the truth. If those committees take more than a year to reach their conclusion, so be it. And if Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy have a problem with that, screw 'em. They had their chance to step up.
I was shocked to learn that the Senate just confirmed Biden's first two judicial nominees. Given that McConnell got over two hundred confirmed during Trump's term in office, Schumer has some catching up to do, and not a lot of time in which to do it.
Look, voters, want results. They elected Biden to be a problem solver, and Democratic fortunes next year will hinge in large part on how successful he is. Saying we tried but the GOP stood in our way isn't going to cut it.
The bottom line is this: Trump and the Republican Party represent the greatest existential threat to American democracy since the Civil War. Every effort must be made to ensure they never again regain power.
Believe it or not, there are worse things in this world than compromising on core principles. A Marjorie Taylor Greene chairing an impeachment inquiry of Biden, for starters.
How's that for spilled milk?
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