Progressives eviscerated Manchin for blocking Build Back Better, with the result that they now have nothing
In a Fox News op-ed, Howard Kurtz writes:
1. The Democrats have lurched too far to the left.
2. The Democrats are alienating middle-of-the-road voters.
3. The Democrats are facing a wipeout in the midterms.
4. The Democrats desperately need a course correction.
Are these the latest RNC talking points, spewed out at the opposition?
Actually, it’s what some Democrats are saying about their own party–and has practically become the media’s conventional wisdom.
With all the focus on GOP infighting–typified by Kevin McCarthy endorsing Liz Cheney’s primary opponent–it’s easy to lose sight of the Democratic battles that never really reached a cease-fire.
Both sides were consumed by tactics in recent months, the progressives eviscerating Joe Manchin for blocking the Build Back Better bill, with the result that they now have nothing.
President Biden, as you’ve heard endlessly, ran as a moderate, then pushed a Bernie-style agenda on the Hill with mixed results. Now he’s attempting a reset in advance of next week’s State of the Union, but is obviously preoccupied with the showdown in Ukraine.
Kurtz then adds: In her New York Times column, Maureen Dowd declares that "many Americans are fed up. The jumbled Covid response has eroded an already shaky trust in government. Inflation is biting. War is looming. Things feel out of control. People are anxious and reassessing their lives…
"The Democrats are stepping all over themselves. And Republicans are doing all they can to prevent the Democrats from accomplishing anything, and then are trashing them for not doing anything… Exhausted, confused, isolated and depressed Americans are not buying the Democratic line that things are better than they look."
The Washington Post sees a "growing backlash" in which strategists and voters are recoiling from some of the left-wing proposals that gained prominence during the Trump administration… many Democrats now see them as too extreme and harmful to Democratic prospects this fall."