One would think that progressives would be happy that the Democrat Party controls the White House and both houses of Congress. However, that’s not the case. They’re now aiming to eat their own in the name of ideological purity.
Apparently, the plan is to oust moderate Democrat Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to get revenge on both for wanting to keep the filibuster in the Senate. No Excuses PAC, founded by far-left activists who played a leading role in Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset 2018 primary win, is urging its supporters to run advertisements bashing both senators into compliance. If that doesn’t work, the PAC wants to primary the senators with progressive alternatives.
“Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia have both pleaded to help Republicans to negotiate their own party down from real solutions to half measures in the name of ‘bipartisanship,” the PAC said. “We will replace them.”
Sen. Manchin and Sen. Sinema are not up for re-election until 2024. However, the clear rift in the party won’t serve Democrats well as they head into the 2022 mid-term election season. Liberal pundits are confident that they will retain control of the Senate or even expand their majority. The Republicans have twenty senators up for re-election, and a number of these senators come from vulnerable states that President Joe Biden won in 2020. However, analysts note that there are several reasons why Democrats should be worried about losing control of the Senate in the next couple of years.
As Florida Senator Rick Scott noted earlier in January, Democrats can drive up GOP support by overreaching with their own legislative agenda. With the Democratic caucus rapidly adopting Medicare-for-All and the Green New Deal as a mainstream policy stance, this is a real possibility.
What’s more, a dozen Democrat senators are running in states where former President Trump outperformed his national margin. He may not have won all these states, but he clearly has a great deal of support.
Furthermore, long-term voting trends clearly show that voters tend to reject the party in power in the mid-term elections. The Democrat majority in both houses of Congress is razor-thin, and the loss of even a few seats would result in the GOP regaining control. What’s more, the Democrats may not be able to regain control over either house of Congress if members of their own party primary popular senators and replace them with far-left activists.
The mainstream media isn’t highlighting the huge rifts within the Democrat Party, but these rifts exist nonetheless. The fact that members are openly discussing ousting their own members is proof of this.
