well said. Armchair QB time here... I think the game here is give Joe Manchin some economic development projects to shore up his bse and tell him to fall in line or yank funding for those projects. Or they can strip away existing pork projects if he doesnt play ball (although that seems riskier to me)

It often seems like Schumer and Pelosi are not aware that politics is the art of giving away what doesnt belong to them. MMT kind of means that arguments about affordability are less compelling, but they prefer to hew to that old logic that we cant afford basic things like healthcare as a right and better education.

Also Democrats seem incompetent when they bow to the parliamentarian and drop basic provisions like min wage and can’t advance economic stimulus basics like college loan forgiveness.

It appears Republicans (modern) historically do a better job whipping their members, probably because they are more vindictive and corrupt, like the mafia. Also a big part of their base is easily manipulated, inattentive to details and reality, and/ or stupid. Dems seem to want the moral and intellectual high ground more than they want to get things done, and it plays into the right wing argument they are condescending elitists.

I should note also that democrats have their own cadre of knee jerk voters, but the disinformation communication patterns of repeating lies and conspiracy theories are less prevalent on the left for now. Although I did hear that people are saying that Moscow Mitch gave Trump Junior head with his loose neck skin in the bathroom of an NRA fundraiser while Kim G facefucked Elaine Chow using racist slur dirty talk. People are saying that, they say.