Promise them anything

It's disappointment time for the left wing of the Democratic Party. This past week, some key features of the Biden platform were pronounced dead. Corporate tax rates are not going to be increased. The government isn't going to be allowed to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma. Two years of free community college is also going bye-bye. And clean energy is in trouble. The joke on the internet is that Biden's environmental agenda has been whittled down to a single reusable tote bag.

There's lots of blame to go around. The easy targets are DINOs like Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, and traitorous House members like Oregon's own Kurt Schrader, but don't kid yourself. There are plenty of other corporate Democrats who are secretly relieved to see the President's boldest proposals bite the dust. It makes the campaign donors happy, and that's what makes the politicians happy. It's Jamie Dimon's world; we're just living in it.

So not all that much is going to get done, including on taxes. That is no surprise, given that the Senate Finance Committee is chaired by the one and only Ron Wyden. When you want to get little or nothing done, that guy is your go-to face card.

The failure of the Democrats to give their base what it wants will cost them dearly in the midterm elections, but the ones in safe seats don't care much. All any of them want is to get themselves re-elected. In that sense, there is no difference between the polticians of the two parties. 

But we've seen what happens when you put the Republican suicide cult in charge – blatant racism and corruption, and major, irreparable damage to democracy. That's the real difference. And so we're stuck with the lesser of the two evils. Until the country, and the planet, crumble.