WE MUST ALL HANG TOGETHER, OR MOST ASSUREDLY, WE SHALL ALL HANG SEPARATELY. --BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

It’s time to remember Benjamin Franklin’s admonition for political success.

The Professional Pearl Clutchers of the Vichy Democrat Caucus in Congress is at it again.

Sunday, Axios’ “Sneak Peak” newsletter blared: “1 big thing: Biden faces Dem defections”. The story regards Democratic representatives and Senators in marginal seats trying to distance themselves from the situation in Afghanistan and President Biden. “Many moderate Democrats and their aides are huddling with campaign consultants over how to handle the setback in Afghanistan,” as Axios put it.

This is a typical cliche Axios storyline, entirely in line with the elite DC political reaction to recent events that makes me wonder why I subscribe, then I remember it’s part of the intelligence-gathering on the opposition. It’s one they know really well. Wobbly, Sunday show-appearing Democratic moderates is their bread and butter. In this case it’s real.

I don’t know why these people manage to get elected, since none of them ever seem to have Clue One about how politics actually operates. Rule One: All political power is unitary. You can’t gain it in foreign policy and lose it on domestic policy. It’s all one - indivisible. All Democrats need to understand this, looking at what the President and they can accomplish between now an the mid-terms, the only period in which we are assured that Democrats hold both the White House and the Congress and can successfully legislate, even if it is by the thinnest of margins. In fact, the thin margins make unity even more important than normally.

It is understandable that these Representatives want some distance from the President on Afghanistan or in the broader negative climate driven resulting from the resurgent COVID. What is crucially important right now is that Democrats have a window of six to eight weeks in September and October that will decide the fate of the President’s fiscal, infrastructure and climate agenda. Allowing idiots like the members of the “Problem Solvers Caucus” in the House to go on like they have been this month over both domestic and foreign policy only strengthens that preening idiot, Kyrsten Sinema, who has the power to single-handedly blow up the entire thing - and the moron stupidity to do so. (Never elect a “Green” as dog-catcher; never allow them to do anything but make the run to pick up Chinese takeout for lunch - and then with supervision.)

While we are far from time to break the glass and pull the panic level, the confidence we’ve had watching things proceed, that they will come to a successful end, is less now than it was in early August.

Watching the otherwise-unemployables on Cable TV try to regain their ratings by pushing “controversy” and doing so by bringing all the Professional Failures on the shows to talk about how awful Afghanistan has been handled, forces me to turn off the TV several times a day, since right now I can’t afford a new one if I throw something at them on the screen.

The mechanics of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan should have nothing to do passing critical climate legislation or refundable child tax credits or major infrastructure upgrades. But it does, and the more the Professional Pearl Clutchers of the Vichy Democrat caucus get to bleat about it, the more we lose the unity that will be crucial. We are now at a point at which the President, leader Shumer and Speaker Pelosi need to keep literally every Democratic Senator on the same page and all but three Representatives in the House. This is not a great time for the President to look weak or get beat up politically. And while the Afghanistan news is bad (but was always going to be bad), what was actually accomplished was so much more than what was predicted. And that was the result of the orders Biden gave the military, that they carried out above and beyond the call of duty.

This lack of unity will make Kyrsten Sinema more truculent. The antics from the likes of the meddlesome incompetent Josh Gottheimer provides space for the other Vichy Democrats to muck things up.

Here’s what needs to be acknowledged as fact, and then acted on:

There’s a good chance Democrats will lose unified control of Congress – and with it the ability to pass any legislation – in the mid-terms next year no matter what they do. The realization of that fact can be liberating - it allows Democrats in congress to focus on passing as much important legislation as possible without too much distraction on political protection. If nothing else, it’s really the only way these people have any real chance of keeping themselves in office - they desperately need to convince people they have done things that make their constituents’ lives better, which these bills will do.

These people need to understand that, right now, both substance and political self-interest point in the same direction.

Passing big legislation builds political power, and results in presidential poll numbers coming back up, and results in positive favorability ratings for incumbent Democratic office holders.

If the Democrats don’t hang together now, most assuredly they will all hang separately in 2022. And if that happens, they’ll have put all of us in a barrel of shit with the return of this Republican Party to any point of power.

To all the new paid subscribers who signed on over the weekend, Thank You to all of you! And for those who are not paid subscribers, you’re NATO allies to my America: I’ll complain about you not paying, but I will love you anyway. If you can afford a subscription, however, please do come onboard.

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