NO, MR. BOND, THEY EXPECT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TO DIE

A large portion of the media can't grasp (or won't acknowledge) the extremism of the Republican Party, including its ongoing efforts to establish a one-party country -- and now even some observers who understand what the GOP is up to can't seem to comprehend what the worst corporatists in the Democratic Party appear to have in mind.

In his latest column, Jamelle Bouie chastises Joe Manchin, Kysten Sinema, and other corporatist Democrats in the House and Senate for blocking major parts of the Biden administration's agenda. But I think his imagination fails him when he tries to understand what they're thinking.

Moderate and centrist Democrats seem to value a bipartisan process more than they do any particular policy outcome or ideological goal.

The most charitable explanation is that they believe that their constituents value displays of bipartisanship more than any new law or benefit. A less charitable explanation is that they see bipartisanship as a way to clip the wings of Democratic Party ambition and save themselves from taking votes that might put them in conflict with either voters or donors.

There's an even less charitable explanation: that they want the Democrats to fail and be replaced be congressional Republicans and a Republican president. If you can't beleve that this is what they want, you should at least acknowledge that their biggest donors would be quite pleased with that outcome.

But wouldn't that mean many of the cororatist Democrats would lose office themselves? As I noted a couple of days ago, centrists in swing districts actually seem to support the president's proposals, while many of Biden's Democratic antagonists, at least in the House, seem to be in safe seats. But what about the ones who are electorally at risk? That has Josh Marshall scratching his head:

Like many people I spent a lot of time trying to figure out Kyrsten Sinema’s motivations this year.... as near as I can see, unless she shifts her stance pretty dramatically the odds of Sinema being elected to a second Senate term in 2024 are pretty poor. And that’s made me consider another question: does she just misread the politics of her situation that badly or is she not planning on running?

... Does she figure she cleans up the mess in the last two years of her term? Is she not planning on running again? ... [Reelection] means her fending off a primary challenge and then getting the backing of a pumped up and united state Democratic party. How does that happen? I don’t see it. And maybe she doesn’t either.

I don't think she cares. She's being sweet-talked by corporate interests who've undoubtedly made it clear that whatever happens to her in the future, she'll never go hungry. She'll be taken care of if she carries out a hit on Biden and the rest of the Democrats. So she knows she has nothing to fear. She'll be fine.

This country is in deep trouble because even people who should know better can't grasp how dangerous the Republican Party is -- and it's also in deep trouble because of a failure to understand the stranglehold corporate America has on our politics. We need to see Republicans and the rich as the enemies of ordinary Americans. And we need to recognize that the damage the rich do isn't always done by means of the GOP.