The Primaries Have Made it Clear: It's Time to Break the "Unbreakable Nine"

     I'd like to make one thing clear: the Build Back Better Agenda is not dead; Senator Ron Johnson's latest ad takes pride in his continued opposition to "Senate liberals' reckless reconciliation bill." President Biden has already signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act, which is set to restore America to full employment in a matter of weeks from now. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act represents the largest investment in our nation's infrastructure since the Eisenhower administration and the most comprehensive such law in the history of the United States. This new and improved infrastructure, which will employ two million people in its repair, sets the perfect stage for the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which will create or retain three million jobs by countering China, restoring American leadership in science and technology, strengthening our supply chains, fighting climate change, and much more, lowering costs for American families. The expansion of our social safety net and massive investment in combating climate change is the final piece of this broad vision for an economy that works for all people. At the same time, the Honoring Our PACT Act will provide an estimated $300 billion investment to help millions of veterans, student debt cancellation is the closest it has ever been, and the 2022 and 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Acts (alongside a slew of executive and federal actions) will cut the deficit by nearly 70 percent and combat inflation. All of this coincides with the largest resurgence of the labor movement in 50 years.

     Still, this delay has caused countless tens of millions of Americans untold despair: child poverty, which had declined by nearly 60 percent after the passage of the American Rescue Plan alone, is rising again with the expiration of the enhanced child tax credit at the end of last year. The expansion of the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, creation of universal pre-K and low-cost childcare, and countless other pieces of good policy in the Build Back Better Agenda will create millions of jobs and far outweigh the negative impacts of inflation. The nine members of the House who held up the passage of the original reconciliation bill need to pay a political price for their actions, as does the entirety of the Blue Dog Caucus, which comprises just 19 House members and Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema but is reflective of the entire Democratic Party. On the senators: Joe Manchin is a pain in the ass, but he is the reason a Democratic Senate majority exists at all, and the fact that a Democratic senator serves from ruby-red West Virginia is something to be thankful for. Senator Sinema, on the other hand, needs to be primaried in 2024: she ran as a progressive and lied, unlike Senator Manchin, who built his entire political career on being a centrist. Senator Sinema is also deeply unpopular in her home state of Arizona, and renominating her would likely result in her loss either way.

     By the same logic, not every House moderate should be kicked out of office. Having a moderate Democrat in a district that leans Republican is better than having a card-carrying Republican in office. Most members of the moderate "Blue Dog" Caucus, however, live in deep blue districts. In December 2021, Florida's Stephanie Murphy announced that she would not be running for reelection. In May 2022, Kurt Schrader, the "Joe Manchin of the House," one of only two House Democrats to vote against the American Rescue Plan Act and a man who called the second impeachment of Donald Trump a "lynching" while blasting Nancy Pelosi as a "terrible person," lost his Oregon primary bid to a progressive challenger named Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who happens to hail from Milwaukee. On May 24th, 2022, Lucy McBath, a gun control activist, beat out Blue Dog Carolyn Bourdeaux in the primaries (in a sad twist of irony, on the same day as the worst school shooting since Sandy Hook). This one wasn't much to celebrate, as redistricting in Georgia meant that Democrats lost a district and the two incumbents were pitted against each other. Between the two, however, I'll take a mainstream Democrat over a moderate, and McBath won over Bourdeaux by a two-to-one ratio. Meanwhile, votes are still being counted in the primary between Henry Cuellar and progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros, who are separated by roughly 175 votes out of 45,000 cast. Once the final results are announced, a recount is almost certain.

     These are just a few examples of the primary fights the 19 Blue Dogs face. To keep up the progress, we need to:

1. Take on Lou Correa, Jim Costa, and Mike Thompson in the California primaries on June 7th.
2. Take on Brad Schneider in the Illinois primary on June 28th.
3. Take on Jim Cooper by nominating Odessa Kelly in the Tennessee primary on August 4th.
4. Take on Ed Case by nominating Sergio Alcubilla on August 13th in Hawaii.

     If we do this, we can ensure that the Blue Dog Caucus, which once made up the majority of the party, makes up a single digit number of representatives for the first time in history. We've also had luck in stopping the nomination of new Blue Dogs like Steve Irwin in Pennsylvania. Irwin was defeated by Summer Lee, a progressive, in the Democratic nomination for one of the most Republican districts in the country. She will, therefore, likely lose. However, this proves an important point. One claim that moderates often make is that progressives only run in safe blue districts and that they are afraid of any real competition that puts their ideals to the test. This nomination disproves that notion, and the campaign will help show voters in the district that it is not a choice between a "center-right party and a Christian nationalist movement," but a choice between left and right, respectively. Just look at John Fetterman: he won the Democratic nomination by a two-to-one margin, taking every single county in the state. He only labels himself  a "Democrat," but he would be another progressive in the same league as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

     Rage Against the Machine continues to whine about the "continued rightward shift of both major parties" after the SCOTUS abortion opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. Either they're being intentionally misleading, or they are not paying attention, and the results of the past three weeks prove that. The 2022 election will pit the most liberal Democratic slate ever against the most deranged Republican slate ever: the stakes are too high to not vote.