"We Believe in Each Other."

Is that a hopeful future we see emerging on the horizon? Thank President Biden!

“We believe in each other.

We’re not fallin’ for these folks who are trying to divide us, trying to separate us, trying to pull us apart.” — Kamala Harris, August 8, 2024.

Vice-President Harris’ simple declaration of solidarity not only describes the nature of her presidential campaign. It also explains in plain language why the MAGA movement is destined to collapse.

Unlike most countries, our national identity is built on a foundation of pluralism. The arc of our history, while littered with racist and exclusionary movements, is one of growing inclusion. Whether your preferred metaphor is the melting pot or a salad, its narrative is the same: e pluribus unum — from many, one.

Even as MAGA extremists and its leader have sought to exploit our differences, there resides within the American citizenry a deeply held conviction that all are equal. Over time, attempts to designate segments of the populace as threatening always begin to lose their potency. As their fears evaporate, people rediscover the strength of unity and teamwork.

The most vivid examples of this in recent memory were in the days following 9/11, and during the first few weeks of the pandemic. But we regularly see it in our local communities, especially when there is a hurricane or flood, a tornado, earthquake or fire.

Problems remain, but solutions no longer seem beyond reach. Talk of civil war sounds increasingly odd and self-destructive.

As Barack Obama so powerfully reminded us, we are the United States of America. We believe in each other.

President Joe Biden has beaten MAGA.

It happened on May 31, 2023.

As we campaign for Vice-President Harris this fall and celebrate the achievements of the Biden-Harris administration, things like the infrastructure plan, chips investment, student loan assistance and prescription-drug cost controls will rightfully be highlighted. These are all enormously important in the moment.

But in the long view of history, President Biden will likely be honored more for his defeat of the democracy-threatening movement that grew from Donald Trump’s cynical campaign for the presidency in 2016.

Here’s how he did it.

The movement named for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” came to be known simply as MAGA. And when Joseph Biden decided in 2017 to confront it directly, the MAGA extremists who embraced Mr. Trump had already begun their attempt to dismantle our representative democracy.

At the time, Mr. Biden had retired from politics, having capped a remarkable legislative career with two terms as Vice President. By then 75 years old, he was comfortably at home in Delaware writing his memoirs and teaching at the local university. But the threat of MAGA extremism recalled him to duty.

Without Joe Biden, Democrats would likely have lost the 2020 presidential election, and it’s sobering to reflect on what the consequences would have been.

The Democratic Party had been devastated by Hillary Clinton’s completely unexpected defeat in 2016, and there was plenty of angry blame-casting among various factions. No fewer than 25 Democrats announced they would run for president in 2020. Only the former Vice-President could unite the party and lead it to victory.

Still, the battle against MAGA had only begun. President Biden’s coat tails brought a Democratic House and Senate into office along with him. And having decades of experience in Congress, he was able to move quickly, turning this momentary electoral advantage into substantive legislation. Meanwhile, disillusioned and out-numbered Republicans meekly submitted to their more fiercely committed MAGA colleagues who consolidated their dominance of the party.

When Republicans re-gained control of the House of Representatives in the 2022 mid-term elections, the extremists were certain their moment had arrived. In the first days of the 118th Congress, a relatively small cadre boldly seized control over the process of electing a new Speaker of the House.

Republicans held a slim majority in the chamber of only 222 to 212. That allowed the core MAGA faction to leverage their dozen or so votes, and demand concessions from Kevin McCarthy in exchange for their support. On January 7, 2023, Kevin McCarthy became Speaker and the MAGA extremists believed that through him they would now be in charge of the chamber.

To some extent they actually were in charge at the start. Contemptuous of both Democrats and traditional establishment Republicans, many were appointed to key committees, some allowed to skip over more senior members to assume leadership positions. Jim Jordan (R-OH), one of the founders and the first Chair of the House Freedom Caucus, ascended to Chair of the Judiciary Committee. And Mr. McCarthy agreed to the formation of a new “Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government” also under Mr. Jordan’s chairmanship, to amplify claims that the Department of Justice, FBI and other federal agencies are biased against conservatives.

Most importantly, Speaker McCarthy agreed to use the threat of a default on the nation’s debt to further MAGA’s agenda. That effort began just a few weeks into the session at an Oval Office meeting with President Biden. As we described it in our post Remembering to Stay Focused on February 3, 2023:

This week, Act One of the debt ceiling performance began when Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with President Biden in the oval office.  Predictably, the media is all aflutter about "negotiations" and who may have said what to whom.  President Biden remains adamantly opposed to any concessions and insists that there will be no negotiations about raising the debt ceiling.

The fact is, whatever Biden says or does this week, and however the press frames the debate, there is zero possibility of a U.S. default on its debt.  Still, at the behest of his MAGA minority, Speaker McCarthy is heading full-speed straight into a wall. One has to wonder whether that is in fact the MAGA intention, hoping to replace a discredited McCarthy with one of their own number as Speaker. 

Ultimately, that was indeed what happened, although not in the way the extremists had envisioned. By the time Kevin McCarthy was stripped of his leadership in October, MAGA would be reduced to nothing more than just another obstructionist faction within the chamber. They became powerless even to install their own leader, Jim Jordan, as Speaker. Mr. Jordan failed on three consecutive ballots to win the Speakership, and the extremists eventually compromised with Republican moderates to elect an obscure MAGA loyalist, Congressman Mike Johnson (R LA) to the coveted position.

President Biden understood the game better than any of his adversaries. In a brilliant piece of political ju-jitsu, he turned Mr. McCarthy’s debt ceiling threat back against him and his MAGA masters, catching them all unprepared and exposing their weakness.

In retrospect, Mr. Biden’s strategy looks simple. By refusing to negotiate through the Spring, the President allowed pressure to build relentlessly onto Speaker McCarthy, who would bear full responsibility for dire international economic consequences if the U.S. Government were to default. With a patient disregard for constant hectoring by the press who insisted he was being “stubborn”, President Biden left the Speaker with no leverage whatsoever other than to pass a MAGA-approved spending reduction/debt limit increase bill in the House.

But even that was increasingly out-of-reach. Moderate Republican representatives from swing districts resisted voting for the package, which would have repealed popular subsidies and tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. They finally agreed, but only after Mr. McCarthy pleaded with them, promising that the spending reductions bill was only a “symbolic” measure for him to use when confronting the President.

It was the first week of May, 2023, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the debt ceiling must be raised by June 5 or there would be a default. With pressure mounting from anxious Wall Street investors, Speaker McCarthy made a highly publicized speech at the New York Stock Exchange explicitly promising that there would be no default.

To Joe Biden, a savvy veteran of countless congressional negotiations, it was obvious from the start that the Republican “leader” could never actually deliver 218 votes for all the demands he was making. As June 5 approached, President Biden finally made his move. He agreed to meet with Kevin McCarthy to “negotiate” a federal spending/debt limit increase agreement.

And what an agreement it was! With insufficient support from his own party, and having pledged not to carry out his biggest threat, the Speaker was pitifully weak as a negotiator. And sure enough, he ultimately folded like a gambler with a losing hand.

President Biden walked away with no default, a two-year $3 trillion debt limit increase, and spending parameters for the FY 2025 budget which included an enforcement measure designed to guarantee no government shutdown in the Fall — all in exchange for about 20% of what had been demanded by the MAGA-dominated House majority party.

A temporary cross-party alliance of 165 Democrats and 149 Republicans passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) by a vote of 314-117 on May 31, 2023. MAGA had been betrayed by “their” Speaker, and President Joe Biden had exposed the extremists as powerless at the climactic moment.

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An exhausted 118th Congress is limping to the finish line.

Members of The House of Representatives are currently enjoying their Summer Recess, and will reconvene in just over 3 weeks, on September 9. There will be only 13 more legislative days before the election. The last one is September 27.

As we’ve previously noted (July 24, No Dock, No Bay—Wastin’ Time Anyway ), current funding for the U.S. Government expires on September 30, the final day of FY 2024. The new fiscal year (FY 2025) begins on October 1 — when the House will again be in recess. To provide for government operations, 12 appropriation bills must be passed in both the House and Senate and signed by the President before that day.

But . . .

Only 5 of the 12 bills have passed the House, and none have been passed in the Senate. All five House-passed bills are laden with far-right “messaging” amendments and so, not one will even be considered by the Senate. With only 13 legislative days in September, there is virtually no chance this fundamental Congressional duty will be completed on time. And while it’s mostly below the radar, the Farm Bill also expires on September 30.

So will there be another dramatic showdown like last year?

In a word, No.

As we all remember, in September of 2023, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy worked with Democrats to pass a bipartisan Continuing Resolution (CR), which authorizes current spending levels to continue for a specified period of time. As a direct result, Mr. McCarthy was stripped of his Speakership on October 3. Although Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will do exactly the same thing this September, working with Democrats to pass a bipartisan CR, there will be no uprising against him.

Why is that?

Because the power and influence of MAGA extremists in the House of Representatives has been decimated.

The MAGA-dominated Freedom Caucus this week announced its intention to continue passing dead-end appropriation bills in September as a way to “advance our priorities”. But rather than demand Speaker Johnson threaten a government shutdown, they freely admit that the inevitable result will be passage of a Continuing Resolution. Their official position, released on Monday August 12 is that current “government funding should be extended into (calendar year) 2025.”

This is effectively a surrender by MAGA to the de facto bipartisan coalition that Minority Leader (and next Speaker) Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) quietly put together during the 2023 debt ceiling negotiations.

What a difference a year makes. Thank you, President Biden!

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Our Feathers of Hope network is actively supporting the candidacy of Dr. Kristin Lyerly in Wisconsin’s 8th district. Dr. Lyerly is an OB-GYN pro-choice activist running for the seat formerly held by Republican Mike Gallagher, who resigned last March.

In the primary election this past Tuesday, Tony Wied won the Republican nomination. Of the 3 candidates running, Mr. Wied is the most closely aligned with MAGA and was endorsed by Donald Trump.

The 8th district, which includes the cities of Green Bay and Appleton, is generally rated as solidly Republican. But Mr. Gallagher, who enjoyed strong support in the district, was firmly aligned with moderate traditional Republicans and was never associated with MAGA extremism.

With access to abortion winning majority support even among Republicans, Dr. Lyerly could possibly flip this seat. Should she be elected, she would be the only pro-choice OB-GYN in the House.

To help support Kristin Lyerly’s campaign, visit her website: www.KristinForWisconsin.com

This is a network of ordinary citizens. In a democracy, we exercise our power by raising our voices. To be silent is to be powerless.