The "youth-led," "left-leaning" Sunrise Movement, as The Independent labels it, gathered its disciples outside the White House yesterday and did what youth-led, left-leaning movements do: It demanded the impossible, and in a strident, obnoxious way.
Chanting "Shut it down!" and carrying signs exclaiming BIDEN YOU COWARD FIGHT FOR US and NO CLIMATE NO DEAL, the group protested the infrastructure bill, succinctly characterized by the Washington Post as "the product of weeks of painstaking negotiations." And that's OK, since, as noted, stridently demanding the impossible — and at the eleventh hour — is what youthful protest movements are supposed to do.
The farce came when the "adults" joined the infrastructure-deal protesters — Democratic House members also demanding that unattainable improvements be added to the package. That would be the package that if anyone so much as sneezes on it, it'll burst into flames. Weeks of high-pressure negotiations that have cobbled together a delicate, multifactional agreement to get something done — kaboom.
In enthusiastic attendance were progressive House members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, the latter of whom seemed most afflicted by mass-rally dementia, which we've painfully witnessed, from the other side, for the past six years. After rightfully decrying the absence of police reform and the social crimes of large-scale incarceration and food insecurity, the New York City congressman wailed that "our buildings and schools [are] falling apart." Which the current infrastructure deal addresses. Mr. Bowman's solution? "Fuck that!"
He added that "We've got to go big, and take it to another level…. If [the bill is] not where it needs to be, we’ll vote it down and see where it goes from there." I can tell him where "it" will go from there. His district's buildings and schools will cease falling apart and simply collapse.
Today, another rally, this one on the National Mall. It's hosted by Sen. Bernie Sanders; joining him will be Reps. Ilhan Omar, Ro Khanna, Nanette Barragan and Earl Blumenauer. They too will demand progressive improvements to the infrastructure bill — namely, an end to fossil fuel subsidies.
Capital idea, no argument there. One little problem, however. Not even the reconciliation alternative would work, since the "improved" bill would be rendered useless. Joe Manchin, you know. But what's a bit of immovable reality compared to the progressive thrill of demanding the impossible?