The Newly Energized Progressive Caucus Is Winning

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https://prospect.org/article/newly-energized-progressive-caucus-winning


The Newly Energized Progressive Caucus Is Winning
David Dayen
July 23, 2019
If recent votes are any indication, the next flurry of liberal policymaking will look far different from the last one.


Underlying the resistance of Nancy Pelosi and the House leadership to the “Squad” of progressive freshmen Democrats of color is a presumption that, while it’s nice to dream big about Medicare for All and Green New Deals, the mainstream of the House Democratic Caucus—or at least the members from purple district—live in the center. It’s impossible to fulfill ambitions beyond that narrow sliver of political terra firma, or so the theory goes.

But the reality of the past couple months of experience renders a negative verdict on that theory. The Congressional Progressive Caucus, newly energized by determined leadership and many more members, has been winning repeated battles on domestic and foreign policy, revealing a caucus that can unify behind popular proposals on the left. The wins keep racking up in ways that are too numerous to be anomalous.

I recognize that these progressive votes were taken in a kind of model Congress, where there’s no Senate willing to concur or a president willing to sign off. To that extent, they were free votes. But they do set a course for the future, when Democrats might have a governing majority again. If these votes are any indication, the next flurry of liberal policymaking will look far different from the last one.

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Looking forward, locking members into popular liberal positions now makes it easier when the time comes to actually turn the policy into law; their vote is already on their record, after all. And the caucus may grow more liberal, if primary challenges to older members like Richie Neal and Elliot Engel and conservadems like Henry Cuellar and Dan Lipinski are successful.

Most important, these votes do foretell the trajectory of Democratic policy thinking. The caucuses of House progressives and moderates are relatively similar in size; there’s no reason that the House’s effectively free time couldn’t be spent passing tax-advantaged savings accounts and the like. Instead, after some early missteps, the roster of bills has been pretty solid, and in head-to-head matchups, progressives are succeeding in dragging more members to their side. Solid organizing from Progressive Caucus co-chairs Mark Pocan and Pramila Jayapal has paid off.

While Democrats who play strategists on TV fret about a lurch to the left, members in contested districts are routinely siding with progressives on pocketbook issues and even matters of war. Maybe that long-lost Democratic unity is finally coming to pass.