“Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue”, declared the moralist and writer La Rochefoucauld, a truth of the XVIIe century that applies at the present time in American politics. I am referring to the tactical maneuvers carried out by President Biden last month, when he swept aside progressive slingers in the Democratic Party while deceiving the environmentalist participants of COP26. Not that Biden is used to quoting fine phrases from great French intellectuals, or that there is behind his appearance of an ordinary guy a spirit nourished by philosophy and reflection. Millions of people have seen the image on the Internet of Biden, eyes closed, apparently asleep in his chair in Glasgow; many, no doubt, made fun of it, telling themselves that this mini-nap perfectly symbolized the president’s difficulties in achieving his ends.
But far from being a sleepwalker, suffering from dementia or simply a victim of his age, Biden was thinking, I imagine, of the baton he was going to give to members of the progressive caucus in the House of Representatives, and especially to the insurgents Alexandria Ocasio -Cortez (AOC) and Bernie Sanders. And I think he was silently savoring his impending victory over his party’s rebel faction.
Because on November 5, in Washington, we sounded the death knell for the Sanders “revolution” and the AOC phenomenon. It was on this day that the established order of the Democratic Party was really reestablished, and that the caciques lectured to the deputies of leftist and reformist tendencies. Until then, the progressive House caucus had resisted pressure from the White House to pass the $ 1.2 trillion bill for public works infrastructure – bridges, highways, sewers, public transit. – without the Senate simultaneously approving the social and environmental bill dear to progressives, the “Build Back Better” (BBB) plan, which, in its original form, was going to spend, in ten years, 3,500 billion for programs targeting the poor, the workers and the elderly, paid in part by taxes levied on the rich. For months, the standoff continued between the 95 members of the Progressive Caucus and two “centrist” Democratic senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who proclaimed themselves, always in a pious tone, outraged by the alleged dangers of inflation and a growing federal deficit. In fact, Manchin and Sinema were outraged that so much money could be sent to the poor without first subjecting them to work obligations and that much of the expense was taken out of the pockets of upscale Democratic Party donors. Manchin, the darling of the coal industry in his state of West Virginia, was also not thrilled to see so much money invested in anti-fossil fuel projects. With a tiny Democratic majority, the 95 leftist resistance fighters were able to hamper Manchin and Sinema, as the Republican House deputies were almost unanimous in their opposition to the two bills. No social project, the progressives have insisted, no infrastructure project.
Behind their brave rhetoric, however, the progressives bowed little by little to pressure from Biden, who sought to appease Manchin rather than the left. During the “negotiations”, the estimated amount of BBB fell almost by half, to 1.8 trillion. Why ? Because Biden is neither the new Franklin D. Roosevelt nor a progressive – he is a native apparatchik who instinctively finds himself alongside clientelist Manchin. Their connivance culminated on November 5 when Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House and also a legitimate Democrat, pushed the 58 black members of the caucus to pressure the progressives to surrender and vote on the infrastructure project unconditionally. Black Democrats have followed Leader Pelosi – since George Floyd’s murder, they have a powerful moral trump card – and the infrastructure project was passed 228 votes to 206. Among the Democratic caucus, only the six most radicals (including AOC), part of what is called the Squad, voted no.
So there was no more leverage on Manchin and Sinema. But now on November 19, as if nothing had happened, the House voted 220 votes against 213 for the BBB, already emasculated by Manchin and Sinema with the agreement of the president and the leader of the majority in the Senate, Charles Schumer, also a staunch servant of the Democratic machine. In July, Manchin and Schumer secretly signed some kind of contract that projected a BBB that would not exceed 1.5 trillion. It seems that everything was arranged in advance – that it was Manchin who dictated the stature of the BBB from its inception. It doesn’t matter that the House voted for a BBB of around 2,000 billion, because Manchin is in charge; with the Senate tied 50-50 between the two parties, his support is essential, and he will demand further deep cuts before a final version of the BBB is presented to both chambers.
What about Biden, the quietly sleeping hypocrite in Glasgow? Today, the American president can congratulate himself on his alliance with a true coal baron – in beautiful homage to the virtuous Greta Thunberg and the holy crusade against climate change.
John R. MacArthur is editor of Harper’s Magazine. His column returns at the beginning of each month.