Don’s Note: I put quotation marks around the title because this is the title of the article as it appears in Jacobin, a socialist journal to which I subscribe. It’s a critique of the Democratic Party from a left-wing perspective. As a lifelong Democrat recently moved to one of the “trigger” states (Kentucky), it’s painful for me to read how the specific, creative suggestions made by progressives like Ocasio-Cortez are being dismissed by mainstream Democrats. This article describes a number of those ideas, as well as the growing frustration among the party ranks with inaction by Democratic party leaders. Here are a couple of excerpts, followed by a link to the full article (before you raise the fact of the filibuster as a defense of the Democrats, read the full article):

“As an increasingly rogue Supreme Court snatched the remnants of the right to abortion away from 40 million women around the country, party leadership boldly ruled out doing much about it. President Joe Biden wouldn’t expand the number of judges on the court or curb its jurisdiction, as progressives like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) suggested. He and his team fret that this ‘would be politically polarizing’ ahead of the midterms and ‘undermine public trust in institutions like the Supreme Court’ — the implication being that the court’s attack on abortion rights somehow did neither of those.

[…]

“Ocasio-Cortez and others had suggested a creative move: putting abortion clinics on federal lands in states where it was illegal. Was that something the administration might consider? ‘It’s not right now what we are discussing,’ said Harris. Elsewhere, administration officials expressed worry that taking such a step would open those seeking abortions to prosecution or violate the Hyde Amendment, which bars using federal money to fund abortions. (On the last point, it was up to, once more, Ocasio-Cortez to explain why that wasn’t the case.)

[…]

“To make matters worse, as the news about Roe roiled the country, news leaked that Biden is preparing to nominate a Republican antiabortion lawyer for a lifetime appointment as a federal judge, reportedly as part of a deal with Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that would allow Biden to confirm two US attorneys in Kentucky, both of which are temporary positions.”

[…]

” … Joe Biden, long known as a prominent antiabortion Democrat who spent his career clashing with women’s groups and working to move the party in a more conservative direction. Though Biden now claims it was Donald Trump’s three Supreme Court picks ‘who were the core’ of the court’s recent jettisoning of Roe, the reality is that while serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including eight years as chairman, Biden played a key role in facilitating the GOP takeover of the institution, most famously by shielding Clarence Thomas from sexual harassment allegations in his confirmation hearing. He was also a backer of the very Hyde Amendment his administration now says prevents it from putting abortion clinics on federal land.”

Read full article here: 

“The Democrats Have Been Embarrassingly Useless on Abortion”

Related Reading:

“Young people are abandoning him in droves because he won’t fight for their rights and freedom“