It’s not just Manchin: No electoral mandate stalls Democrats’ leftist agenda

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) recently closed the door on two of the most radical foundational changes threatening the nation: H.R.1, the For the People Act, and a proposal to end the Senate filibuster. While the left is focused on attacking him, they are missing the point. The true culprit for their angst can be found in last November’s elections, whose outcomes provided no mandate to fundamentally change America.  

Clearly, President Biden’s election charge was to work toward consensus for bipartisan solutions.  Biden ran as a moderate to unify the country. He certainly didn’t win by offering radical prescriptions for America. Similarly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) progressive House majority was significantly shrunk by that same electorate, and there was no clear majority for Democrats in the Senate, once the dust settled in the narrow Georgia runoffs.

That means the American electorate in 2020 did not call for the revolutionary ideas that are taking shape in the White House and Congress. If anything, the election results were a recipe for compromise. Americans might not like to admit it, but the genius of our political system lies in compromise. It is weaved into our national heritage and our Constitutional structure of limited government. Our country breaks down when compromise is disregarded (as some will argue helped to set the stage for the Civil War).

Yet, that’s not what Biden and his party’s progressives are selling. Right out of the gate, the president spent widely and in a strict party-line fashion. In appointing the latest members of his Cabinet, he has pushed a more progressive team than his earlier centrist picks, daring Republicans to object. His border policies are embarrassingly out of touch with mainstream America’s viewpoint on illegal immigration.

So, too, did Pelosi and House Democrats fail to heed the electorate when they at once began crafting fundamental changes to America’s election process to circumvent the need for national political consensus. And Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) Senate is in a death-struggle to end the filibuster rule — and with it, the need for future compromise.

Now, less than six months into the new administration, it appears the tide is turning on this leftward undertaking. Schumer’s plan to use the reconciliation process to shepherd much of the Biden agenda around the filibuster threshold was kiboshed by the Senate parliamentarian late last week. Another blow formed in Manchin’s doubling down on his intention to stop their legislation. But both of these developments are more a symptom than a cause. The nation is simply not in favor of these extremist dictates and already is pressing for a correction, which is revealing itself in special elections.  

Since Biden’s inauguration, Republicans have won some of the open congressional, state and local races across the country. Even the Democratic stronghold of McAllen, Texas — a city with 85 percent Hispanic voters — just elected its first Republican mayor in more than 50 years. This illustrates how a majority of voters regard the leftist open-border policies. Elsewhere in the country, Hispanics have continued to galvanize the Republican brand.

The fact is, the lack of a true electoral mandate for Biden will doom any hope for anything substantive to come from this administration. Not that the left won’t continue to try to manufacture a mandate. That is what talk of a 9/11-style commission to investigate the events of Jan. 6 at the Capitol is all about. It’s also why Biden raises the specter of a white nationalist boogeyman. It’s all political sleight-of-hand to achieve what the left knows they lack in actual support. But it won’t work. Indeed, it didn’t even have to be this way.  

Had Biden chosen the path of moderation and unity — which the election dictated — and tempered the Democratic Party’s left wing while cajoling moderate Republicans, he could have achieved so much more already. Triangulation was Bill Clinton’s effective tool and it could have worked again, this time also boxing in what now appears to be growing support for Donald Trump and a return to his populism. But it’s now too late for that strategy; that ship has sailed.

The Biden regime is already irrevocably hobbled. Its far-left agenda is exposed and dying, and it’s too late to attempt to reverse course and convince Republicans that Biden now means to find compromise. In fact, only Republicans could save the progressive march now. That’s why it’s critical that Republicans stand firm on infrastructure and Biden’s other entreaties when they begin to appear.  

Republicans must remain clear-eyed and focused on the elections of 2022 and 2024, which will certainly return the GOP to power and bring back a center-right government course that clearly is the nation’s intended political path. The “Party of Lincoln” will be rewarded electorally by standing strong now and saying “No” to Biden’s foolish ideas. 

Lewis K. Uhler is founder and chairman of the National Tax Limitation Committee and the National Tax Limitation Foundation (NTLF).  

Peter J. Ferrara served as a member of the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, associate deputy U.S. attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, and the Dunn Liberty Fellow in Economics at the King’s College in New York.

Joseph Yocca is NTLF’s policy director and a longtime political and policy consultant. He served in the California Senate as chief of staff to Republican leadership.