Douglas Schoen: The Progressive Takeover Of The Democratic Party Continues

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Indeed, Manchin and Sinema are the only two Senate Democrats who are blocking the wholesale move to the left and toward the unchecked liberal policies in the party. Though Manchin played a central role in scaling back the initial stimulus bill from Biden to make it somewhat more moderate by lowering the income threshold for additional stimulus payments as well as nixing the minimum wage increase, the final package is now still the most progressive domestic legislation enacted in modern history.

One would hardly believe the bill was proposed by a moderate president who clinched his party nomination and the White House with his promise to unite the country. But this final package is more akin to something we would have seen if Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont had been elected to office. As Sam Stein had outlined in Politico last week, the influence of Sanders and progressive politics with the stimulus bill is evident, and his objective has been to move the window of discourse of what Democrats believe is tolerated, and Sanders appears to have done that.