Biden could have put massive pressure on his party to pass the Equality Act to safeguard the rights of people of any sexuality or gender. He could have done so fiercely and publicly, and campaigned in the home states of those like Manchin and Sinema to threaten their seats if they did not comply.
Somehow I don’t think “be mean to them!” would’ve made them suddenly fall in line. I find so often that arguments get distilled down to this, that Biden just needs to say the right words and then everyone will agree with him.
That’s not how it works. If it was, Sanders would be president with a House and Senate that were 100% progressive. The uncomfortable fact is that there is no malicious self sabotage here – it just wasn’t possible.
Regarding Roe, there have never been 60 Democrat senators in favor of codifying Roe, or 50 Democrat senators willing to overturn the filibuster to codify it. Progressive senators needed to be elected, and weren’t. If everyone who wanted abortion to be an unalienable right went out and voted for a progressive senator in 2016, 2020, or 2022, it could’ve easily been passed. But people didn’t bother.
Perhaps those Senate candidates should’ve fiercely campaigned and denigrated pro abortion voters who refused to come out and vote? After all, you claim it’s a magic cure all strategy to get people to do what you want.
I honestly could not disagree with your assessment more.
There’s literally a term for this “being mean to them” - it’s called using the bully pulpit, and in our finest moments of federal progressive activism it has proven incredibly effective. Read into how FDR managed to deal with the obstructionist Dixiecrats to learn more about this tactic.
Quite conversely, Senator Sanders is widely regarded as too nice. He wasn’t willing to fully commit to attacking establishment democrats for their corrupt ways, and many consider this to be the real reason he didn’t capture the nomination.
Speaking of establishment corruption - Dems had the 60 seats during Obama’s first term and chose not to pursue Roe codification. They had months to do so before Kennedy died, and I assure you that legislation has been drafted and ready to go for decades. They just needed to vote on it, but chose not to in order to continue fear mongering and fund raising over abortion rights. More recently during Biden’s first term, they could have abolished the filibuster to pass it once the Supreme Court’s motivations became clear via the leaked memo, but again chose to do nothing. That’s the establishment DNC for you.
Lastly, bullying voters is a losing strategy Dems have employed since at least 2016.it didn’t work then, and it isn’t working now. Consider demanding leadership with conviction instead.
