Hakeem Jeffries throws his second in command under the bus after backlash for letting his caucus members vote to help the Republicans… again. So let’s talk about the agenda for the House Democrats: how there really isn’t one, and why nothing is likely to get better. A lot of you aren’t gonna wanna hear this, but too many of you are too comfortable making excuses for the party’s fecklessness. The fact is, they have no incentive to change because they know you won’t hold them accountable.
So the rotating villain is when the democratic party doesn’t want to pass a bill, but they also don’t want their base to be mad at them. So they find a way to pretend they want to pass it, knowing someone else will block it. Then that person takes all the blame and they can con their voters into thinking the democratic party really wanted to pass it.
Recently this came up with the government shutdown. In the senate, the democrats got a lot of senators who aren’t up for reelection or who won’t run until 2028 or later to vote to end the shutdown, knowing that voters will have forgotten by 2028. It lets all the other democratic politicians avoid accountability despite them actually supporting ending the shutdown.
Sinema and Manchin under Biden did this too. I think the build back better act was an example of this. Manchin and Sinema were opposed to it, and all the heat got directed at them and not at all the other democrats who pretended to support it, but secretly knew it wouldn’t pass so they didn’t have to face the wrath of their voters at home.
Or the ACA with Joe Lieberman. Lieberman blocked the public option. The public option can be passed at any time with reconciliation and 50 votes in the senate, but Lieberman took the blame because the democrats had no interest in a public option.
But sometimes the ‘rotating villian’ isn’t a democrat, its a republican who they know will block it.
Like in 2007 when democrats controlled congress and George W Bush was president. The democrats had no problem passing the employee free choice act through congress since they knew Bush would veto it. THe EFCA made it easier to join a union. However in 2009/2010 when democrats expanded their congressional majorities and Obama had the presidency, the democrats couldn’t pass the EFCA anymore. In fact several democratic senators who voted for the EFCA when they knew Bush would veto it said they wouldn’t vote to pass it again when Obama was president.
Or single payer healthcare in California. When democrats controlled congress and Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor, the democratic congress could pass single payer on the state level since they knew the republican governor would veto it. But now that the democrats have a much larger majority in the CA state legislature and a democratic governor, they can’t pass single payer health care anymore.
https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-the-rotating-villain-tactic-that-the-democratic-party-uses-to-avoid-passing-bills/1027061
