Not all that long ago it was understood that the infrastructure bill was just a little treat to throw to Republicans to get them on board with a bipartisan plan, and the Biden agenda was the other bill, then over several months suddenly the other bill was unreasonable demands by THE COMMUNISTS ON THE SQUAD who were OBSTRUCTING and the moderates were the Very Serious People.remembering 2009-2010 Congress-blogging and maybe I'm wrong but it seems like one big difference is the centrists aren't really bothering to make policy arguments and are just texting their friends in the press and no one is even pretending there will be a Next Thing
— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) November 6, 2021
As Alex says, they don't even have to try anymore. What's going on is the kind of corruption we don't talk about in the US, assuming it away. It isn't "campaign contributions" which is an innocent seeming sort of bribery, but post-Congress jobs for members of Congress, their families, their staffs, and their wider influence circles.
And our corrupt political press, who just run with whatever nonsense their favorite sources text them.
Probably some Pulitzers there! Lots of good journalists, but the elite (most highly paid, most visible) political press are bad!