The Democrats, Again

A senior congressman who admires Pelosi and totally supports her for Speaker, and has even been publicly outspoken about it, just told me something that surprised me and depressed me: "I think," he said, "that Pelosi’s priorities are exactly in sync with the Democratic base, for better or worse. The whole thing has descended into a drunken orgy of demographic special interests and victim hagiography, completely untethered from economic meaning, who-gets-what and daily life.  Pelosi will ensure votes on Lilly Ledbetter II, III, IV, V, XXX and MCC, not to mention Dream Acts 1 through 1 Quintillion, but not on progressive taxation or the right to organize, much less antitrust reform or privacy rights. And that’s exactly what the 'base' is asking for." I hope he's wrong. On Saturday, Politico did a fun, interactive page,Congress's incoming class is younger, bluer, and more diverse than ever. OK, that's undeniable. In the House, 60 are Democrats and 31 are Republicans. 40 of the new members-- 36 in the House and 4 in the Senate-- are women (and 60 are men). "At least 23 of the new members elected to the House this cycle are Hispanic, Native American and people of color. All the newly elected senators are white." And then came the "history makers."

Marsha Blackburn is the first woman elected senator from Tennessee.

Sharice Davids (KS-03) and Debra Haaland (NM-01) are the first two Native American women elected to Congress. Davids is the first openly LGBTQ elected to Congress from Kansas.

Veronica Escobar (TX-16) and Sylvia Garcia (TX-29) are the first two Latinas elected to Congress from Texas.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) is the youngest woman elected to Congress. She is 29.

Ilhan Omar (MN-05) and Rashida Tlaib (MI-13) are the first two Muslim American women elected to Congress. Omar will also be the first member of Congress to wear a headscarf and first woman of color elected to Congress from Minnesota.

Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) is the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts.

Jahana Hayes (CT-05) is the first black Democratic woman elected to Congress from Connecticut.

Kyrsten Sinema is the first woman elected senator from Arizona, and first openly bisexual person elected to the Senate.

It is a highly educated group. More than 70 percent of the freshman class went to graduate school. A third of them have law degrees and 12 have MBAs. Seven freshman earned at least two graduate degrees. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) has three.

At least 19 members of the incoming class have served in the military. Six served in the Army, 11 in the Navy, and two in the Air Force.

The newest members of the 116th Congress have a diverse résumé. There are at least four former professional athletes: two NFL football players, one professional hockey  player, and one mixed martial arts fighter.

There are at least five medical professionals: three doctors, one dentist, and one nurse.

Five worked in education or were teachers.

...The 116th Congress has a record-breaking number of women, 124.

Twenty-one percent of the Congress is Hispanic, Native American and people of color, another record.

OK, Politico, take a bow... Oh wait. You forgot something. What percent of the freshmen are multimillionaires? Isn't that important? I know that "ex"-Republican Gil Cisneros (CA), for example, spent $8,852,762 to buy his seat. And, worse still, David Trone (MD) spent a whopping $15,983,172 to buy his seat (after spending almost that much the cycle before in a failed attempt to buy a seat in a different district.) And what percent of the freshmen are working class men or women? It can't just be Jared Golden (ME) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right? I mean if you're doing all those categories, how about including things that are even more likely to predict member voting patterns than identity politics?

Also yesterday and also in Politico, Heather Caygle put every freshman Democrat's name on a dart board, put on a blindfold and threw 7 darts... and then wrote an absurd piece called It’s not just Ocasio-Cortez: Here are 7 freshman Democrats to watch. She wrote that her completely random-- primarily identity politics-oriented list-- "includes the first black woman ever elected to Congress from Massachusetts"-- stop the presses-- "and an openly-gay Ivy League-educated lawyer from Kansas." Is this any prediction of how someone will perform in Congress? Or is this a list of click-bait possibilities? Are we just looking for political celebrities here? I suspect Heather has absolutely no idea whatsoever that the reason Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is rocking the political world isn't because of any labels but because of her ideas, how she expresses them and what her successful strategy has been to put them into the national conversation. To Heather, she's just "the 29-year-old democratic socialist." Most of the random gaggle of Democrats she burped up have interesting back-stories but there isn't the slightest indication-- let alone some excuse for reporting-- that these people are going to be leaders rather than faceless backbenchers. Some may become heroes-- maybe Lucy McBath (GA) or Ayanna Pressley (MA)-- and some are sure to be villains-- count on Ben McAdams (UT) for sure and Chrissy Houlahan (PA) for maybe-- but most I expect, we're never going to hear from again. You want to tell people who the dynamos in the freshman class will be? Forget the dart board. Look to fearless people who have already shown they know how to accomplish big things, like Rashida Tlaib (MI), Jared Golden (ME), Ilhan Omar (MN), Katie Porter (CA), Jahana Hayes (CT)... those are the ones, aside from Alexandria, I'd be betting on-- counting on-- regardless of any interesting-ish demographic features.