From The Nation
"If Republicans don't want to cooperate," he says, "then, yes, we have to move forward without them."
Bernie Sanders ran for president promising a political revolution. When he did not secure the Democratic nomination, the unapologetic progressive immediately threw in as a supporter of a more moderate Democrat, Joe Biden, and became an ardent advocate for his former rival.
But that does not mean that Sanders has lost his revolutionary zeal.
In recent days the independent senator from Vermont has become the highest-profile and most enthusiastic congressional champion of the argument that Senate Democrats must use their narrow majority to enact a transformational agenda. Sanders has made it clear that he is pleased by the ambitions of the White House when it comes to strategies like those outlined in the president's initial proposal for an American Jobs Plan. But he has been equally clear in recent days about his frustration with the deference many Democrats continue to show to Republicans who are delaying and disrupting the governing process.
The Biden administration has been engaged in a delicate dance of negotiations with a small group of Republican senators, maintaining the faint hopes of reaching an agreement to approve the president's infrastructure proposal. Republicans, some Democrats, and many pundits who are unable to get over the delusion of "bipartisanship," have suggested that compromise is necessary to enact a more modest proposal.
But Sanders isn't having it.
"If Republicans don't want to cooperate and help us seriously address the many crises we're facing today," he says, "then, yes, we have to move forward without them to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and create millions of good-paying, union jobs."
This is about much more than the usual wrangling between Democrats and Republicans. Sanders has a longer and more ambitious history of working with Republicans who really want to get things done -- on issues ranging from fair trade to protecting civil liberties and auditing the Pentagon -- than the vast majority of congressional Democrats. But the senator is unwilling to play the fool. If Republicans fail to bargain in good faith, he is prepared to abandon negotiations and start governing.
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