The suggestion that the progressive/left wing in the Democratic Party is the “Squad,” plus Bernie and a couple of other Congressional Democrats is factually wrong and politically counterproductive. It’s small circle thinking – a mode of thinking that still is found on the left even though reality doesn’t treat it kindly.

The resistance to vaccines by tens of millions of Americans reflects, among other things, a weak sense of social and human solidarity. And, I guess, that should come as no surprise. Social and human solidarity is anything but a continuous and definitive thread in the country’s history.

Any notion of a cross class coalition against white nationalist authoritarianism – the MAGA crowd – that doesn’t include vigorous support for the many positive initiatives of the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats – first and foremost, the Reconciliation bill – is vacuous. It is an empty abstraction, devoid of the politics of this moment and what it will take to win at the midterm elections next year and then two years later. (Preparing a longer article on this subject)