In the next week or so, Congress will take up Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill. It’s a big bill addressing big needs, many of which have been ignored for decades. Democrats will likely need to pass the bill with no Republican support. Since Mitch McConnell became Majority Leader of the Senate, the GOP has become the party of no, uniformly opposing any legislation proposed by Democrats, regardless of merit. 

After Barack Obama became president in 2009, McConnell and his caucus opposed virtually every piece of legislation and many appointments in an attempt to make Obama a failed president. Their obstructionism led to sweeping Congressional wins in both the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections, even if they failed to prevent Obama’s second term. Since then, Republicans in the House have embraced McConnell’s legislative strategy as a campaign strategy, making the GOP an obstructionist party instead of an opposition one. 

Republicans often claim that they agree with the problem but disagree with Democratic solutions. However, when they controlled both Congress and the White House after 2016, they passed nothing significant but tax cuts for the wealthy. “Infrastructure week” became a running joke during the Trump years when Republicans kept promising solutions to our crumbling transportation system but failed to produce any legislation. After years of sabotaging the Affordable Care Act and harming middle-class Americans, they promised to “Repeal and Replace” Obamacare but never even introduced a bill, exposing the cynicism of their rallying cry. 

It hasn’t always been this way. Today is the 53^rd anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, a bill that included the Fair Housing Act. It was passed into law with support from a majority of both parties in both Houses of Congress. Back then, Republicans wanted the government to function, providing services and protecting the rights of people who had been wronged. 

Today, the GOP is a largely non-governing party. It exists to provide tax breaks for the wealthy and to prevent government oversight of private activities, unless they occur in the bedroom. The last piece of major legislation Republicans supported that actually helped middle America was Medicare Part D, the prescription drug program, in 2003. In the 18 years since, they’ve opposed almost every bill to provide more affordable and accessible health care, improve infrastructure, fix immigration, and even provide support to families suffering during a pandemic. And they act in lockstep, punished by a party base that tolerates no dissent.

In this scenario, Democrats are only negotiating with themselves. Senator Joe Manchin bemoans the state of politics and naively believes Republicans are willing to come to the negotiating table. They haven’t for almost two decades. Mitch McConnell won’t let his Republican caucus stray from his obstructionist agenda and most of the House Republicans now come from deeply populist GOP districts. They don’t believe government can do anything right, so they won’t try to solve our problems. It’s up to Democrats to make it happen and that’s a shame.