Listen and you'll hear moderate Democrats using a new label for their own brand of politics: "Normal."
Why it matters: It's a coded, loaded word exacerbating their divide with liberal colleagues. It's also a way, in the face of the dismal election trends, to distinguish themselves from activist colleagues they're implying are abnormal and don't speak for them.
Driving the news: Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), a moderate running for the U.S. Senate, tweeted this week that he’s a “normal Democrat."
-He contrasted himself with those who “didn’t help with infrastructure.”
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Flashback: The six House progressives who voted against the package included The Squad — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
They were joined by Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.).
Members of the group said they were trying to maintain leverage in negotiations over the president's tandem $1.75 trillion social spending package.
It includes liberal priorities like universal pre-K and funds to combat climate change.
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Lamb said, by contrast, a group of lawmakers identified with “socialists” who voted last week against the $1.2 trillion roads-and-bridges package, “doesn’t help” Democrats.
Another swing-district Democrat, Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, used the "normal" word after her party lost the governor's race in her home state last Tuesday.
-She drew headlines in the New York Times for saying of President Biden that "nobody elected him to be F.D.R."
-In a less-noticed line, she also said Americans had elected Biden "to be normal and stop the chaos."
This site did not even note the $1T infrastructure bill signed by President Biden after it passed both houses of Congress, because it was an embarrassing defeat for the president and those, the liberals, carrying water for him in Congress. The compromise was a 23% cut from the president's original proposal which passed the House but was stonewalled in the Senate by a solid phalanx of Grand Old Phascists and ManchSinema. That watery bill was given precedent by the president over FAR more important voting rights legislation, which has never passed Congress and has no chance of passing. It is a complete failure in priorities.
