Jim notes that:
Today’s New York Times has a morbid but insightful article pointing out that the Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress is dependent upon the continuing good health of quite a few elderly members.
As the Times itself observes, the history of politicians dying in office
has some Democrats worried that deaths or illnesses could derail President Biden’s efforts to pass ambitious bills through Congress, which his party controls by the narrowest margins in decades.
“Our ability to make good on Biden’s agenda is pretty much dangling by a thread,” said Brian Fallon, a former aide to Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader. “I don’t think it’s uncouth to talk about it. I think it’s a reality that has to inform the urgency with which we approach those issues.”
This is true. But at no point does it seems to have occurred to Fallon and Co. that if the Democratic Party is just a couple of deaths away from being in the minority in one or both legislative chambers, then maybe it shouldn’t be trying to remake the country in the first place.