Biden’s infrastructure bill, now signed into law, has been receiving praise and acclaim for demonstrating that it may be possible (just barely) to return to a world in which both parties collaborate on legislation to help this country. Manchin was the driving force to carve out this legislation from the larger package and manage to get support from almost 40% of the Senate GOP caucus. This was a real and healthy accomplishment, that many were certain could not be done. Of course between the time the Senate passed the bill and the time it was under consideration by the House, too many House Republicans were cowed into turning against what’s best for our nation.

Hopefully the BBB legislation will also get adopted, though sadly without any GOP support. But ultimately we have to figure out a way to purge the toxins that Reagan, Gingrich, McConnell, and Trump injected into the Republican Party and our nation. If we don’t, our fragile democracy will not survive this challenge. Yes — Bush 43 and Cheney le Pere also poisoned the dialogue, primarily on foreign policy issues, but did not stoke the racial and religious antagonisms that are so prominent today.