this, btw, is the framing that everyone should use, because it's entirely correct. mcconnell's offer is to eliminate OSHA protections for $500B, and the main reason the press doesn't use this framing is because to do so underlines what a cheap, rat bastard offer it actually is. https://twitter.com/trizzlor/status/1328039395518275584

again and again and again, a systemic disadvantage democrats are faced with is the inability of the press to accurately convey just how awful and destructive the republican party is, and the unwillingness of voters to believe them on the rare occasions they do.

if anything, the explosion of cases only underlines how shrewd pelosi's intransigence on corporate liability actually was. there's plenty to yell at her about, but no one who actually cares about working people should give a single inch on those, esp. now.

this all stems from an yglesias tweet, and for all of his problems, he's not a bothsiders, and yet, on this issue, every pundit from jacobin to fox news has willingly donned their blinders to pretend that there's more to this argument than there actually is.

further, if @Brien_Jackson is right and courts won't really uphold OSHA protections anyway, you don't sell them off for $500B. biden just won the presidency, dems might yet take the senate, this isn't monopoly and we're not bankruptcy selling off all our properties.

mcconnell's stated negotiating position is that he does not care whether workers are put into a position where they get sick at work and he will withhold any aid to those workers that attempts to prevent that from happening. that was the story in may, and it's the story now.

and maybe it's correct that the dems have been bad at messaging this, but i cannot tell you how fucking sick i am of arguing about the democratic party's PR machine instead of the rank, abject failure of american journalists to do the most basic part of their jobs.