I was reading an interview a few days ago in which a prominent Justice Democrat was arguing that, due to the Democrats’ shrunken majority in the House, the left controls the balance of power. Was he right?
Of course not! Small legislative factions can dictate policy in parliamentary systems when their positions are roughly equidistant from the two major parties, or when they have a credible incentive to force new elections. None of that is present here. We don’t have a parliamentary system, new elections are a legal impossibility, and the Justice Democrats will always be closer in ideology to the leadership than to the GOP. As a result, the threat is completely hollow; it can and will be ignored.