The realo and fundi groupings in the Democratic Party tend to disagree on two different kinds of issues: fiscal and cultural. On fiscal issues, fundis want a dramatic expansion of the welfare state, while realos are only willing to mitigate the worst impacts of the dollar store economy, and worry about deficits and creating an “entitlement society.” On cultural issues, in a nutshell, fundis are woke, and realos are liberal. In other words, the fundis want to shrink the window of acceptable opinion, and move it to the left; realos want to keep it where it is.
Realos have done their best to shrink the Biden human capital bill on the basis that it is political poison–it goes too far for the voters, and drives them into the arms of the Republicans. They are wrong. The thunder on the right comes from cultural issues, not spending programs: Mr. Potato Head and vaccine mandates, not child care tax credits. For the purpose of winning votes, deficits and the size of government are just debating points; no one really cares about them.
If the Democrats really want to persuade the voters to ignore their culture war prejudices by making significant improvements to their material existence, they need to be bold on the Biden bill. Realos, take note, and don’t shoot at the wrong target; the fundis are wrong on wokeness, but they have a strong case on the welfare state.