Is the Squad the Democrats' Freedom Caucus?

The Squad

So, with that out of the way on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are she and her cohorts making up the "Squad" -- Illhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley -- the Democratic equivalent of the House Freedom Caucus?

Certainly there is some resemblance.  Both groups are insurgents, dead set against compromise and against politics as the art of the possible.  Both are determined to let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough, and are more interested in issuing demands, attracting attention, and (they hope) moving the Overton Window, that in passing actual legislation.  Both are serious headaches for House leadership, refusing to take political or even practical reality into account, willing to court disaster for the sake of ideological purity.  And both have awakened in the other party a "strange new respect" for the ideologically committed, but politically pragmatic Speaker, who has the frustrating job of dealing with the insurgents.

But there are differences as well, drawn from the differences between the parties.

Former Speaker John Boehner, frustrated in his dealings with the House Freedom Caucus, said of them, "They can’t tell you what they’re for. They can tell you everything they’re against. They’re anarchists. They want total chaos. Tear it all down and start over. That’s where their mindset is."  Devin Nunes referred to the House Freedom Caucus as "lemmings with suicide vests."  Pelosi, by contrast, dismissed the Squad as media personalities, with no real legislative heft, but did not appear to dissent from their ultimate goals.

In other words, the Freedom Caucus were basically wreckers.  They wanted to put and end to vast swaths of the Federal Government.  Doubtless they would agree that an orderly dismantling was the ideal way to go about it.  But if an orderly dismantling was not in the cards, obstruction, incompetence, shutdowns, and even default on the national debt were all effective, after all.  The Squad, by contrast, wants to build programs, which calls for some actual knowledge and skill and willingness to work in a constructive manner.

Furthermore, the Freedom Caucus followed the Republican Party as a whole in its determination to deny President Obama any sort of success.  As such, they were opposed to any compromise, any bipartisan legislation, and constantly eager to undertake actions that would hurt the country, such as government shutdowns and debt ceiling breaches.  By contrast, both AOC and Rashida Tlaib have asked questions of the chairman of the Federal Reserve that makes clear they are willing to put their country's well-being above partisan advantage.  And AOC is apparently working on bipartisan legislation with Ted Cruz.

More importantly, the name "Squad" itself reveals something important -- the four members are not enough to rate as a caucus.  The Democrats have a House Progressive Caucus with some 98 members -- most of whom voted for compromise legislation that the Squad opposed.  Pelosi's whole point in dismissing the four was that they were not numerous enough to carry any legislative weight.  The House currently has 235 Democrats out of a total of 435.  That means that even if all members of the Squad refused to vote for a measure, it could still pass with purely Democratic votes.

This is in contrast to the Freedom Caucus, which was numerous enough to block legislation by defecting.  That meant that the Republican leadership in introducing legislation either had to make it far enough to the right to gain the votes of the Freedom Caucus (which often made legislation highly unpopular with the country as a whole) or else to form a coalition with Democrats, which moved legislation to the left of the Republican mainstream.  In particular, Republicans had to rely on Democratic votes for must-pass legislation such as raising the debt ceiling, which gave Democrats considerable bargaining power.  No wonder the leadership found the Freedom Caucus so frustrating!

But if the Democrats have the advantage of being able to bypass the Squad in passing legislation, they have a disadvantage as well.  The Squad, unlike the House Freedom Caucus, has to deal with the Right Wing Noise Machine.  Fox News, talk radio, and the whole, disciplined right wing mediasphere all train their focus on the Squad, playing up every controversy (real and imagined) about them and eventually forcing the mainstream to deal with the noise as well.

And I confess to being of two minds about this.  On the one hand, I do believe that the Squad, like the Freedom Caucus, needs to learn some lessons on the art of the possible, and to accept that most of the country does not agree with them.

On the other hand, it is a mistake to believe that anyone can ever placate the Great Right Wing Noise Machine.  Even if the Squad did shut up, the Noise Machine would just move on to another target.  Before the latest dust-up, that target was Nancy Pelosi.