The Democrat Civil War has been hot for a while now, with the far-left progressive wing and more moderate wing going at each other over the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. Sen. Joe Manchin has been the face of the resistance, so to speak, but he’s hardly alone, with a sizable number of of his colleagues objecting on the House side of things.

And just as I predicted almost two months ago, Rep. Nancy Pelosi has painted her party in a corner — and there seems to be no way to reconcile the two sides in short order. A vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill already failed to materialize yesterday, and now Bernie Sanders is actively bombarding his own colleagues.

More importantly, it will end all leverage that we have to pass a major reconciliation bill. That means there will be no serious effort to address the long-neglected crises facing the working families of our country, the children, the elderly, the sick and the poor.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 28, 2021

I strongly urge my House colleagues to vote against the bipartisan infrastructure bill until Congress passes a strong reconciliation bill.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 28, 2021

What Sanders is doing is really, really dumb, but because I’m a Republican, I’m here for it.

Let’s start with the idea that Democrats have “leverage” by holding up the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Does anyone really think Sen. Mitch McConnell actually cares whether that bill passes or not? In fact, it has become more likely that McConnell’s entire strategy was to allow the bipartisan infrastructure bill to operate as a wedge issue that keeps Democrats from ever uniting. In short, in order to have leverage, you have to actually be holding up something the other side truly cares about.

Only one side is losing their minds over a bill not passing in the next month, and that’s the progressives who are dead set on redefining the country into a socialist paradise via reconciliation.

Here’s the reality of the situation. If far-left Democrats want to get anything on their wish list before 2022, at which point they’ll likely lose the House (and possibly the Senate), voting against the bipartisan bill only ensures they get nothing. They are walking right into the sinkhole that Republicans set up for them, believing that they possess a mandate and votes they do not have. This is not Barack Obama with 60 Democrats in the Senate. It’s a 50/50 split, with a House nearly as close. Those facts make passing a massive, LBJ-esque reformation of the nation essentially impossible.

Manchin is not going to cave on a carbon tax. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is not going to jack up the corporate rate. Neither is going to accept another huge shot of inflation into the economy. They have constituents back home to worry about, and they care a lot more about re-election than what Nancy Pelosi wants. Further, behind those two are several other Democrat senators hiding in the corner, knowing that they can’t vote for the reconciliation bill as it sits, but hoping no one forces them to go on record.

Of course, don’t underestimate the ability of Republicans to save the Democrats from themselves. There’s already talk of some in the House GOP banding together to push the bipartisan infrastructure bill across the finish line, giving up any leverage in regards to reconciliation. If that happens, it better be because McConnell has obtained a sealed-in blood commitment that the reconciliation bill, as constructed, is dead in the water.