I want to come back to this today because I think it reveals something important about the state of the Democratic Party and progressive ideas. https://twitter.com/zachdcarter/status/1253662315863474176

In one sense, Powell giving way on transparency is a good sign. It means that ideas progressives have been championing for a long time have made their way into the mainstream and changed the way even conservative technocrats think about making policy.

The audit the Fed fight in 2009-10 was a *fight.* Pelosi and Barney Frank were adamantly opposed to it, and they got their way on almost anything that happened inside the House when it came to finance, Wall Street, macroeconomic policy.

But back then, one lawmaker w/ creative staff could get a lot done. The Fed audit happened because Alan Grayson let @matthewstoller and Aaron Swartz go for it. They persuaded a ton of Dem offices and made an alliance with Ron Paul when Frank balked. Eventually they had the votes.

That took forever and was draining and made a lot of people mad and anxious. Leadership doesn't like being bucked, and nobody really savors bucking leadership, except maybe Matt. This time around, Powell just snapped his fingers and presto! Transparency. Nice and easy.

I want to emphasize this. Powell is a conservative technocrat, and he's taking a policy line that is more progressive than what Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen wanted in 2009-10.

So the ideas story is promising. But the story on power is not.

The most progressive term in the entire bailout didn't come from Congress. They didn't require or even request it. A George H.W. Bush Treasury, Carlyle Group Trump appointee just did it.

There is no audit-the-fed type initiative happening anywhere in Congress now. Part of that is leadership bulldozing everyone. Pelosi has been ruthless w/ the Squad & won't authorize remote voting precisely because she wants to prevent leftish Dems from securing legislative wins.

But Dem offices also just seem to want to be steamrolled. Elizabeth Warren used to buck leadership all the time. She's loaded with ideas both grand and granular that would make sense for this crisis. She just campaigned on a bunch of them.

But Warren has gone into hibernation for the duration of this crisis, and nobody in either chamber has stepped in to fill the void. Not Sanders and his revolution. Not the CPC. @AOC was the only Democrat even willing to vote against the last lousy bill.

This is a dangerous way to make policy, no matter where you stand ideologically. Leadership doesn't have all the answers. Auditing the Fed was good. Pelosi just embarrassed the party by appointing someone to the oversight panel who repeatedly violated the STOCK Act.

Leadership needs other offices to keep it from losing touch with the public (and reality). But other offices have to actually want to legislate. And so far they really don't seem to want it.