The law of large numbers in statistics means the greater the sampling size, the truer to the actual values. In politics, the law of large numbers of Democrats elected to the House under Hakeem Jeffries and to the Senate under Chuck Schumer means that the chambers will not be held hostage to a handful of members and the bodies can be truer to the actual values of the voters.
GOP House Speakers Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson were tormented by their extreme right wing Freedom Caucus members who could exert control due to the narrow margin. It was similar to how independent Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin thwarted Democrats and Schumer when he was last majority leader of a 50-50 or 51-49 Senate during Joe Biden’s four years.
Here in New York, two incoming hard-left DSA freshmen, Darializa Avila Chevalier in Manhattan and Claire Valdez in Queens, both who won primaries with Mayor Mamdani’s support against establishment Democrats, are undecided on supporting Brooklyn’s Jeffries for speaker. Well, the only candidates for speaker are Jeffries and Republicans Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise. But because Jeffries will have at least 255 Democrats, where a majority is 218, these DSA members will have zero leverage. What’s bad for them is good for Jeffies and good for the country.
Schumer will likewise have a comfortable majority margin with at least 54 Democrats and possibly one or two more. Jeffries and Schumer should use their big numbers to their advantage.
It was just a few years ago when Manchin and Sinema could call the shots, as their defections could kill any bill even if the rest of the caucus and leadership were all on board. The slimness of a legislative majority always concentrates power in the hands of legislators eager to build their names by bucking their own colleagues. The tiny House GOP majority threw the body into chaos as small bands of extremists wrecked the speaker election of McCarthy, who then eked out a victory only to spend his entire tenure held hostage by the same MAGA weirdos, leading to a historically unproductive Congress and the near-default of the national debt.
Even under Johnson, the House is still characterized by paralysis and a willingness to kowtow to Donald Trump, as a handful of his most fervent loyalists could always blow everything up. What these new majorities will give Democratic leadership is breathing room, the ability to lose a few or even a few dozen votes in the House and still get not only legislation but subpoenas and investigations going. Not having the left-most wing of the party hold up legislative priorities because they’re not perfect, or having the right-most wing block do the same. The broad middle will rule.
These incoming majorities are a repudiation of MAGA, yes, but they’re also a clear call to action for newly empowered Democrats. Voters have given them a mandate to act decisively to both embrace policies that will lower the cost of living and improve their lives and also hold the administration and its officials accountable, exposing and when appropriate punishing the ways Trump and his cronies have engaged in vast corruption, malfeasance, negligence and weaponization of government.
For the government to deliver for voters, it must be constrained by the rule of law and responsive to the public and the principles meant to undergird our system, including separation of powers, checks and balances, proportionality, public interest and accountability, even (or maybe particularly) for the powerful. So what these majorities should compel is not complacency but decisive action. Use the majorities to overcome efforts by both the White House and obstinate elected Democrats themselves to derail the agenda.
By New York Daily News Editorial Board
