It’s become almost commonplace in recent years, and especially in the last four months, that the divisions among Democrats are less progressives vs. “centrists” or liberals than one between institutionalists and what we might call Team Fight. There’s a separate issue which is that there needs to be a lot more elaboration or articulation about just what “centrists” or “moderates” even are. The language is typically used as an electoral self-definition for the purposes of intra-party dynamics. But let’s leave that topic for another day. So we have the mounting knowledge that the divisions are more Team Fight vs. Team No Fight than the more ideological definitions. At the same time, though, you have non-progressives (see the problem of definitions?) worried that the highly polarized climate of 2025 will “push the party to the left.” (I have my own thoughts on that latter question.) A lot of those voices came to the fore during the Bernie and AOC barnstorming tour, which I guess is paused, at least for the moment. But for “centrists” or non-progressive liberals, if it’s really true that the real issue is Team Fight vs. Team No Fight (and I believe it is), you’ve got to get out there and do your own barnstorming tours or find other ways to demonstrate the fight.

This is just obvious. In a period of high polarization and high threat, the center of gravity of the party and inevitably the ideological center of gravity of the party will move to those fighting hardest, most successfully, with the fewest apologies.

Full statement from Joe Biden’s personal office:

Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone. While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management. The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians. 

This is a follow up to Friday’s piece on how to save American biomedical research. A lot of what follows assumes you’ve read that earlier piece. I realized based on responses I received that there is one point I didn’t make explicit enough. As I wrote, there are “disease communities” around every major disease that affects Americans — cancers, diseases of age and dementia, heart disease, degenerative disorders. These communities exist in relationship with various advocacy organizations. But they are not the same and there’s a reason I focused specifically on these communities rather than the organizations.

On Tuesday DOGE representatives contacted the Government Accountability Office and demanded its standard level of access to analyze and “reform” the agency. Today the GAO contacted its employees via email and explained that they had told DOGE that GAO is a legislative branch agency and not subject to executive orders or the executive branch. They say they also contacted the relevant congressional committees to notify them of the attempted DOGE takeover.

Ed.Note: The original version of this post incorrectly reported that DOGE contacted GAO on Friday 16th rather than Tuesday 13th.