Why progressives didn't cave in biggest intra-party fight of the Biden era

The story of the Democratic Party's progressive insurgency has, over the last five or six years, typically been told from the campaign trail.

But this week, the battleground centered on Capitol Hill, and the outsiders -- now greater in number and more comfortable in power -- fought the moderates to a remarkable stalemate that upset long-held assumptions and doubts over the left's ability to impose its will in Washington.

Progressives are a long way from victory in the ongoing fight over the size and scope of a social spending package that would mark the largest expansion of the social safety net in more than 50 years -- one that President Joe Biden hopes will be his signature legislative achievement. But in withholding their support for another bill -- a smaller, bipartisan physical infrastructure deal struck in the Senate and heartily supported by moderate House Democrats -- the left maintained its leverage in those ongoing negotiations.