Somehow we have gotten to the point where the populace assumes that everybody in one party is going to agree on everything and everyone in the other party is also going to agree, but on different things. There's also a misapprehension that the President, by virtue of being the titular leader of his party, has the power to dictate policy to the Congressional members of his party. (I'm consistently using the male pronoun mainly because we haven't [yet] seen any women elected President) Part of this confusion comes from the term "Commander in Chief". The President is not the Commander in Chief of the United States, but according to the Constitution, the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States and of the militia of the several states when called into actual Service of the United States. In other words, he sits atop the chain of command of the U.S. military. And the Constitution gives the President this authority in order to avoid military control of the government, giving a civilian ultimate military authority. The members of Congress are in no sense in that chain of command, or in any way subordinate to the President, and as a matter of fact, as a body, the Congress is the equal constitutionally, to the President.
The two party system of government is to be found nowhere in the Constitution, but it has evolved to become the de facto system nonetheless. Because real power is concentrated in this dyarchy, effectively shutting out additional parties, the two main parties function as "big tent" entities, home to a variety of ideologies that coexist, often uncomfortably. Since the election of Joe Biden and the attendant Democratic Party majorities in Congress, there has been an expectation among progressive Democratic voters that "things would get done", presumably a wide-ranging progressive agenda. The problem is twofold: (1) The filibuster in the Senate and (2) Multiple factions within the Democratic Party.
A few months ago I was "laugh emojied" for suggesting that the Republicans were united in opposition to anything the President tried to accomplish, while the Democrats were fragmented. The person who disagreed with my assertion asserted himself that the Democrats were taking their orders from central authority that had them all marching in lockstep. Even a cursory scan of political news should disabuse one of this opinion, unless of course the belief in some secret conspiracy that controlled both parties was too difficult to let go of. The modern Democratic Party is usually portrayed as having a "progressive" wing and a "moderate" wing, with a few outlying "conservatives" like Joe Manchin rounding out the circus. The truth is a lot messier. Every single member of Congress has their own unique constituency that they cannot aggravate too much or they won't be reelected. Senators from large populous states have the additional challenge of balancing the interests of their urban and their rural voters.
Vote trading has long been a staple of legislating. Senator "A" might be inclined to vote for Bill "X", but will withhold her vote unless amendment "Y", benefitting her state, is added. Senator "B", on the other hand, might be persuaded to vote for Bill "W", which he had doubts about, but whose "yes" vote will carry the day, if Senators "C", "D", "E" & "F" agree to support appropriating funds for a military base in his state.
This is just what's been happening in the halls of Congress lately. Media reports focus on Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, on his seemingly un-Democratic conservatism and her supposed wackiness, and the allegations that both of them are in the pocket of special interests. This is mainly because they both appear to be the last two holdouts in any intra-party negotiation, and they are the two who are most vocal about retaining the filibuster, which prevents bills being passed by less than 60 votes if their are minority party objections. Bills do not spring fully-formed from the brow of Joe Biden, but are the result of hours and days and weeks of negotiation in order to address concerns from multiple directions. Surprise! Not everybody agrees on everything!
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