Basically what the title asks. If the republicans were composed of normal people with normal values and honesty, a bunch of people would be in jail right now, and a bunch of republican senators and house members would be pariahs in their own party. However, none of this seems to be happening and I presume that, for intents and purposes, the VP might as well be an acting senator.
So, IMHO, we have a good man and woman as POTUS and VP but who will probably be prevented from actually doing much. IANA American but, as your neighbour I feel I have a bit of a dog in this fight. How wrong or right is this opinion?
for the most part, the only power Biden will have is via executive order and whatever legislation he can tack onto budget reconciliation. he also hopefully will be able to get judges through the senate.
But nothing huge will happen with legislation. aside from barely having a majority, McConnell will block. everything so it’s easier for the gop to take power again in 2022.
Because they wouldn’t negotiate (i.e. wouldn’t roll over and give Republicans everything they want). So yet another word (“negotiate”) that Republicans have corrupted into a completely different meaning. I’m trying to think of what that reminds me of, some literary work I read a long time ago. I am picturing an enormous portrait on the wall… Well, it’ll come to me.
another big risk is democratic voters will look at how gullible and inept they feel democrats are and they won’t bother to show up to vote during midterms. I think that’s why democrats lost so badly in 2010. they were given super majorities and allowed the gop to write the rules and run circles around them.
Actually, probably does NOT belong in that other thread. There, they are asking what needs to change. Here, you are questioning if anything is ever going to change. If you put your OP into that other thread, it could probably have been construed as threadshitting.
I think the fact that powerful people on both sides were in direct physical danger make this more likely than most events to cause change. We’re seeing its effects already, even if it isn’t as widespread as expected or liked. I’m waiting for things to play out more before making judgments, especially in courts.
There will never be a president that red and blue America’s both accept. The fact that the GOP is already back to their obstructionist tricks not three weeks after their terrorist attack on the US Capitol,shows that nothing will change.
If the question is whether the GOP will change in the wake of Trump’s defeat, the Arizona GOP is not a promising sign. They voted this weekend to censure former Republican Senator Jeff Flake, incumbent Republican Governor Doug and Cindy McCain for among other crimes, “supporting globalist policies and candidates” and (in Ducey’s case) “restricting personal liberties and forcing compliance to unconstitutional edicts” i.e. enacting some of the country’s lightest COVID restrictions.
I think this illustrates what will be the big problem for the GOP – as much as GOP officeholders and national party leaders may want to move on from Trump, the state and local parties are dominated by wild-eyed MAGA heads who will pounce on any deviation from Trump worship. These are the people who vote in primaries and provide the unpaid volunteers that support a campaign. Republican candidates will be very wary of attracting their ire.
I doubt these events will change the overall direction of the US, which is further into oligarchy and eventually into some more modern version of authoritarianism, one that holds the flow of money captive more than fencing its borders.
There was some think tank around 40 years ago IIRC that Grover Norquist helped propel, before his focus on taxes. It was created to solve the problem for Republicans that their governing principle was minimizing taxes on billionaires, which is great for getting donations but terrible for winning over masses of voters who would have to vote against their own interests. I think this was the start of coalition building with single issue voters who cared about white supremacy, evangelicalism, school prayer, stopping voting, punishing LGBTQ people, gun rights, blocking abortion, anti-flag-burning, and similar interests. Then came Rove and wedge political strategies. More recently the focus has been shifting more and more to blocking votes, gerrymandering, and other antidemocratic tactics.
The obvious progression would be to make the US more and more of a minority-rule nation until the Republicans can more permanently gut the electoral process. Unfortunately they have the Electoral College on their side and they are more vigorously weaponizing it than ever.
So there are no sure things. But I guess there’s a 40% chance that Trump will win in 2024, and, if that happens, a pretty good probability that subsequent general elections will be practically unable to influence national politics. I’d love to hear why this won’t happen!
Just more evidence that the fever isn’t near to breaking, the Oregon state Republican party passed a resolution stating that, “The violence at the Capitol was a ‘false flag’ operation designed to discredit President Trump, his supporters, and all conservative Republicans. . .” (Twitter link).
Again, these are the people who run the Republican Party. Republican Senators and senior party strategist may realize that this is a path to ruin, but this is the genie they unleashed.