I live in Washington, DC, and I didn’t notice the shutdown (except that I actually had to work harder because of it, which is weird…). TV ads to remind people that Dems did something that nobody cares about for bad reasons… yeah, go with that strategy. It’s a winner, I tell you! A winner! “Senator Tester voted in favor of immigrants, and in doing so, harmed nothing!”
This is true. But let us remember that elections generally aren’t a referendum on a single person, but a comparison between two candidates. Republican primary voters have shown an astonishing predilection to picking the worst possible candidates in many close contests. It is quite possible that the bad Dem map may be mitigated by Republicans picking challengers like Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin, Sharon “Healthcare Reform Involves More Bartering Chickens for Checkups” Angle, and Christine “I’m Not a Witch, I’m Far Weirder” O’Donnell.
I don’t think most Senators would call the nuclear option “slightly” changing the rules. It’s a really significant change that will have a far-reaching impact on the way that body operates.
Of course there are differences between my coup scenario and the nuclear option, but there are similarities as well: both would be a radical step to achieve a political end.
I’m indifferent to it. What I am not cool with is one side blaming another when that side had the means to pass the bill any time they wanted, but don’t because they are afraid of losing power.
It is not an insult that there are people out there with busy lives to lead who do not consider politics a priority.
What is insulting is when you use soundbites and logical fallacies to try to sway them.
Would you not agree that one is much, much, much more radical than the other?
We’ve gone through the nuclear option on a couple of things, and no one has ended up in jail or purged from congress.
You weren’t asking me, but as a refresher, I was all for it. I was for the democrats filibustering specifically so that the filibuster would be removed.
In the budget bill, I was against the democrats filibustering it, which they did, against my advice…, but I would be all for filibustering a budget bill if the likely outcome was the removal of the filibuster.
“Well, you could have (done this crazy radical thing that almost no one actually wants done), so we’re not at fault for voting against the bill” isn’t a very compelling argument in my eyes, but, that’s ok, we’re all entitled to our own opinions.
Calling something that was just done a couple of months ago “crazy radical” isn’t a very compelling argument in my eyes either. But opinions, you know?
I believe it’s been done twice in the history of the Senate, both times within the last few years, and during a period of heightened vitriol. I don’t think those involved, certainly those on the receiving end, felt like it was good or “normal” in any way shape or form.
I wouldn’t consider it normal either. Just more along the lines of “Sure, we could pass the bill if we really wanted to, but we are afraid that we won’t be in power forever, so we are not going to pass it and blame it on the Democrats even though we don’t actually need any of their votes”
At least the Democrats have DACA recipients to show why they didn’t vote for it. Not simply “We might lose power”.
You believe what has been done twice? Nuking the filibuster, that’s only twice.
But changing the filibuster, that’s happened several times through the senate’s history.It was never even intended, it was an accidental discovery that there were NO rules for ending debate. There was not culture. So that was the first change, adding in a rule that allowed debate to be ended by 2/3’d vote. Then they changed it further, making it 60 senators for culture, and changed it so that you could just file a procedural filibuster, rather than stand and refuse to yield the floor.
If you also look at it, the filibuster was used pretty rarely, up until recent times.
This isn’t 200 years of precedent to be overturned, it’s at most 40-50ish years of precedent. And most of that 40 years, the filibuster was used a couple times a year, at most. It is really only the past 20 years that it has been used on an increasing basis, culminating in 2008 when republicans declared that it simply required 60 votes to pass anything from now on.
See this is why you, and the racist and the xenophobes (not saying you are either) won’t get it. No, in 2018, elected Democrats did not chose to shut down the government to promote* illegal aliens*, they choose to shut down the government to help *people. *
I think your post, including your interpretation of ‘very slanted’ is … very slanted. The ‘if they were power corrupt then they would have gone nuclear’ is a fallacy (I wish I had all the fallacy names memorized ) similar to ‘if Trump were really a rapist then he would have raped Sarah H. Sanders by now.’
But finally, although you qualify it with ‘some semblance’ I wish we could hear that last sentence in person, out loud. Were you rolling your eyes, stifling a laugh?
John McCain voted against destroying Obamacare NOT because he cared about the uninsured, but because he resented the deviation from ‘regular order.’ The passage of the tax bill — which was covered with handwritten scrawls for heaven’s sake — had enough ‘semblance of order’ to get McCain’s vote, yet still drew this comment:
Norm Ornstein, BTW, is not some baby-killing liberal at Trump_Haters_R_Us. He’s the top Congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
HD is right on the what, but not the why. They maintain that semblance of bipartisanship because they fear the time when the shoe is on the other foot. Simple politics and nothing more, and certainly not some high-minded morality.
According to your linked article, “The immigrant from Queens was Harminder Saini, whose family had brought him from India to America when he was 6”. Can I assume that YOU chose that particular picture because Saini looks “Mexican” to YOU? Can I also assume that YOU know Saini’s mother? How did YOU arrive at the conclusion that Saini’s mother is a bitch? I understand that haters gotta hate, but I think you owe Harminder Saini, and his mother, an apology. just sayin’
In 2018, Elected Democrats chose to stop funding the government, choosing to ignore the needs of We the People of the United States, in order to promote the rights of illegal aliens. The big question now is whether or not the voters will consider this fact to be a plus, minus, or meh when they next go to the voting booths.
