Yeah, but what about all of those e-mails?!?!?!?!?!?!
I emailed my congress critters and got some of my family to do so too. I hate the phone as I have hearing problems.
But I endorse this pitting. What the hell has happened to us?
Same here. Internationally, that will be Trumps main legacy. He accelerated the process of China becoming the new global superpower. China would’ve become the new global superpower anyway, but under Trump the process is going to happen 5-10 years sooner than it would have otherwise.
I hope they are halfway benevolent. I know China is going to do a lot with science, technology, medicine, energy, etc. Hopefully they will help lift Africa out of poverty. But their indifference to western values is troubling. I hope the EU (and to a lesser degree the US) still standing up for western values continues to put pressure on other nations to do the right thing. I predict (could be wrong) that China’s economic growth will drop to western levels when their per capita GDP is about 20k. Which means they’ll have an economy about 25-30 trillion dollars. Big, but the US & EU combined is closer to 35-40 trillion. It’ll be more a multipolar world than a unipolar one. The US, EU & China will be the 3 main superpowers.
But yes. America is sinking into dysfunctional white nationalism. We’ve always had white nationalism, but other than the civil war it never caused nationwide dysfunction. Ironically the civil war was a war fought for the interests of a tiny minority of wealthy business interests, but the masses viewed it as a battle over white nationalism. Same as what it happening today. The rank and file GOP voter has white nationalist tendencies, but the GOP party is pushing plutocratic economic interests. Sad. We’ve learned nothing in 150 year.s
Pfff…America’s sinking into both oceans for sure, but that doesn’t mean China’s going to take over the entire world, either. They’ve got their own problems. Their environment is one problem; another is that their continued growth (or the mirage of it) depends in no small part on the success of stability of the United States, and our willingness to be a trading partner. Xi Jinping is a corrupt bully, and pretty much all of China’s neighbors sleep with one eye open. I think what’s more likely is that we’re heading into a world with multiple competing powers, like the world from about 1890 to 1945.
Honest question. Is there an honest policy related reason why they vote on the tax bill past midnight?
Do they do it because they know it’s unpopular? Is there another reason?
Gee, and that worked out so well last time!
(Snark not directed at you, but rather the current state of affairs. :()
You bet your sweet petootie I harangued my senator*, by phone, email, and snail mail (*the one who was on the fence, Ron Johnson, who alas went to he dark side in the end — quelle surprise).
The OP is spot-on. The 30% of Americans who turn out to be drooling, gullible morons are most responsible for this tragedy, but the Bernie-or-bust idiots and I-just-won’t-vote-at-all “independents” are nearly as culpable.
No other reason (honest answer). Even a few of the drooling morons would start to turn against it if, you know, there were time to read the damned thing — let alone, heck, maybe debate on the Senate floor, just a little, the most monumental economic policy shift in at least 30 years?
Off-topic…holy mackerel, watchwolf and wolfpup are different Dopers! 
They’ve paid back their mega donors, the bloviating right wing press, their wealthier and politically active constituents, and they might have succeeded in averting a political civil war within their own party. Steven Bannon’s and his rag tag fascist army can still make noise - and they will - but it became a little harder to go after Mitch McConnell and whatever’s left of the Establishment last night.
They will have a few years to figure out how to convince just enough voting Americans that cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare-related programs, and other public programs aren’t really cuts. My guess is that the GOP and Trump collectively will gut federal bureaucracies so that less information will come out about the effects of these consequences. They’ll use more governmental power to lean on media to censor reporting. And of course, when all else fails, suppress the vote in urban centers.
On the positive side, demented hyperbole is alive and well.
Nice … do you honestly think that Merkley and Wyden would vote for this new tax bill? … have those two ever broke ranks with the National Democrat Party? … if either ever did, there’d be enough folks not rioting in the streets to get them recalled an voted out of office in Portland alone … Merkley and Wyden are just the twin evil spokesmen of the Salem/Sacramento axis of EVIL …
Doubly double-crossed I say …
Portland has TWO congresscritters all to themselves while we have to share just one with them damn freaktoids up in the PRE …
Don’t forget to run to your doctor’s office TODAY to ask him if Genotinacia™ is the right choice for you … your doctor has nothing better to do than to remind you that you don’t have leprosy … but for the 25% kickback, here’s a half dozen prescriptions anyway … just to be safe, right? … because bleeding out your asshole is a small price to pay to make sure your doctor doesn’t get sued for malpractice …
This from someone who doesn’t vote for their Head-of-State … that’s an inherited position in Canada … her only qualification is that her father was your Head-of-State … that’s just sad, so medieval, so backwards … a government that exists solely by permission of the English Parliament … kneel to your rightful overlords, suckers, we stand for our National Anthem because a free people kneels to nothin’ …
North Carolina alone has won more Stanley Cups than all of Canada put together in the last 25 years … just pathetic …
But Canadians are brave, that’s for sure … just look at how scarred up all your maple trees are … takes balls to knife attack a plant, must be hell chasing them down, eh? …have a sap-slurping good time for me will ya …
North Dakota winters are catastrophically mild for Canada … I guess I’d think that too if I had to politely wait two weeks at every 4-way stop sign panicking that someone within a hundred miles has a gun …
You young puppies don’t remember starvation in West Virginia and Kentucky … colored folk getting lynch in Alabama and Georgia … you’ve never heard of Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder, or Sandra Scheuer … better an inept Federal Government than one that usurps our liberties … you young-uns just don’t know how good you have it today, bunch of entitled snowflakes … you’re poor because you’re stupid is all … the stupid have always been poor in this country … your scared gods of liberalism are ripping you off blind … the rich have been kicking the middle class in thew nuts for over 400 years and the best the middle class can come up with is “Thank you, sir, may I please have another” generation after generation … just sad …
And you can be the first ones on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.
We ran out of boxes and had to start using bags … was that really better than today? …
They had contacted senators not their own who seemed to be “on the fence” about the situation to complain about the tax bill in the hope that their comments might influence their vote, because people like to feel that they have a positive influence, and its hard to accept in the modern United States, it’s next to impossible for an individual citizen to really influence government policy.
What is this “National Democrat Party” you speak of? I can’t seem to find any links to the group via the interwebs-Perhaps your spellcheck failed?
I snipped almost all of this, but what the ever-loving-fuck are you talking about?
Good lord, yes they are. Ellipses, Ellipses, everywhere.
They submitted the final version of the bill only a few hours before the vote was scheduled. That kept opponents from having enough time to read it and raise issues over its flaws.
Ah, great. Thanks!
I’m not really sure where to start, to be honest. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt in these things, it’s getting tough.
Post #32 is like some kind of bad acid trip.
Okay, so it’s not just me then.
Of course not, which is why we didn’t call them. We called Corker, Murkowski, Collins, McCain, Johnson, and others.
As for non-constituents contacting congress types: They don’t screen phone calls, and there is no requirement to state who you are or where you live unless you want an actual reply. If you use the contact form online, you do have to give your name, address, phone number, and if you’re not a constituent, it will be discarded.
For those who think it does no good: how much good does it do to do NOTHING? This is what you’ve been conditioned to think, because an inactive and ignorant population is easily manipulated. So go ahead and sit on your hands, do nothing and bitch about what’s happening in Washington. Just don’t expect anything to change.