Remember that talk of Democrats working for unity? Heh.

[duffer]

This isn’t really a Pitting of the Democrats. I’ve said it before, I’m saying it now, and I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities to say it in the future. The Party politics are too far entrenched not to. This is more a Pitting of those high-minded among us that were so righteous in their calls of “unfairness” by the GOP over the years in Congress.

All those calls during the election of a need by the “American People” for bipartisanship was horseshit. It’s horseshit no matter who says it. If either side bought into the fallacy, they’re fools.

BTW, if there’s such a desire to “work” for “the good” of “The American People”, how come nobody ever talks of non-partisanship? It would seem much smarter to appear to be working with colleagues rather than adversarial parties trying to for consensus. But that’s never going to happen so I won’t hold my breath.

This is all from an editorial I read in the ultra-conservative Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

After much talk about bipartisan outreach, Democrats acknowledge they’ll push their initial agenda through without Republican input.

Can you feel the love? Can you sense the spirit of…ah who are we kidding?

@Roy Blunt

“In their first 100 hours of governance, House Democrats will renege on a pledge to fully debate policy alternatives, denying citizens of this country an open, honest discussion of the issues,” he said.

Sounds like what the Dems have been saying for years, but I’m sure it will be dismissed by many here as “whining.”

“If the speaker has a narrow majority that wants to become a stronger majority, you’ve got to beat down the minority,” said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College in California.

Hmm, just like what people have been railing against for over a decade. Though I suspect the perspective of this will change for some these next 2 years. “Playing by the rules” seems to change depending on which team you’re rooting for. (Just like a pass interference call is obvious if it helps your team, but is complete bullshit as it was incidental contact if it’s against your team.)

@Dave Obey

Democrats point in another direction - to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

From Dave Obey, House Democrat from Wausau and a longtime Pelosi ally:

"The big challenge you have is a president who is so used to doing things on his own, going off on his own and expecting people to fall in lockstep behind him.

“He needs to be convinced to stop governing by polarizing the country and to pull people together.”

Tie that into the first quote of this post and make of it what you will.
I’ll be the last to say Pelosi and a Democrat Congress will destroy the country. Like I said/thought of those shrill anti-GOP posters, we’re too strong to be torn apart by any 2 year class. It’s a given that this stuff happens no matter who’s in “charge”. It will happen for a long time.

The checks and balances do work. The structure of government we have does work. For 6 years we’ve heard from some that the Republic was doomed and we could never recover. Were that true, why are we celebrating anyone becoming Speaker? We should have been doomed years ago.

There are 535 members of Congress. If anyone thinks more than 8 of them are honestly into the gig to make your individual lives better, you need a cup of coffee, a lot of sleep and some sort of intervention.

It’s nothing but ego-driven self-aggrandizing. And job security.
And it’s practiced to mastery by anyone in power. Regardless of party.

[elucidator]

At last! A Doper has the raw courage to take a stand against political hypocrisy! How long we have awaited this moment of moral clarity.

[The_Hamster_King]

That’s funny. I don’t remember many Democrats running on a platform of bi-partisanship last year. Mostly they ran on “the Republicans are a bunch of screw-ups and we can do better.”

The Republicans had their turn. They fucked things up. Now the remaining Republicans can choose to follow the Democrat lead or get voted out in even bigger numbers two years from now.

All this whining about “where’s the bipartisanship?” is, yes, just whining. The Republicans spent the last twelve years kicking the Democrats in the teeth and chuckling about it. Now that the tables have turned they’re crying like little babies after less than a week. How about waiting to see how much the Democrats actually do abuse their power before damning them, hmmm?

[duffer]

@elucidator

At last! A Doper has the raw courage to take a stand against political hypocrisy! How long we have awaited this moment of moral clarity.

Um, I’ve done it before. Though I’m hard pressed to recall any tirades against politicians that aren’t Republicans on your part. But I fully admit I may have missed it on your part.

[duffer]

@Pochacco

That’s funny. I don’t remember many Democrats running on a platform of bi-partisanship last year. Mostly they ran on “the Republicans are a bunch of screw-ups and we can do better.”

The Republicans had their turn. They fucked things up. Now the remaining Republicans can choose to follow the Democrat lead or get voted out in even bigger numbers two years from now.

All this whining about “where’s the bipartisanship?” is, yes, just whining. The Republicans spent the last twelve years kicking the Democrats in the teeth and chuckling about it. Now that the tables have turned they’re crying like little babies after less than a week. How about waiting to see how much the Democrats actually do abuse their power before damning them, hmmm?

Wow, it’s like 1994 all over again. I remember all those sentiments being voiced back then as well. Just by a different party.

[JimSox5]

Sadly, I have to completely agree with you, duffer. Unless things go better than they do in my wildest dreams, this is how things will more or less turn out. That said, the Republican majority sure as hell wasn’t doing anything for us, so what were we as voters supposed to do? Vote in Republicans again and hope they’ll magically represent what we really want when they hadn’t previously, or vote for a change in the regime and hope for the best? I think, for as many people they talk so disastrously of this current administration (and I’m one of them, I’ll admit), everybody understands that just because the Democrats have come into power in the Congress, it isn’t going to make this country a great utopia of unity and perfection. It’s just, at least at this point, the better of two evils.

[duffer]

@Pochacco

That’s funny. I don’t remember many Democrats running on a platform of bi-partisanship last year. Mostly they ran on “the Republicans are a bunch of screw-ups and we can do better.”

BTW, was all that “We need to heal the nation” talk all bunk as well?
Thought so.

[JimSox5]

Okay, geez, I take my time to make a good, well-thought post and I get pushed all the down to number 6? I see how this works.

[ElvisL1ves]

Does someone have a hanky that crocodile can borrow?

[duffer]

@JimSox5

Okay, geez, I take my time to make a good, well-thought post and I get pushed all the down to number 6? I see how this works.

You didn’t take the time to post a reasoned, well thought out argument about how the world is now saved with a Dem majority because the GOP is icky.

Had you mentioned you were a Christian, based on other threads, you would have gotten position 2 or banned. Or sonething.

[duffer]

@ElvisL1ves

Does someone have a hanky that crocodile can borrow?

I’m as cynical and disillusioned by one party as the other. If you think is one is different from the other, keep living the dream.

One has an Elephant, one has a Donkey. Both are the same once they’re in Washington.

Maybe we need a party with a Crocodile as a symbol/mascot. That would be kinda neat. We could be the Irwins!

[duffer]

@ElvisL1ves

Does someone have a hanky that crocodile can borrow?

BTW, care to address any of the quotes that seem to, subtly, indicate that the talk of working together was horseshit? I saw it a mile away based on the political culture. Just wondering if you missed that little detail or are so hell bent on hatred of a party you can’t see that neither gives a shit about you.

[The_Hamster_King]

@duffer

BTW, was all that “We need to heal the nation” talk all bunk as well?

What “we need to heal the nation” talk? I’m sure there was some of it, but mostly what I heard last fall was “throw the bums out”, not “let’s all hold hands together”.

I think you’re selectively misremembering what the tenor of this recent election really was. Or maybe you didn’t see all the anger that I saw from the left and the center. A lot of people on the right (the White House included) seemed blindsided by the results. The Democrats weren’t elected to be healers and bridge-builders. They were elected to kick butt, clean house, and put the brakes on George W. Bush.

And, as I said, how about waiting for some actual evidence of real abuse of power before complaining? But bitching that you’re not being paid enough attention to after only a couple of days? Pathetic.

[Captain_Carrot]

Did you all miss the part where after the first 100 hours, Republicans will have serious input? The only reason they aren’t now is that these bills have all already been debated, and Democrats want to get them through quickly so everyone can get down to the real business – not that ethics and budgetary reform aren’t real, but you know what I mean.

The initial agenda is being pushed through without opportunity for amendments; after that’s done, it’ll go back to what it should be, bipartisan discussion.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

@Pochacco

And, as I said, how about waiting for some actual evidence of real abuse of power before complaining? But bitching that you’re not being paid enough attention to after only a couple of days? Pathetic.

That’s the thing about bullies: They can dish it out but they can’t take it.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

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AHEM! (LINK)
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[Raygun99]

@Pochacco

What “we need to heal the nation” talk? I’m sure there was some of it, but mostly what I heard last fall was “throw the bums out”, not “let’s all hold hands together”.

Exactly. Most of the healing talk was invented by Republicans after they realized they’d been trounced.

[The_Hamster_King]

Let me also add that, personally, I want to see **more partisanship ** in Congress. That’s because I think that the Democrats will do a better job running the country – they’re more competent and have better ideas and I think they will take the country in a better direction. So I want them to win. And I want the Republicans to lose and I want the Democrats in Congress to actively work to vote for Democratic legislation while doing everything they can within the rules and spirit of Congress to marginalize and defeat the bad ideas coming from the Republican Party.

The Republicans have been unabashedly aggressive about trying to move the country to the right for the last 25 years. I want us to spend the next 25 years moving the country back to the left.

Maybe once the Republican Party moves to the left with the rest of the country it will be easier to come to a bipartisan consensus … .

[elucidator]

From your lips to the Ears…

[Cisco]

I voted for the Democrats because they weren’t the Republicans. I had no illusions that they wouldn’t be asshats. Most politicians are barely human.