Dems and civility politics. They’ll follow the rules and norms all the way to the camp queues.
I dunno, I think the Dems are going to have more success picking very specific and important battles.
If things go as bad as they might, the Dems will need to appeal to more than just the converted, they’ll have to win over some percentage of those who chose not to vote or voted trump.
Being whiny bitches who can’t shake their opponents hand or whatnot isn’t going to help and makes us look petulant instead of serious, which may diminish the effectiveness of pointing out serious future transgressions.
As America is legit in danger, more than ever the Dems need to be the adults and conserve their political outrage for specific, important and hopefully winnable (in the public eye) battles. Anything else may make us ineffectual when it comes to making a difference.
Incredibly excited for the future where both of our parties reach across the line on putting together concentration camps and anti-trans legislation. Beautiful to see such teamwork.
(half sarcastic)
Already there with regards to concentration camps on the border, and some conservative Democrats are blaming the loss on being too protective on trans people despite the fact that I’m pretty sure that the campaign never even mentioned them once 🤦
I dunno, I think the Dems are going to have more success picking very specific and important battles.
If things go as bad as they might, the Dems will need to appeal to more than just the converted, they’ll have to win over some percentage of those who chose not to vote or voted trump.
Why? Going full bore works for Republicans. Democrats need to adopt the Republican strategy of simply voting no on literally every single committee hearing, bill, and budget proposal for the next four years.
The voters clearly don’t give a shit about analyzing actual policy. They don’t consider who is responsible for the world around them. They simply ask themselves if they were better off four years ago and act accordingly.
At this point, I don’t think Democrats should even vote for debt limit increases. Republicans have complete control of government. They have the votes to pass a debt increase. If they can’t whip up their own votes; that’s their problem.
I am fucking tired of Democrats bailing out Republicans. Democrats should simply refuse to engage at all while Trump is in office. Let Republicans try to endlessly gain a few Democratic compromise votes, only to refuse to support a bill at the last minute.
This milquetoast “choose your battles” crap clearly doesn’t work. What does work is sticking to your guns and refusing to help the other side at all. So I say Democrats stand by and let Republicans do what they want without a single Democratic vote. Whatever they propose is going to be a disaster anyway. Let them have the entire blame.
Bipartisanship is actually a huge trap in the current regime. Republicans want to propose bills that are seriously damaging to society, human rights, and the economy. A few Democrats crossing the aisle to vote with them won’t change the fact that a profoundly wicked bill is still profoundly wicked. But it will mean that instead of being purely a Republican bill, it is now “bipartisan.”
No. Leave the Republicans to their demons. Refuse to vote in favor of a single bill. Force Republicans to own it. If this results in a default on the national debt? So be it. It’s time to give the electorate what they voted for. If digging in our heels saves democracy at the expense of the economy, that is a bargain I will take every time.
simply voting no on literally every single committee hearing, bill, and budget proposal for the next four years.
That has worked because Republicans held a branch of government. Dems have no power or leverage. How do you envision this slowing anything down when Republicans hold the trifecta?
I’m not saying Dems should vote with Republicans but I would save our hystrionics for matters that are going to be important, not say refusing to take photos or stymieing the peaceful transfer of power.
Republicans have significant division in their caucus. Look at the chaos they had with electing a House speaker. Most of the Republicans in the House will talk the talk, but ultimately they really don’t want to tear down the entire government. But there’s a quarter of them or so that would eagerly vote for a bill that just shut the Federal government down entirely. There’s some real whackadoos there. Or some people who will simply never vote for a debt limit increase under any circumstance.
And Republicans are looking like they’re going to have a razor thin margin in the House, probably only 4 or 5 seats. History has shown that when the House GOP needs to actually govern, they fail miserably. They also have quite a few histrionics within their ranks who will object to any significant bill just for the sake of getting attention. Inevitably, any significant legislation to come out of the House will require at least a few Democratic votes.
And then in the Senate, there’s the filibuster to worry about. Republicans are loathe to repeal the filibuster; as on balance, it helps Republicans a lot more than it helps Democrats. So any significant legislation beyond basic budgets and court confirmations is going to require the participation of at least a few Democratic Senators.
And this actually does concern me. Democrats suffer from pathological bipartisanship. It is in their DNA to always offer an olive branch, try and be the better person, and seek a compromise. It just takes a few compromising Democrats to see some really terrible legislation passed. If Republicans try to pass anti-trans legislation, they will not be able to do so on their own. In the House, some of the Histrionics Caucus will object to its because it doesn’t go far enough. And they won’t have the 60 votes they need in the Senate. But if a few centrist Democrats decide, “hey, I can compromise on this. I’ll vote for this, but in exchange I’ll ask them to water it down a bit. So we’ll end up taking away fewer civil rights…”
Hey there, sorry for the delay! This has to be one of the best argued responses with which I disagree.
I think you’re right that the republicans have significant division but I think with trump in the actual presidency, they may be a lot less fractured. The freedom caucus wing takes orders from him and the rank and file are terrified of being primaried from their Right flank, as has happened to so many moderate Republicans.
That being said, I fully agree that hey, let them trip over themselves and fail if they don’t have the votes (I think back to Mcain’s infamous thumbs down.) And I’m basically okay denying those votes. I don’t think you need bipartisanship for the sake of bipartisanship.
But, when more than half the country rejected you, I don’t think the right answer is to hold temper tantrums and silly stuff like not doing photo ops around the presidential transition.
simply voting no on literally every single committee hearing, bill, and budget proposal for the next four years.
Doesn’t seem helpful and gives the republicans more ammo than we’d like. It might feel good in the moment but I think the US is in a very dangerous place right now and I’ll put winning back political power over trying to stop government from functioning. (Especially when, holding the trifecta, that makes it easier for hard line Republicans to win over their more moderate colleagues on changing procedure/decorum etc.)
Yes, Dems try too hard to accommodate but I think that’s the result of their coalition which skews heavily to highly educated, high income folks who actually pay attention to the nuances of politics. If we simply become the anti government party part 2, it hurts our coalition without any obvious gains.
Again, I’m not saying they need to compromise on all or even much legislation. But blindly trying to gum up all the works by voting no on every committee hearing etc just doesn’t seem useful. I dunno, whom are you trying to win over with that strategy? Is it a moral victory that somehow encourages more Dem supporters? Does it somehow appeal to the middle who drifted over to trump and apparently don’t agree that he is an existential threat? Is it just trying to limit damage? I just don’t see a convincing win scenario and a reasonable amount of possible downsides (gives republicans ammo, loses independents, some of the Dem coalition etc.)
Going full bore works for Republicans. Democrats need to adopt the Republican strategy
This is how I know you don’t grasp the fundamental difference between progressive and conservative voters. “Progressives need to fall in love, conservatives need to fall in line.”
Sounds like they shouldve sbowed up, maybe if their abstinence had consequences theyd be good little party line voters next time
Show up for what? A strike blocking, genocide supporting administration led by a egotistical geriatric who thought they were fit to run again?
What is with this bizarre idea that voters need to curry favor with politicians? That’s not how democracy works.
My “bizarre idea” is that stamping magats into the dirt should be the overriding priority
How about billionaires?
Being whiny bitches who can’t shake their opponents hand or whatnot isn’t going to help and makes us look petulant instead of serious, which may diminish the effectiveness of pointing out serious future transgressions.
Trump can incite a riot to attempt to overthrow democracy but Democrats are the ones who want to avoid looking petulant? Fuck off.
And since when has Democrats pointing out serious transgressions EVER done anything but make them say “cry harder, lib?”
Clearly voters don’t want an adult in the room, so Democrats need to stop acting like it.
Either democracy is dying or they lied about democracy dying to get votes and it didn’t fucking work.
Trump can incite a riot to attempt to overthrow democracy but Democrats are the ones who want to avoid looking petulant? Fuck off.
And how does stupid shit like refusing a photo opp while transferring power help us in any way?
Remember, Dems just lost the popular vote, the people aren’t with us. I’d argue this was at least in part because in 2016 we also took trump’s bait every time and screamed fascism at every stupid thing he said. And the vast majority of voters remember that, right, there were free and fair elections two years and four years after.
Maybe of screaming until people tune us out again, we can approach this one halfway seriously?
And how does stupid shit like refusing a photo opp while transferring power help us in any way?
You’re right. We should be friends with fascist, racist, rapist, xenophobes and take smiling pictures with them.
Fuck off. I’m not treating fascists with any more civility than my grandfather showed them in France in '44.
If I had a photo op with Trump he’d have a broken fucking nose.
And if Democrats are gonna play nice with these assholes then it just shows I shouldn’t be a Democrat.
While the republicans where attacking democrats, the democrats where attacking themselves.
Not sure there was a right answer in this one. We legitimately bitched about Trump not supporting a peaceful transfer of power. Now he’s legitimately won the election, and Biden is trying to support a peaceful transfer of power the way we have for every election other than the one Trump lost.
I agree with you. The photo itself doesn’t upset me as much as the years of giving in to hateful border policies and now transphobia. The smiling photo just symbolizes that ongoing surrender to evil to me.
This whole thing is so soul crushing. I’ve always stayed informed to the point that I consider it a part of who I am. Now Trump and the Republicans control all branches of government, he’s putting in literally the worst possible choices for cabinet positions, they’re actively planning on some of the most abhorrently racist actions, and Trump is spinning up his grift machine. All of the checks and balances have been removed and replaced with loyalty assessments, and so we’re sitting here with no reasonable way to avoid the disasters. My chest is constantly tight and I just don’t think I can keep tuned into live coverage of the national disaster.
It’s so weird to me you’re talking about cabinet picks. I agree with you but it’s like your absorbing the media narrative and spitting it back out for no one’s benefit. The cabinet picks are weird but in 3 months you’ll be talking about EOs then congressional disfunction and on and on. The cabinet picks will be far from your mind, until they start to rotate out. We’ve done this before. The media narrative will spin you in circles if you keep on like this.
No, that’s bullshit. Maybe you just don’t remember his first term. His picks then were the worst ever, but not nearly at this level. It was infuriating. You don’t remember the harm Betsy Devos did to the department of education? It’s the cabinet members who cause much of the destruction.
Now he’s legitimately won the election, and Biden is trying to support a peaceful transfer of power the way we have for every election other than the one Trump lost.
The least Biden could do is give him the cold shoulder after Biden lost our fucking democracy to a nitwit. Nowhere does a peaceful transfer of power say you have to be friendly to the incoming administration.
To anyone who is tempted to respond with “BIDEN WASN’T RUNNING” Biden’s team had internal polling showing a fucking massacre and still waited til the last minute to drop out, fuck off.
Lets protect democracy by destroying it ourselves. That will show them…
Is this about a specific picture?
Yes, this one:
Trump is especially unnerving when he tries to smile.
i don’t know what you are asking sorry?
Whether this is about a general vibe or a specific picture that just got published somewhere
It’s cut off but it’s underneath the meme
both i would say
That cut off picture is unsettling; I saw it elsewhere and I never felt so gobsmacked by a friendly and relaxed picture in politics.
