On some level, she’s right. We’ve basically got 45% of the country that automatically votes against whatever Democrats want and probably won’t change unless you let them do racism, so the easiest course is to have a strong Republican establishment that can keep the party’s extremists in check the Democrats do theirs. In her world view, Dems are doing their part and Republicans are failing to keep up.
The Founders, in their egregious lack of wisdom, gave us a form of government that was vulnerable to hyper-partisan angle-shooting because they believed that they could craft a government where reason would prevail. Ah, the folly of the Enlightenment.
The counter is to allow Democrats become as hyper-partisan as Republicans. Establishment Democrats fear that not because this is all some sham where they are playing a role, but because they rightly sense that increased polarization sends us down a path where there is legitimate risk of civil war and their lives are too comfortable to countenance that sort of social upheaval.
There may have been off-ramps ten years ago or twenty years ago where this nation could have found a compromise, but I am pessimistic that this ends in any way other than one side gaining total victory over the other side. Maybe we failed when we didn’t have a January 6-like level of fervor in opposing Bush v Gore.
Really, we need a new constitution that does not reward one side for being the party of no, but I also think that simply moving to a parliamentary system has a strong probability of resulting in an American version of Likud becoming dominant.
This is why I say we need some sort of crisis to spur action. 9/11 wasn’t it. The financial crisis of 2008 wasn’t it. The presidency of Donald Trump wasn’t it. COVID wasn’t it.
We might not get the change we need until something causes more pain than all of those put together and I’m not sure how that can happen. Do we need Putin to go nuts and start a nuclear war?
Seriously how many times have Democrats said this? Like 3 times I can remember. I’m almost thinking I’m seeing the same clip just repeated at different times because no one but the most feckless can think scolding Republicans can ever possibly work.
Don’t worry, despite the lack of funding and the extremely limited doses available for us plebeians, I’m sure Biden and Pelosi will get the next-gen boosters and live out the duration of our democracy to torture us and uphold the fine examples of bipartisanship on the right!
EDems want order and abhor chaos. The way to force them to act is to present them with unstoppable social disorder so that they can have no illusions about being able to manage things tidily.
I’m surprised Chris Coons, the Cowardly Canary of the Senate, didn’t somehow sneak into the wimpy headlines there by apologizing again for voting against Gorsuch, he’s not one to be outdone in a meekness competition (current Dem strategy)
If I were going to a deal on this, my offer would be that if Republicans vote for cloture on a COVID bill, they can get a vote on a stand-alone bill addressing Title 42. There’s no prevention of additional Republican fuckery if you’re giving them a vote on an amendment.
I haven’t needed treatment, I’ve had access to vaccines. I’m saying without that funding being passed, we’re going to have a lot of people going without vaccines and tests, and probably treatments too.
Two Senate Democratic leaders say they are willing to give Republicans a vote on reversing President Joe Biden’s move to end pandemic-era border restrictions, provided that the GOP then agrees to move a stalled $10 billion coronavirus aid deal.
