Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General Gerrymandering

It must have been nice when the Republicans were Democratic...

Thanks, perotista. The major issue seems to be immigration. Oddly enough this does remind me
of the way back machine of Ms. Clinton and health
care. Both women were assigned almost unsolvable tasks and both are/were (apparently) taking a beating for it. (Again, not looking for a Hillary discussion; just comparing tasks and reactions.)

I think Harris has made some dumb PR mistakes, but I also know the problem is so complex that the average American doesn’t really know what’s been done/not done. They see pictures of people under a bridge…but there’s so much more to know, I expect..

Thanks.

I dunno...Nancy Pelosi did a good job on ACA back in 2009 and got it passed in 2010.

Pretty much everyone has shifted right except for Bernie and the Squad.

The modern Republican party is the culmination of the Reagan-Gingrich bastardization of party politics. Reagan set the government up as the fall-guy, and Gingrich introduced scorched-earth strong-arming. THE MAN WHO BROKE POLITICS (The Atlantic, Subcription). Reagan, too, was an aficionado of authoritarianism. All of the autocratic tendencies have flowed from that, including McConnell's abuses of the Constitution and parliamentary procedures.

It must be recognized that where we are now is a direct effort to Nazify the Republican party. Bill Barr is an outright fascist, and makes little bones about it. The current efforts to eliminate universal suffrage and take over counting the vote are part of the plot. Even though Stalin never said it, current Republican leadership firmly believes "The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." If they are allowed to get away with it, the American democratic experiment will end. The Republicans will accomplish what the Nazis failed to do in the 1940s.

Oddly it is Democrats hammering the last nails into this president's agenda right now while republicans sit back and watch.

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Let's see what happens with the voting rights bill, before we hold the funeral. Democrats are talking about changing to a talking filibuster or passing a carve-out so filibusters do not apply to voting rights bills, just like Republicans did when they changed the Senate rules to get rid of filibusters against Supreme Court nominee confirmation. Manchin has previously expressed some openness to such changes.

Manchin and Senema should consider that unless the voting rights bill gets passed, THEY will not be reelected! They also might want to look at all the people running for Senator in 2022: I think every one of them wants to dump the filibuster. So if Democrats gain just two more seats, Manchin and Senema are outvoted.

Terry Gross from Fresh Air interviewed this week a NYT writer who wrote a book on Munchin. Mnuchin considers himself a moderate.

All I know is that I wouldn't invite the guy to a party.

Manchin is a Democrat from a pretty Red State. He has to do a balancing act, if he doesn't want to get replaced. It may be that any more liberal Democrat would not win that general election. But I think he needs to pick his battles more carefully. Being in favor of things that would actually help a lot of people in his state, probably won't hurt his chances. Being in favor of Democracy (like insuring people can vote) probably wouldn't either. Those are pretty much "motherhood and apple pie" in American politics. Being concerned about debt is a losing position in his state considering most people are not going to pay a lot of taxes. Taxpayers in California and New York are going to end up paying for the infrastructure bill!