1mo ago

If only it were that simple

It presents a slight problem when the ones they're bringing in to deal with the shitty politicians are the people who paid them to be shitty in the first place.

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You mean like HR 1 For the People Act which passed the house twice but got filibustered and 30 years of campaign finance reform starting with a 1995 bill outlawing large donations (which was passed in 2002 but stricken down by the scotus 5:4 as the basis for Citizens United) that
*checks notes
Republicans refuse to pass?
This is a partisan issue, bothsidesing this is pure ignorance. Get 60 Dem senators and watch it get fixed.
- Doesn't matter. Everything is a conspiracy. Everything is the fault of some mysterious cabal.
  
  Sir, excuse me, sir, pardon me you almost left behind this very important /s. These things are mandatory, wouldn't want to lose it.
- So here's the deal. Republicans are objectively worse. Full stop. Anyone that thinks otherwise is just wrong.
  But that doesn't absolve Democrats. Why did they never enshrine abortion rights into law in the decades since Roe v Wade? Why is it every time they have control suddenly they are helpless to actually deliver on their promises? Why do they refuse to do anything beyond lip service for unions? Why won't they get rid of the filibuster? Why didn't Biden even try to expand the supreme court as soon as it was clear it was corrupted?
  Democrats are controlled opposition, that's it. When the plebs start getting rowdy they jump in to control the movement and bring it back in line.
  Neither Democrats nor Republicans are going to go against the wealthy who own them. And the sooner we all start working in that reality the better.
  
  Right right, that's all fine, but we need to elect minimum 60 Democrats. Full stop. We need to support electing 60 Democrats. We can all gather around and discuss how to sort out our Democrats after we remove the Republican Menace.
  
  You kinda worked yourself into a dead end there. It's impossible for 60 democrats to win in the Senate with the way the DNC currently acts. The idea that people need to just believe in the DNC is never going to sway the average voter who's getting poorer by the day.
  We can all gather around and discuss how to sort out our Democrats after we remove the Republican Menace.
  Remove it from... What, exactly? Even if they do win 60 seats, do you think Republicans will disappear from existence? They'll fuck around with their lame duck policies and get their ass handed to them by the GOP the next election. And setting all that aside: They could've just fucking gotten rid of the filibuster. The fact they haven't after what the GOP did during Obama's term should tell you all you need to know.
  
  DNC don't decide if they win, we do. This is our job to do.
  
  And it's never getting done, is the point here. This talk of jobs and duty will never get voters, no matter how much anyone wants it to.
  
  60 Democrats HAVE been elected before and nothing changed...
  Did you even read my comment?
  
  We had 60 for less than one month almost two decades ago. Since then we've elected less every year and blamed them more every year.
  
  Curious that, if all they need is 60 Democrats, why they didn't seize that opportunity to try and deliver everything they've promised. Working 24/7 to pass bill after bill. And instead just squandered it...
  
  Oh yeah they should have asked the house nicely to vote to reform every system in the entire government in less than one month: you clearly do not want anything fixed, why are you being so disingenuous?
  
  Nice personal attack. I guess I made you uncomfortable in your beliefs.
  
  If me asking an honest question is a personal attack, then clearly the truth is your enemy.
  
  Yeah. I described to you why things haven't been fixed and how we can fix them, and you responded that fixing it should have been done and that you don't trust the fixers so you won't let them fix it.
  Just be honest with your beliefs, you don't have to sit here and bullshit about it. You don't want Democrats to win and you don't actually care about any of these problems. Why keep up the facade?
- with a 1995 bill outlawing large donations (which was passed in 2002
  That only went thru due to Enron crashing, and was a bipartisan effort from McCain and Feingold that was already in the works, they just didn't have the numbers till Enron's checks stopped...
  And it directly led to PACs....
  Two senators, Republican John McCain and Democrat Russell Feingold, had a bill to ban soft money. When Enron collapsed in scandal in 2001, McCain and Feingold had enough support to make the bill law.
  Feingold addressed the Senate just before the vote on final passage. "In this moment, we can show the American people that we are the Senate that they want us to be," he said.
  McCain-Feingold pushed soft money out of the national parties, and a lot of it landed in new bank accounts at small nonprofit groups. These were groups that couldn't coordinate with candidates or party committees, but that shared the same partisan agenda.
  https://www.npr.org/2009/12/25/121872329/decade-brought-change-to-campaign-finance
  And the wealthy immediately struck back.
  In 2004, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth crippled the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. And in 2008 groups challenged the integrity of both presidential contenders and plenty of congressional candidates. The attacks are meaner, but these groups — unlike the political parties — aren't accountable to anyone.
  That is widely recognized as when Republicans went off the deep end.
  Get 60 Dem senators and watch it get fixed.
  Don't assume everyone with a D by their name is on your side just because at the national level these days everyone with an R is on the other side.
  If we need 60 votes to fix this, and we have 60+, expect just as many to act like Manchin as needed to bring that number down to 59.
  We need to treat primaries serious so that if the day comes and we have 60, it gets done.
  Because if we have 60 and it doesn't get done, it'll crash turnout.
  Just like it did when we were told Biden and 50 senators could get shit done.
  
  It wasn't exactly Bipartisan, it was every single Democrat and also 11 Republicans.
  
  That is widely recognized as when Republicans went off the deep end.
  Obviously it wasn't an overnight switch, although my phrasing is more often used for a sudden change, it was a gradual one over decades so I should have used something else.
  But Democrats being better than Republicans on average for decades doesn't mean every Democrat is good now. And every Republican being shit now doesn't mean that was always the case.
- Dems could just... Choose to get rid of the filibuster.
  
  There have been more Republicans than Democrats in senate since 2015 so removing the filibuster just gives Republicans everything they want with simple majority votes.
  
  What? The Dems have the Senate right now no?
  
  No, they don't. Dems have 47 seats currently, 4 Independents caucus with the DNC to select majority leader who calls votes.
  In a month it changes over to GOP majority control because last election more people voted for Republicans.
  If any legislation gets introduced that the GOP doesn't like, the GOP can filibuster it and it wont pass without 60 votes.
  That includes budget bills that allow the entire US Military to operate and all of its members to get salaries and healthcare coverage, as well as general budgets for the rest of the federal government including congress, airports, and regulatory offices.

31 comments