What’s astonishing is that the answer is obvious: actually change your policies to fit your constituents’ needs. This idea seems to make them recoil in horror.
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I’d like to start by giving enforcement of campaign finance and Hatch act some teeth (which requires strong, independent regulation from the FEC, OSC, etc). And there is nothing in US politics doesn’t intersect with disenfranchisement, which is the principle political fight throughout the country’s history (a new expanded national voting rights act is a must).
My point was that we have a systemic failure that needs to be addressed through (re)building multiple levels of functioning checks and balances. We don’t need to stop the game, we need an overhaul of the league’s enforcement system
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In this case, the GOP is no longer playing by the same rules even remotely, which was her point. Maybe we can have an actual conversation about corporate money in politics when the other side stops trying to end democracy as we know it. 
We can’t have a conversation about basic shit like infrastructure or eliminating corporate money from politics until we don’t have a party that believes the rest of us are satanic enemies of freedom.
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I think you meant we can have that conversation once… or we can’t have it until… but barring minor typos, fucking hear hear!
From where we are now, it’s hard to imagine how a meaningful discussion of deeper issues is even possible.
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Corrected, thanks.
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Democrats received more money from small donations in 2020 than large or corporate donations, so even that assertion is incorrect.
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My first thought was the courts - which sometimes uphold the rules of the game. It doesn’t help that the system for adding members to the courts can be manipulated, too.
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It’s not the courts, with a 6-3 conservative majority. It’s not the electorate where the least populous states get the most say (per capita).
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Nah, that’s not cheating enough to fit with what Republicans are doing. The illegal and dangerous piece of equipment definitely fits better.
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Hockey is an interesting analogy because there are all kinds of little “no-no’s” (hooking, tripping, etc). No one is banned from the game, only given a “brief timeout,” and only if the referee sees (and calls) it. So borderline unsportsmanlike tactics become part of the strategy: Do I risk holding onto my opponent to give our team an advantage, even if it means 2 minutes in the box?
Politicians likewise engage in all kinds of illegal/unethical activity because the advantage is worth the risk.
Well the Jan. 6 incident may have come close to this. If Pence did lose his head, there would have been a lot of chaos, causing trouble in the markets, economy, blah blah… so we did see some of the “corporate interests” give a stern finger-wagging over this event.
I don’t think the ultra-wealthy give a rat’s ass about “equality” or “liberty” or any of that. So long as the wheels keep turning.
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I figured a biased umpire or referee (endlessly second-guessed by the folks on the sidelines) would fit in perfectly with a sports analogy. 
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Too subtle. Maybe if I add a ton of 2" spikes to my elbow, shoulder and knee pads, I could sorta get close to the shiv analogy…And replace my stick blade with a kitchen knife.
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That’s the problem with off the cuff glib comments on the internet, it’s hard to gauge intent, and without further clarification it does read like that is the point you’re making. Glad you clarified.
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How about, we’re all in the same boat, and the Republicans demand the right to set fire to their half of the boat?
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“The Republicans are that vicious team. They play dirty and hard, and they make up their own rules so they can win… What are we even doing? … Why are we still acting like they’re normal politicians? That game is over.”
She’s neglects to mention the gaslighting/big lie aspect to Republicans: that they continually portray themselves as the victims of “Democrat” lies, deceit, and cheating, when they themselves are lying, deceitful cheaters.
100 years of Jim Crow and now conservatives, the “victims”, are concerned about the integrity of the ballot.
Karl Rove began his political career by planting and “discovering” a bug in his own campaign office in order to smear the Democratic opponent.
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While I appreciate the sentiment, I also think that many problems in the U.S. are caused by too many thinking of politics as just another sport. Rather than looking at issues and policies and how these affect us, too many of us only look at teams. Rather than realizing that politics is a life-or-death struggle, too many of us shrug and dismiss it as another boring game.
Please keep in mind, my friends: politicians may be hopeless or pointless, but they are not harmless. Mass-Murdering Traitor Trump has jammed this point home on society, like the “shiv” that the person in this video mentioned multiple times. As a result, we have hemorrhaged more than 500,000 American lives. Please pay attention – this is not a game, and a good number of us may not simply walk away after losing.
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This is exactly how Canadians feel when we, well not all of us, see our politicians ape those from down south.
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I appreciate what you’re getting at but, in my circles anyway, what you describe is specifically limited to Repubs. So your statement (to me) comes off as another bit of “both siderism.”
Anytime I’m phone banking or otherwise practicing activism or, heck, just trying to have a conversation with Uncle Fuckwit, I’m not doing the “us against them” thing. I’m talking about policy that effects all our lives. It’s my fox-watching, T-loving relatives who make it into a game of sport, like you mention.
I’m not denying it might be happening, but overwhelming evidence I see points to the majority of that blame being easily placed at the feet of one of our 2 dominant parties. And it’s not the one I vote for.
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How about playing without them? Declare them ineligible to represent anyone (Pelosi should have refused to swear them in from the beginning…) & conduct business as per usual without them. They have already established that they have no intentions of working ‘in good faith’ with anyone other than themselves… and probably not even then.
This needs to be pointed out again & again.
Yep. Enough with the noise about ‘bipartisanship’.
As far as the Fascists are concerned, it’s their way or the highway (or the graveyard).
The sooner the Ds recognize that they are dealing with full-blown Fascists, the better off we will be.
The Fascists are playing for keeps.
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Meanwhile, the fans are eating it up.
Today I saw a handyman’s van (air conditioning, I think) painted up in a sportsball theme, red/white/blue, and the word “Faith” just above the rear doors. There could be no mistaking who they likely voted for the past couple of elections.
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