Yep. I disagree very strongly with Pence, which is an improvement over the current POTUS who falls off the cliff into “not even wrong” territory. You can’t argue with crazy.
2 Likes
Last week may have been the start of the decoupling. Without Rinse Prius and Spicey, Sessions is the only major whitehouse link to the republican party any more and he’s not on speaking terms with the president. So cooperation between congressional republicans and the president is probably going to get much worse real quick.
Also, it may be a lot easier for congress to #dumptrump than it appears because, contrary to his claims, trump rode their coattails to victory - nearly all major downticket republicans got more votes than he did.
1 Like
Vote Coke or Pepsi.
Freedom of choice is “50 kinds of breakfast cereal with different names whose ingredients all read exactly the same.”
4 Likes
Most definitely Republican. Has voted party line consistently. He’s extremely unpopular and is simply working on his 2018 campaign.
1 Like
The “Can’t we be a respectable Party of Ideas?!?!” ones still have the option to be worried about decorum, rather than decency; and boy do they exercise it.
Are you some kind of communist fascist? Forcing manufacturers to disclose ingredients because of ‘public health’ or some such liberal nonsense is an egregious example of FDA overreach; the abolition of which is no doubt the fond hope of at least one piece of ALEC model legislation.
In Free America; we’ll have 50 kinds of breakfast cereal; and the only legally binding words on the package will be the EULA and the agreement to mandatory arbitration!
3 Likes
Anarchism looks better every day.
3 Likes
Maybe, but people have been predicting that Congressional Republicans would turn against Trump for ages (at least as far back as the Access Hollywood tape) and it hasn’t happened yet. I think it’ll happen eventually, but I don’t know if this is the breaking point or not.
McConnell and Ryan still want to pass their agenda while they can, and they seem content to kiss Trump’s ass as long as it serves that agenda.
Most Republican senators don’t have to worry about election next year, and of the eight who are up, most are safe (not Flake). Those who are vulnerable (and there are of course a lot more in the House than the Senate) have to play the min-max game of supporting Trump enough that they can still win a primary but not so much that they lose the general.
Voter suppression takes care of the general. The only threat to the GOP politicians are the primaries, and the base shows not the slightest chance of abandoning Trump.
2 Likes
Sadly, Schoolhouse Rock never covered Elbridge Gerry and Joe Overton.
1 Like
Realistically, that power is in the voter’s hands so long as there is a fund raising war. You would have to heavily cut into party funding, change the election cycle’s rules, and open up voting to say “it’s better to include 0.5% of illegal voters than exclude 0.5% of legal voters.”
And even then there is media favoritism that means that hidden sources of funding would still be in play icing out politicians. And even if you blacked out the media, international media would weigh in and the American media would skirt the rules - not to mention the editorializing leakers and individual contributors tweets that would favor a candidate.
The only way a third party could even work is to aim at a small chunk of the country, and even then it would need national support from people outside the district who want boring positions being filled with boring people they will never meet or read in the papers.
Breaking a two-party system that is entrenched is nearly impossible without dramatic changes to the US political system.
1 Like
Why, I’m shocked, SHOCKED, I TELL YOU that Trump turned out to be such a disease on the Presidency!
1 Like
Well to beat my earlier D+D alignment chart into the ground the difference between the two major parties used to be economics. Populist economics for the Democratic party and more Corporate friendly economics for the Republican party. But this has changed, and now the main difference is on social issues, with the Democrats highly linked to liberal causes and the Republicans a more traditional social order. This began with LBJ’s embracing of the civil rights act, and the Republican “Southern strategy” that was a reaction to it. Reagan managed to link corporatism and anti-civil rights under the “Less Government” banner. The wealthy heard that as “lower taxes” and the bigots heard “Less Federal interference with state and local governments which we firmly control.” The transformation neard completion when the “third way” and “economic liberalism” became a major part of the Democratic Party under Bill Clinton, in a conscious attempt to woo socially liberal wealthy people into donating to the Democratic Party.
This led directly to the 2016 election when both parties had revolts by economically populist wings. led by Sanders in the Democratic Party and Trump in the Republican Party. The greater fragmentation in the Republicans let Trump get the nomination while Hillary got the nod in the Democratic party.
1 Like
This is spot on. You start reading the article and go, “Yeah, okay, that sounds good, I’m glad this guy is getting past his defensiveness, and …” then nothing happens. No “This is what I’m going to do next” to be found.
1 Like
Voter suppression favors the Republicans. So do gerrymandering (for the House and for state and local offices), and the specific seats that are open (for the Senate). The Republicans may very well keep their majorities.
But it’s all but certain that they’ll lose seats. The President’s party virtually always does in the midterms (2002 notwithstanding, and 9/11 was, let’s sincerely hope, a unique event). People who are unhappy with the President are simply more likely to turn out in midterms than people who are satisfied – and this particular president is already looking at approval ratings that look a lot more like Bush’s in '05 than Bush’s in '01.
Flake is vulnerable from both the far right and the center-left (though at this point I’d say a lack of enthusiasm from his base and the general anger at his party are greater threats to him than his actual prospective opponents).
There’s another wildcard here, too, of course, and that’s McCain’s brain tumor. If he dies or resigns, Ducey appoints a replacement until the 2018 election (and appointed senators rarely go on to win an election). There is a possibility that both of Arizona’s senate seats will be on the ballot in '18, and that they’ll be the most vulnerable Republican seats in the chamber.
Not that that’s an outcome I’m hoping for. I can’t bring myself to hope that somebody dies of brain cancer, no matter what I think of him as a politician and a person.
But, baby steps. I never would have expected him to even say what he did. To expect he would be a perfect man is too much, in my opinion. I’m just glad he said what he did. Now, who’s next?
I actually think that he might turn on the GOP first. He’s getting more and more irritated by congress’s inability to pass major legislation, he’s not a strategic thinker, and he has an inflated view of his own importance. It’s pretty easy for me to picture his frustration leading him to quit the Republican party and try to be a president without a party affiliation, or try to found his own party.
2 Likes
Trump has been attacking the GOP for a while now. Mostly because he thinks they haven’t been kissing his ass hard enough.
2 Likes
Dear sweet Eris please let that happen. Trump quitting the GOP and founding his own party while still sitting sounds like the most entertaining end to this mess.
2 Likes
Flake voted for the Senate Trumpcare bill. He can go f–k himself on his regrets.
3 Likes
