Exactly. Even without Manchin, some items were bound to be taken out. That’s how life works.
A good negotiator understands he won’t get 100% of what he’s asking for. An expert negotiator understands that when the other party takes any compromise as a sign of weakness and a cue to demand yet more compromises, he calls them out as acting in bad faith and either starts again at 100% or (if he can) walks away and figures out another way to attain his goals despite them.
Apparently master negotiators call negotiations socialism until it becomes impossible to actually do anything.
Then just do what they want at the state level.
If Manchin isn’t just gold bricking he may have finally realized that. As the threat is basically to support his party’s agenda unless the GOP opts to participate.
You misunderstand me. Trying to shove through some judges (which you were defending as the main reason not to pressure Manchin and Sinema harder) is short-term thinking, because getting those few judges confirmed is pointless when we’re dealing with fascists looking to end democracy. Preserving democracy is the long-term view that aligns with pressuring Manchin and Sinema to get with the program.
ETA: Which Manchin has shown he may indeed understand. He knows that, if some compromise isn’t reached with the GOP, he will be forced to side with the progressives, due to the recalcitrance of the GOP to come to the table even slightly. He’s doing his level best to keep that from happening, because once he is forced to support reforming the filibuster, his powerbrokering will diminish. He’s still going to have functional veto power for anything he really can’t countenance, but if the GOP doesn’t compromise, the filibuster is done with for the remainder of this session and the Dems are going to force through everything they can while they can. That includes not just the voting rights acts but the infrastructure bill and at the very least DC statehood.
And part of the process of converting Manchin and Sinema to the party line was completed today, when the GOP blocked the debate of the voter rights bills. After blocking the Jan 6 bipartisan commission and this, Manchin and Sinema have to wake up and get in line with the rest of the party or reserve their slots with the death squads that will be wandering the country as the GOP takes over next election.
CNN naively called it a defeat. It wasn’t. It was a power move by Schumer to bring Manchin and others in line.
You guys should get yourselves a whole bunch of new political parties.
Two is not enough for a country of 320 million.
So … we would not have an attorney general?
I’m so confused, what decade is it
Agreed. However, right now the USA is busy keeping fascism at bay. We will call you back at the next available time.
We have more than two. The problem is that the system doesn’t allow room for more than two to have power at any given time. The non-duopoly parties become spoilers or vote sinks at best.
We really need to get ourselves some ranked choice voting for federal offices, but there are a whole bunch of other more basic reforms that need to happen before that.
Yeah, this is such a key point. Not that politics is ever really a game for the people it affects. But to use a sports analogy anyway, it’s like some people are still trying to score points while we are watching their opposition take a hacksaw to the scoreboard.
Yeah, I know.
Ranked choice voting is ok, but Mixed Member Proportional is (in my view) better.
It is academic anyway because the people who run America are quite happy with the way things are, so nothing will change.
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