I’m not saying that yet, since I don’t have any tasty hats…
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A Pyrrhic victory is still a victory, even if the house has burned to the ground.
But no, I don’t think this victory inflicts damage on the left. But given the low margin and the lack of a “mandate”, it’s certainly going to make governing harder for the next four years. I will wait for AOC to reach presidential age, because she’s the one I want now to lead this shit head nation out of the toilet it’s mucking about in.
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No, no damage, but not the huge leap forward we were all hoping for. Gotta do whole grown up thing, get up and keep working for the country we want. If today (or tomorrow) we have perhaps stopped the freefall, we will have to take that for what it is and start climbing again. I am as disappointed as anyone at the lack of full throated rejection of trumpism root and branch, but I do not like the gloom and doom coming form some corners. We did not get a total victory, no. But we got a start. We did not win TX, but it is definitely in play. GA is still a possible win! America has always had a shitload of shitheads. It comes with the “John Wayne rugged individualism” bullshit so many of us were force fed in our culture(s). But there were enough of us (I think, and only just) to stop the bleeding for now. It’s a step. The key is to follow it up with another step.
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This is going to be the new political reality, isn’t it? The MAGA cult is going to continue to grow as Trump (if he’s still a free man) is spends the next four years rallying people against “Fake President Biden” and an election stolen by the Democrats.
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I wonder if Biden’s army of 4000 lawyers is onto this…
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Yah…especially since those are reverse giants and Gamera there lacks opposable thumbs.
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I may be in the minority on this, but I’d be perfectly happy for her to remain in the House for the next four decades or so as the Democratic majority leader. If there’s one thing that the last four years has taught us, it’s that bold leadership in Congress is paramount, and the lack of it dooms much of the reform we’re hoping for. Give Pelosi a Sudoku and an invitation to the coat closet to sit with Schumer, and put people who want to enact progressive change in charge, rather than those who will go along with it kicking and screaming as a last choice.
That last part gets to it, I think. If his loans get called in, AND the SDNY continues on the path its on, the Trump family may be in for interesting times in the next few years that rallies won’t solve. To be clear, I don’t think there is ANY chance he ever spends a day in jail, but his empire could be dismantled with some ease.
Yeah, if anyone thinks they wouldn’t have gratefully (if not happily) accepted booting Trump even if it meant GOP keeping the Senate a year ago, they’re lying. Things are going to be tough with McConnell controlling the Senate, but our system can’t survive another four years of Trump.
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100% correct. After the 2018 blue wave election was over, I know I personally approached this year as one where the expectation was merely “get Trump gone.” The idea of taking over the senate seemed impossible at that point. 2020’s horror show helped raise our expectations, but we are on the cusp of getting the one thing we really wanted. I’ll take it, even if I know that senate control could have really meant a chance for Biden to do some important things. Maybe 2022 will give us a good shot at it.
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Trump lawyers in court: Trump saw his shadow so he gets four more years.
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Cabinet approvals require Senate approval (advise and consent), unless the Senate is in recess. The Senate has largely switched to never officially being in recess by holding pro-forma sessions where a Senator shows up and basically reads a note saying it’s cool just go home. In theory that could be broken by a few legislative maneuvers, but they would require clockwork precision from basically every member of the Dems in both houses, probably at least a couple Republicans in each chamber, a willingness to try to politically sell deep procedural arcanum to the public, and probably a nasty court fight. As @anon21100188 notes the alternative is acting positions, but those come with their own weird limitations.
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How many Groundhog Days are we going to wake up, hear Sonny and Cher on the radio, and see
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tell that to chad wolf
the limitations only matter if there’s consequences to ignoring the limitations, or if the parties involved decide to play nice and honor the limitations.
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The big difference is that I’m sure a Republican Senate and Supreme Court would hold Biden to the technicalities.
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Isn’t that the truth! Every now and then I see a little bit of hope springing up here in NC that things will get better again.
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There are parts of the south that are getting bluer and those of us who aren’t conservative are getting more active, too.
For NC there was that story out of Asheville this year about their reparations plan which was pretty hopeful, but we can expect that kind of thing out of Asheville!
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