One Sentence Post: A Message to Democrats
We ran the table and won the government in a clean sweep, it’s time to act like it!
We ran the table and won the government in a clean sweep, it’s time to act like it!
02/04/2021 @ 9:53 am
I don’t think I’m getting everything you want to convey in one sentence. Please elaborate.
02/04/2021 @ 11:36 am
The Republicans have shown themselves to be incompetent, incapable, and ineffective when it comes to democratic governance.
Bipartisan cooperation, compromise, or unity with a crowd of QAnon, conspiracy theory, Trumplestiltskin nitwits is fraught with euphemistic platitudinous dilatory bullshit….
The Democrats should not open the door to Republican obstructionists.
The Democrats won the right to take immediate and decisive action without the support or interference of the people who choose to continue to be the minimalist minions of the Trumpenstein monster…
They should go ahead and do so…
02/04/2021 @ 1:26 pm
No, we did not run the table There are TWO Democrats who are pledged to the Republican agenda in the Senate, Manchin and Sinema, and a third, Mark Kelly, who leans in that direction. When push comes to shove, and the Biden administration attempts to push its agenda through the Senate, they will fail to score. Right now, the real vote count in the Senate is 52 to 48 in favor of the GOP.
Without suspending the filibuster rules, the Democrats will not make headway in the Senate without bipartisan support which means that McConnell still controls the agenda in the Senate. If he doesn’t want it to come to a vote, it will not come to a vote. THAT’s the reality that we are facing. That’s because Manchin and Sinema have both declared that they will vote against suspending the filibuster by invoking cloture.
I agree that the Democrats should forge ahead, regardless. Pussyfooting around with the GOP gains us nothing. We need to know right now if we have a working majority in the Senate or not. I don’t think we do.
02/04/2021 @ 1:36 pm
I disagree…
Re the elections, we ran the table.
With a simple majority required for a vote on budget reconciliation, I believe the Dems can come together with overwhelming public support and get it done…
We’ll soon see….
02/04/2021 @ 4:08 pm
In any case, I haven’t seen a whole lot of undue hesitation on the part of either Biden or Pelosi.
02/04/2021 @ 4:48 pm
The NYT reports that:
“A huge majority of Americans, including nearly two-thirds of Republicans, support the $1,400 stimulus checks President Biden is calling for, and his full $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal also has strong public backing, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University.”
This is why the Dems should be eager to forge ahead with the Biden Plan.
02/04/2021 @ 8:46 pm
This that you cite about the stimulus is true, but the Democrats have a very weak majority. Manchin and Sinema are empowered by not going along with the other Democrats, and become weaker by being loyal to the party. So, give the two thirds what they want now, and allow them to acquire a taste for competent governance. Once Biden does that, he can extend further. If he tries to do that too fast, they will reject everything on the principle that everything from government is bad.
02/04/2021 @ 8:59 pm
“If he tries to do that too fast, they will reject everything on the principle that everything from government is bad.”
Maybe so, but only if “too fast” fails in substance…
However, most Americans seem to agree that the plan can’t be passed and put into effect fast enough…
Even people like the Republican governor of West Virginia is on board with moving Biden’s 1.9 trillion dollar “Rescue Plan” along ASAP…
02/05/2021 @ 7:35 am
“The plan” should come as quickly as possible. By “too fast” I was referring to how the Democrats or Biden administration should lead. Beyond the Covid package, and regarding governance generally, people will come around just like they came around for FDR.
02/05/2021 @ 9:42 am
Agreed!
02/05/2021 @ 12:27 am
It unfortunately doesn’t matter what most Americans want. They aren’t calling the shots. Now that they’re the opposition party, the Republicans are suddenly getting religion about deficits.
However, in general the Republicans have a major, major problem. Trump isn’t going away, he’s gaining power in the Republican Party. Marjorie Taylor Greene has a ton of Republican support. But the older generation of Republicans on the Hill aren’t having it. McConnell hates Greene but the truth is that at the moment she’s winning. It’s one thing to go along with all these myths to gain and hold power but it’s quite another to actually believe them. Guys like McConnell are going to find themselves in a party even they can’t support any more. They want smaller government and they don’t like gay rights and what they view as an overemphasis on civil rights but they won’t be able to bring themselves to pretend they believe in the QAnon conspiracy theories because they’re just too damned stupid. The older Republican Senators can’t embrace stupidity on that level. Corruption, sure, but not this level of malevolent idiocy. We’ve recently seen an exodus of people who worked in the Bush 43 administration leaving the party. The Capitol break-in plus QAnon is too much. They can’t link their names to this crap.
That will leave the GOP with a lot of voters, but not as many. And not only are the crazies alienating their own old-line leadership[, they’re alienating the living shit out of the donor bass. Corporations do not like craziness. They like tax breaks but they don’t like wholesale irrationality and instability. In 2020 they shifted heavily Democratic. If the QAnon wing of the Republicans take over, which looks more likely than it did, most Fortune 500 companies won’t touch them. They’ve got gay, Black, and Jewish employees, clients, customers, and they don’t want the headaches. And they don’t like the disrespect for expertise. Years ago the corporate world was fine with intolerance but now they view intolerance as expensive. They sure as Hell don’t venerate Trump; they know he’s a loose cannon and an idiot that cost them a ridiculous fortune and is at times a pointless ideologue in the weirdest ways. For example, when Trump pulled out of the Paris Accords, you’d think he did that with corporate support. Actually, he had hardly any – the coal companies were behind him on that and that’s pretty much it. Even Big Oil wanted to stay in the Paris Accords. So did GM.
I don’t know what’s about to happen with the Republican centrists. I think their home is disappearing.
02/05/2021 @ 6:23 am
“It unfortunately doesn’t matter what most Americans want. They aren’t calling the shots.”
True, if you’re referring to Republicans who constantly and consistently ignore public opinion beyond the mood swings of Trump’s cult….
Dems tend to be much more sensitive and responsive to public opinion on major issues…
02/05/2021 @ 5:29 pm
In recent years, even Democrats haven’t been that responsive because those writing checks wanted some different things than the majority, and the check writers won. So Democrats would be liberal on social issues but not so much on economic ones.
However
COVID changed everything. The economy as far as average Americans were concerned was already in trouble but now the trouble is too blatant and urgent, the result being that Biden is being forced by circumstances to do what he should have done anyway. So he’s going to have an actual Democratic economic agenda. He was already inclined to have a Democratic environmental agenda and where his support came from in both the primaries and the election have insured a Democratic minority agenda that will be better than most have been.
So yes, the Democrats will be responsive to the will of the majority of the electorate, but largely because of COVID.
02/06/2021 @ 3:46 pm
Whether it’s because of COVID, the economy, the environment, or social justice, the Dems now have the opportunity to refrain from being “stealth Republicans” and legislate and govern like democracy and black lives matter.
02/07/2021 @ 12:56 am
You won’t see stealth Republicanism from Biden at this point, even though he’s temperamentally a moderate and likes to work with the other side. On race and the environment he’s personally committed, and on the economy he’s forced by circumstances to move Left for the sake of the business community if nothing else.
02/07/2021 @ 9:56 am
According to Bitey and Alan there are “stealth Republican” Democrats who can jeopardize a progressive agenda.
Bitey:
“…Democrats have a very weak majority. Manchin and Sinema are empowered by not going along with the other Democrats, and become weaker by being loyal to the party….”
AND
Alan:
“…There are TWO Democrats who are pledged to the Republican agenda in the Senate, Manchin and Sinema, and a third, Mark Kelly, who leans in that direction. When push comes to shove, and the Biden administration attempts to push its agenda through the Senate, they will fail to score. Right now, the real vote count in the Senate is 52 to 48 in favor of the GOP….”
Biden will have to work at keeping these folks in line while resisting Republican efforts to obstruct and derail what they will characterize as a continuation of the “Obama agenda” and policies.
Republicans will make an effort to racialize and thus stigmatize the Biden administration…
If what Alan and Bitey say is true, there are a few. “stealth Republican” Democrats who will actively participate in the attempts to sabotag Biden’s agenda and administration, or they will remain silent as it occurs…
02/07/2021 @ 11:58 am
I said Biden wouldn’t be. You said the Democrats have the opportunity to refrain from being stealth Republicans. Apparently Bitey and Alan disagree with you. I haven’t entered that argument. I think it will depend on the issue. There are Senators on both sides of the party divide who are on the fence on certain issues.
02/07/2021 @ 12:46 pm
Biden’s approval rating is at about 70%…
If his “rescue” and vaccination plans succeed, Bitey and I agree that, as Bitey said:
“Beyond the Covid package, and regarding governance generally, people will come around just like they came around for FDR.”
If/when that happens Democrats sitting on the fence will have little choice but to get on board…
02/07/2021 @ 1:53 pm
Ron, you see a range as either/or…no matter the question. I tend to see a minimum of 3 possibilities in most questions with complexity. “Stealth Republican” fits into the either/or model. I would not characterize Sinema or Manchin that way. Frankly, if they were Republican in Democratic state(s), they would do the same thing. They play both sides against…the MIDDLE.
02/07/2021 @ 6:21 pm
Bitey, American politics tends to be a binary proposition. The two party duopoly leaves little room for viable third options or third choices…
No third party or third party candidate has had much of a real chance here and independents like Bernie Sanders are rare birds…
Playing both sides against the middle isn’t quite the same as being a ‘centrist’.
The polarizing tribalism and personality cults seem to obviate the prospect of legitimate middle of the road ideological politics…
Biden is about to discover that himself as he tries to move the country forward with the thinnest possible Senate ‘majority’….
As you suggested, let’s hope he can create an FDR style popularity amongst the electorate. He’ll need to be able to draw strength from high approval ratings from the general public…
02/08/2021 @ 6:28 am
Ron, you say things which have little to know thought behind them.
“American politics tends to be a binary proposition…”.
That’s great, but we are not talking about “American politics”. The comment referenced two specific politicians. You have to be able to see the difference conceptually in politics and politicians. IF all politicians determinatively followed party positions on all questions, there wold be no need for politicians. Individuals make individual choices for their particular reasons. As stated before, The Wv Senator plays the middle for his reasons. Often those tend to be fossil fuel industry ties. The Az senator does for hers. Arizona is Arizona, which has not entirely accepted being a state yet. It likes being an unaffiliated territory.
No, it is not merely a duopoly. If it were, it would not even merit discussion. No, they are not “stealth Republicans.” Their respective positions are not even identical in substance. They are only similar in strategy or style.
You once made a post about who you thought the nominee would be. I don’t recall your prediction. I think it was Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. If American politics tended to be a binary position to the extent that it fit in the context of the descriptions of Sinema and Manchin, there would be no need for the primary prediction that you made. It would be like choosing between one molecule of water against another. If someone asked you to choose between two molecules of water, you would be right to say…and I HOPE you would say, it makes no difference. They are identical. However, you have already chosen between politicians. Politicians are not politics. They are WITHIN politics. And they are not identical like molecules.
02/08/2021 @ 12:52 am
It’s a spectrum that’s thin in the center.
02/08/2021 @ 6:57 am
Bitey, I don’t disagree with the assertion that they are not identical. However, regardless of rationale or impetus, playing both sides against the middle isn’t quite the same as being an ideological ‘centrist’.
I favored Warren but indicated my willingness to support the Democratic candidate whoever it turned out to be….
02/08/2021 @ 7:17 am
This is not a criticism of your choice. This is just proof that the position does exist. In other words, you can’t reinterpret my statement by saying that only two positions exist, and then choose within what are essentially infinite choices. You are disagreeing with yourself by doing so.
I said, they are not the result of a binary. At the party level, there tends to be two. But, we were discussing individual politicians. You can’t conflate the two. If the party determined the politician, you could not differentiate Liz Cheney from Marjorie Taylor Greene. I am not questioning your choice of Warren. I am saying, you MADE a choice. You can’t make a choice if there is no choice to be made.
02/08/2021 @ 8:28 am
Right you are!
My understanding is that as a party, Democrats tend to be ‘center left’ and that, as a party, Republicans tend to be ‘center right’…
I overlooked the fact that, re the individual party members, there is a range of choices/options within each aspect of the political/ideological spectrum…
Your point is well made and well taken.
Thanks for the refinement….
02/08/2021 @ 11:11 am
At the moment the whole center-Left and center-Right normality is being challenged, though for different reasons on each side. On the Republican side, the center Right is finding out to its chagrin and sometimes horror that a lot of the Republican Party has become Far Right because of Trump’s finding his greatest loyalty from that sector if he pandered to it, which he has and does. On the Democratic side, the economic disaster of COVID is forcing Leftist policies. Under normal circumstances, Warren and Biden would do different things as President but under current circumstances they wouldn’t be that different.
What is stranger is that we are better off with Biden being responsible for these policies because the public knows damned well that he is no far Leftist. This is similar in a way to Nixon being the only President who could have opened China or, for that matter, negotiated nuclear arms reduction with the Soviets, in both cases because he had Rightist cred. In both cases criticism would have come from the Right and because of who he was it didn’t.