It's the only answer that's possible at this point. Because the only other answer that has been floating around for decades is they're too stupid and they've shown to be the inverse of Hanlon's razor.
It's the only answer that's possible at this point. Because the only other answer that has been floating around for decades is they're too stupid and they've shown to be the inverse of Hanlon's razor.
I swing between that and “I can see why someone in that position would want to give up and just stop trying” It just seems like whenever they do band together and try to do something (the budget...
I swing between that and “I can see why someone in that position would want to give up and just stop trying”
It just seems like whenever they do band together and try to do something (the budget filibuster last year) the republicans just find some way to spin the situation they created back on the democrats and millions of people end up worse off anyway.
This is why I’m not any kind of elected official, if it were me Id have given up January of last year and kept my head down until the next election cycle and then spring up and make a bunch of virtue signaling noise to try and get people to just actually get up off the couch and vote.
But that already means you did something more beneficial for the constituents than they've done: get OUT of the way and let someone who wants to do anything do it.
But that already means you did something more beneficial for the constituents than they've done: get OUT of the way and let someone who wants to do anything do it.
It's really not the democrats that bother me, like, I'm annoyed by them being ineffectual, but I'm way more annoyed that the republican congress members are willingly giving up their power and...
It's really not the democrats that bother me, like, I'm annoyed by them being ineffectual, but I'm way more annoyed that the republican congress members are willingly giving up their power and everyone else's power to Trump for.... ???? money?? Did he pay them??
A useful comparison would be how Republicans responded to the surge in funding for the Internal Revenue Service in the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act. The moment they got leverage, Republicans forced substantial reductions in that funding, despite a Democratic Senate and a Democratic President in 2023-24. They have continued this approach ever since, including another hack at IRS funding in the funding bill that passed the House just last week with bipartisan support. There is now only about $10 billion of that $80 billion surge left, and nearly nothing for enforcement of the tax laws, the whole point of the policy.
Yet where Republican nullification of the IRS money is seen as a fact of life, the $75 billion ICE surge in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has been deemed untouchable by Democrats, at least in this round of asks.
Meanwhile, critical concepts that Schumer has taken off the table, like accountability for Pretti’s death, still face a struggle to move forward. A spokesperson for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), which is conducting an investigation into the shooting of Pretti, told the Prospect Wednesday that “federal investigators have not shared any information with Minnesota BCA agents.” A judge granted a temporary restraining order to preserve all evidence in the case, but that evidence has not been shared.
I’m not sure how comparing how Republicans operated while they controlled the house with how Dems operate when they control nothing is instructive here. What leverage does he imagine a minority...
I’m not sure how comparing how Republicans operated while they controlled the house with how Dems operate when they control nothing is instructive here. What leverage does he imagine a minority party with no control over any branch of government has?
At least some Democrats are still needed to pass the budget afaik and they successfully split off DHS funding from funding the rest of the government, so don't they have the leverage of being able...
At least some Democrats are still needed to pass the budget afaik and they successfully split off DHS funding from funding the rest of the government, so don't they have the leverage of being able to do a DHS-only government shutdown?
Yeah it seems like they actually played it well and forced Republicans to have to negotiate over the thing in question without being able to take the rest of the government hostage. It usually...
Yeah it seems like they actually played it well and forced Republicans to have to negotiate over the thing in question without being able to take the rest of the government hostage.
It usually goes the other way where Republicans can hold the government (which they want to destroy anyway) hostage and Dems have to save it. This is a reversal where the one part of the government the Republicans do care about, the police state, is the only thing we need to worry about.
How do you think they were able to split the DHS appropriations bill off from the other five funding bills in the first place? Funding the government still requires some participation from the...
How do you think they were able to split the DHS appropriations bill off from the other five funding bills in the first place? Funding the government still requires some participation from the Democrats, no? Plus it's been a tough or week for the pro-ICE crowd.
I'm not sure I'm ready to believe that the only thing holding Chuck Schumer back from entering the negotiating table with a bolder set of demands is a handful of votes in the house.
The Democrats are complicit.
It's the only answer that's possible at this point. Because the only other answer that has been floating around for decades is they're too stupid and they've shown to be the inverse of Hanlon's razor.
I swing between that and “I can see why someone in that position would want to give up and just stop trying”
It just seems like whenever they do band together and try to do something (the budget filibuster last year) the republicans just find some way to spin the situation they created back on the democrats and millions of people end up worse off anyway.
This is why I’m not any kind of elected official, if it were me Id have given up January of last year and kept my head down until the next election cycle and then spring up and make a bunch of virtue signaling noise to try and get people to just actually get up off the couch and vote.
But that already means you did something more beneficial for the constituents than they've done: get OUT of the way and let someone who wants to do anything do it.
It's really not the democrats that bother me, like, I'm annoyed by them being ineffectual, but I'm way more annoyed that the republican congress members are willingly giving up their power and everyone else's power to Trump for.... ???? money?? Did he pay them??
They are a fake opposition party.
I’m not sure how comparing how Republicans operated while they controlled the house with how Dems operate when they control nothing is instructive here. What leverage does he imagine a minority party with no control over any branch of government has?
At least some Democrats are still needed to pass the budget afaik and they successfully split off DHS funding from funding the rest of the government, so don't they have the leverage of being able to do a DHS-only government shutdown?
Yeah it seems like they actually played it well and forced Republicans to have to negotiate over the thing in question without being able to take the rest of the government hostage.
It usually goes the other way where Republicans can hold the government (which they want to destroy anyway) hostage and Dems have to save it. This is a reversal where the one part of the government the Republicans do care about, the police state, is the only thing we need to worry about.
How do you think they were able to split the DHS appropriations bill off from the other five funding bills in the first place? Funding the government still requires some participation from the Democrats, no? Plus it's been a tough or week for the pro-ICE crowd.
I'm not sure I'm ready to believe that the only thing holding Chuck Schumer back from entering the negotiating table with a bolder set of demands is a handful of votes in the house.