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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Legislation? Yes. Executive Orders and departmental policy? No. International diplomacy? No.
It may only last as long as a Biden or Democratic Presidency but that's still 4 years at the start.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.If we get the two downballot races in Georgia to go Dem
we can make the Senate 50-50. Speaking of which, our next job is to do everything we can to get the Dem vote out for that.
x4 Mitch is the reason why nothing has passed the Senate that could make things better. He's the one the Republicans lock step behind. If he goes down, a lot of other Republicans are going down with him. He is the linchpin.
Edited by ScubaWolf on Nov 7th 2020 at 3:14:09 PM
"In a move surprising absolutely no one"ICE and everyone involved , De Joy' illegal straw donor scheme. Take your pick.
Mitch is their leader.
We need to pass actual legislation, because the underlying problems are tax breaks for the rich while the infrastructure decays and people slide into poverty, and the need to move away from fossil fuels, both of which will require action from Congress.
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.He calls the shots on the Republican Senators' behavior. In olden days even if the Senate leader may had certain views, individuals of that party could still vote against the party on individual causes. But under Mitch every Republican votes in lockstep against any attempt by the Democrats to make reforms.
In Georgia senate races (and some other races, but not the presidential one) if nobody wins over 50% of the vote they do a second election with just the top two candidates from the first election.
Count for the senate is 48-48, with Alaska and North Carolina not announcing results until next week and the 2 Georgia races going to runoffs.
As for Mitch, he's the linchpin due to being senate majority leader, as for investigations, I wouldn't rule out him having broken laws as part of getting his wife into the cabinet.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranTo explain this for people who aren't familiar with him:
Mitch Mc Connell is one of the if not the oldest and most experienced republicans in Washington. He's been working there for years (in fact, he was already working there during the civil rights movement in the 60's) and first became a senator of Kentucky in 1984. He became the de-facto leader of the republican senate in 2006, shortly before Obama was sworn into office and he soon revealed that his strategy was essentially to abandon all pretense of genuine bipartisanship in favor of simply stonewalling anything Obama wanted to do and essentially giving him nothing in return. He blocked the confirmation of his Supreme Court pick with a bullshit justification that he later ignored during Trump's presidency.
That's the defining trait of Mc Connell: he doesn't care about democratic norms or what's considered "proper', he just does whatever it takes to ensure republican power and his plutocratic agenda is fulfilled.
He is essentially the successor to a trend that started with the republican speaker of the house during the bill clinton administration, Newt Gingrich, an equally if not more loathsome person who introduced toxic partisanship into the republican party.
The worst part is that it's unrealistic that he will ever be replaced until he passes away from old age. Kentucky is a deep red state that he has apparently under his control with a lot of voter suppression. So the only way to defang him is for the democrats to have at least a tie in the senate to guarantee that they only have to be beholden to their own party and not to anything mitch wants.
The best long term way to stifle Mc Connell is to confirm DC as a state, which on top of being morally correct, will also give democrats two guaranteed senators, which will give the democrats a lot more breathing room going forward and make it so that republicans have to work much harder to gain control of the senate. However to do that, they need to gain control of the Senate first, so it's a chicken and egg situation.
That's why the runoffs in Georgia are so important: it will be a big uphill battle for the democrats to win those seats, and if they don't have them it makes it much harder for Biden to pass any significant legislation or take back the Supreme Court.
Edited by Draghinazzo on Nov 7th 2020 at 5:29:10 PM
Oddly, one thing this election did help is that it finally allows me to explain what I couldn't convey to other people. A lot of people believe rural people are in lockstep with the Republican agenda in rural states. They have basically ceded a large portion of the country to the GOP and focus on urban areas instead.
Stacey Abrams shows what I think needs to be done. We can force out the GOP in rural areas by fighting voter suppression and the mass apathy.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

"However from said establishment centrists' perspectives, he's one who is willing to compromise with progressives and adjust his platform to the Overton window, all the same."
You can thank Sanders and Warren for that. Along with The Squad.
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.