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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Becoming a chess piece in a president's election or re-election bid is exactly what happens if you don't appoint a Justice in election years. 2016 was a circus, and one of the players in that circus is "You're not just voting for a President; you're voting for the Supreme Court seat that Mitch held open!"
Supreme Court Justice seats aren't supposed to be put on the campaign table as encouragement to turn out for your party. If we're going to start campaigning for partisan Justices in election years, we might as well just fucking elect them like we do Congresspeople and Presidents.
Charles is right: not doing Presidential work in an election year is stupid. Democrats only hammered Republicans on that this year in order to keep public attention on the fact that they were doing the thing they said you shouldn't do in 2016. It was an attempt to publicly shame Republicans by highlighting their hypocrisy. Because Democrats still think public shaming actually works against a party whose voters prefer they have no shame.
Nobody actually cares about hypocrisy. They care about getting the things that matter to them done, however it needs to be done. Voters just want their agenda to succeed. That's one of our biggest problems at the ballot boxes. Republicans are corrupt, Democrats are ineffectual, and so Republicans who support corruption turn out, and Democrats who desire change maybe don't.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Nov 13th 2020 at 8:39:44 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Democrats are probably worried making the Republicans claims that they're just as corrupt more legitimate in the eyes of the less politically savvy (which, remember, is most of the populace). And they're either not sure how to get across why they have to resort to such tactics or aren't confident they can considering the right-wing death grip on most media that matters.
basically that
Edited by PhysicalStamina on Nov 13th 2020 at 11:46:06 AM
i'm tired, my friend![]()
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That's probably the core of the issue.
We already know the republican base is ok with authoritarianism and they don't care if their lives don't improve as long as they have cultural supremacy and/or line their pockets (in the case of the wealthier ones). That's why Mc Connell can act the way he does and never risk losing re-election.
But the democrats have a much more diverse coalition and they need to strike a balancing act with a lot of different groups. We don't know how people would react if the democrats were to kill the filibuster, make DC and Puerto Rico states (yes I know PR isn't guaranteed to vote blue, that's beside the point), pack the courts, completely disregard everything Mc Connell wants and tell him to fuck off when/if they have control of the Senate, etc. It's completely uncharted territory.
I suspect their fear is that them doing these things would only accelerate the slide into authoritarianism because of a huge potential backlash that would empower republicans even more as they vote themselves back into power in the next elections.
So democrats are kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Edited by Draghinazzo on Nov 13th 2020 at 1:48:45 PM
I'm already seeing posts on my Facebook from people on the far left along the lines of "I used to think the Democrats were just weak cowards, but now I know they're complicit!", and at this point, I just unfriend and move on. See you in two years when you refuse to help us take the Senate, and again in four years when you vote for some antivaxer and spoil the national primary. Like freaking clockwork.
Edited by RedSavant on Nov 13th 2020 at 11:55:25 AM
It's been fun.
So half of the "ugly bastards" in hentai.
But yeah, we're not talking about Republican diehards. We're talking about people in the middle who aren't completely satisfied with either party and see both as contributing to how much of a mess American politics is. Democrats don't want to end up validating their feelings by stepping around Republican obstructionism, because people who don't understand why they're doing so will use that as evidence that their feelings were right all along, and depending on the person, turn away some reluctant past voters.
Edited by PhysicalStamina on Nov 13th 2020 at 12:39:33 PM
i'm tired, my friendTo go back to Alito for a second:
Yes, because it's something that the majority of Americans decided was an unacceptable view, oh, in 2011 when it gained popular approval. That YOU are committed to living in the 50's where everybody hated miscegenation and nobody would even consider a marriage that wasn't one man and one woman does not mean that the entire country stopped.
No, we're talking about the people on the far left and enlightened centrists, not "moderates". Anyone who's actually moderate needs some awareness.
Edited by RainehDaze on Nov 13th 2020 at 5:38:25 PM
That’s exactly why we need to do some good for four years, there’s a Doctor Who quote that sums it up for me.
“Because what’s the point in them being happy if they’re going to be sad later? The answer is, of course, because they are going to be sad later.”
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran130 Secret Service members have come down with Covid-19 due to Trump's rallies.
Why Trump will be marched out of the White House this January no matter what.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

At least wait until he's actually taken office before speculating about it.
Disgusted, but not surprised