Republicans in particular say they don’t want their elected officials to work with Democrats, even when it’s necessary to keep government functioning. For example, a Suffolk University/USA Today poll conducted Oct. 17-20 found that 55 percent of Republicans preferred “standing firm on demands to cut government spending, even if it means a government shutdown.”
It’s exhausting seeing that 55% of voters of one party is somehow a mandate for a candidate to act one way, while applying the same 55% threshold across everyone regardless of party is often seen as barely a majority and thus can be ignored.
Republicans don’t believe in big government, so when they get elected at the federal level they do their best to fuck things up and prove it doesn’t work.
Makes no fucking sense, it’s like putting a militant vegan in charge of running a steakhouse.
The smallest government (at least perceptually) is a dictatorship. Just sayin’.
What a fucked up article. They go WAY out of their way to say it’s bOtH SiDez when, uh, no - it’s not.
Corporate news at its worst.
It takes two to have an agreement, and only one to start a war.
The most incredible part of this foolishness was the punditry about Democrats not working with Republicans to find a speaker. Any support from Democrats for a nominee would make Trump’s rabid dogs try to cancel them, so how were Democrats supposed to help exactly?
After several decades, I’ve become so used to this pattern that I can barely muster feelings about it anymore, and that’s bad.
No matter what Republicans do, it’s always, always Democrats’ fault somehow. Even democrats have been conditioned to blame their own regardless of how blatantly Republicans are at fault. It’s almost Pavlovian at this point.
In most cases, there’s literally nothing Democrats could have done, but they’re blamed nonetheless. And it’s never the other way round.
It should be outrageous, scandalous, and unacceptable, but instead, it’s just a Tuesday.
My favorite podcast to keep me sane for a while has been The Professional Left Podcast, where they contextualize how politicians and the media brought us to this lowly place. They always joke that it’s ‘no fair remembering stuff,’ such as McConnell promising to make Obama a one-term president and then stealing a supreme court seat while drowned out by cries of, “why won’t Obama LEAD?!”
Followed, thanks!
I think sometimes people forget that this the way our Constitution in the US is constructed. If we “fail” to work together and just become partisan shills, then it’s designed to NOT function. If we put party over country, it is difficult to push legislation through because each side will vote in opposition to the other side even if the idea or legislation is good for the country.
As an example, parliament style governments only function if the ruling party has enough votes to pass legislation. If they fail to have a majority, then new elections are called until a coalition can form or enough party representation is voted in.
Here in the US, electors can basically sit around for 2 years doing nothing until the next election. Plus even if the House passes legislation, a devided Senate can kill it too, or a President vetos it, or a Supreme Court guts it or strikes it down as unconstitutional (even though judicial review is a made-up concept not in the Constitution).
Checks and balances in the Constitution are designed to cause gridlock and dysfunction. When they say “dysfunction in Congress is here to stay”…they should say “dysfunction has always been here, we just noticed it.”
Except there was an expectation by the Founders that each branch would guard its powers jealously and not allow other branches to steal or negate those powers. Instead, we’re seeing people put party over all else and coordinate across the branches to undermine the entire government. Gridlock was never the point, cooperation and negotiation was.
The last time things broke down like this, it wasn’t resolved until more than seven million Americans died in bloody fighting. This is not how the system was intended.
I agree, political parties have taken over. They ruled the day after Washington bid his farewell and went off into the sunset. Federalist v. Dem-Rep, Whigs v. Dems, Rep. v. Dems or whatever political name they call themselves foster a hope for “bipartisanship” but it is clearly lacking.
But I guess I wasn’t clear in the my last post. The system is designed, to cause grid-lock if both sides stop working together. Currently political parties (or at least some) believe sharing power is antitheical to political governance. One party wins the House of Rep., the minority party votes in opposition. This still doesn’t stop bipartisan bills from forming and passing. If it does happen, then the system is working as intended. If we fail to cooperate, then gridlock happens, and dysfunction occurs. The founders I believe intended it to be that way. It just seems as if the news suddenly realized that dysfunction is this new concept. When it’s how’s it’s always been when shit hits the fan.
As for the branches of government, many have failed to jealously guarding their powers. Congress has effectively given up declaring war. Allowing standing orders on military “engagements” to become perpetual. Give up their power by allowing the president to enact executive orders on military operations. They’ve given up their ability of basic governance by allowing the Supreme Court to dictate legislation through “judicial supremacy”. The legislators need to claw all of these powers back. But alas I doubt I’ll see it in my life time.
Because one side is trying to break the game?
