Robert Reich refers to the disciplined nature of Republicans and fractious diversity of Democrats - which many of YOU are displaying. " ...a fundamental asymmetry at the heart of American politics: Democrats are undisciplined. Republicans are regimented.
"For as long as I remember, Democrats have danced to their own separate music while Republicans march to a single drummer. That was the story in 1994, when Bill Clinton couldn’t get the Democratic Senate to go along with his health care plan, on which Clinton spent almost all his political capital."
And so on...
Alas, in doing so this time, Reich (whom I respect) ignores that Schumer did the right thing tactically. It was time. Public anger at GOPpers won the Blue Wave of a week ago. But meanwhile, the shutdown was driving civil servants by thousands to resign, which Republicans WANTED. And hurting millions with SNAP and HUNDREDS or other service denials, including food inspections and air travel safety... and with no chance of getting the GOP to negotiate. None. Zero.
Negotiate? THIS Republican Party?
Dig it. Shutting the government down is a FEATURE to them! Without any drawbacks. Civil servants fleeing? Great! Freedom from inspections? Fine! Stockpiling funds to reduce embarrassing deficits? Sure! Taking anti-terror agents off duty, as Bush did in 2001, leading up to 9/11? Bring on whatever might give Trump his distraction from Epstein etc.
The dems timed this exactly right! It... was... time for a judo move that allowed the House to get into session and to reveal Mike Johnson's next writhe to hide the Epstein files.
Finally, there will be another shut down in JANUARY! Close to GOP primary season. The only elections that matter in GOP gerrymandered districts. (So register Republican if you live in such a district!!)
ANY / all of you screeching at Schumer? You want utterly pointless/symbolic Sumo, when judo is called for! Schumer may not be our Grant or Sherman - maybe Newsom will be - but your yowling "I'll-never-support-our-generals!" is not a way to win a civil war.
PS: Reich cites George Lakoff's theory that Dems want a mommy while Repubs want a strict father. I like Lakoff far more than that jibberer Chomsky. But this metaphor is nonsense! Any decent dad is all about NEGOTIATION. No. THE GOP IS NOW ABOUT MIDDLE SCHOOL BULLIES. They don't want a dad's pragmatic "Let's talk this through," They want howls from nipple-twisted nerd-victims. And your MAGA-joe is back on that school playground, desperately sucking up to the top bully in order to be part of the gang of nipple-twisters, not one of the twisted.
Your tears are their food.
But take the SUMO vs JUDO parallel with you. You whiners yowling at Schumer dream of leaders who will out-Trump Trump at gaudy push n shove. But that is not how we'll win.
12 comments:
There appear to be two schools of thought
(1) The Dems are weak and folded
(2) The Dem are smart and made the best move in the circumstances
I hope that (2) is correct and that too many people don't "use" (1) as an excuse not to vote
On a side note
In almost every other country if the Government fails to pass a budget or other motion of "confidence" then a new election is called
Would it be possible for the USA to adopt that simple strategy?
I see the whining and think there is an underlying cause. The Dems in federal government have a lot less power than their voters imagine... and these voters are in denial about it. Fight! Fight more! Do Something! Well... they are but they can't fix our denialism.
I sure HOPE we don't adopt a snap election approach on budget adoption failures. We already go collectively nuts during the election cycle. Woe upon us all if we do that most of the time... which is what will happen.
The shutdown is what the GOP wanted if they couldn't have even more. They own the levers of power right now... so they CAN get what they want.
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I had a guy honk at me on my way to work this morning. He had a few vulgar words to say about by 2020 Biden/Harris bumper sticker that I've left in place. It all started with "Are you a Christian?" and went very non-turn-the-other-cheek from there.
This isn't just a fight for budget dollars. The nut jobs feel empowered right now, so don't tune out when you walk among strangers. Pay attention to your surroundings.
Would it be possible for the USA to adopt that simple strategy?
Not without a Constitutional amendment. Federal elections are determined by the calendar, not by anyone's choice.
This works to our advantage as well. DJT keeps hinting at cancelling elections for some "emergency", but there's no mechanism for doing that.
Well, constitutional amendments need to be passed by a whole bunch of states. Given that Republicans currently control over 30 state legislatures, I doubt this is the first problem they'd try to solve ... likely they'd start with bigger problems, e.g. the problem that women can get abortions, or that blacks can vote, or something like that.
The Dems in federal government have a lot less power than their voters imagine... and these voters are in denial about it.
It was because it seemed as if we did have a winning hand with more and more people blaming Republicans for their hardship. Unfortunately, it was analogous to the Republicans shooting a hostage every hour until they got what they wanted. Yes, they were being blamed, but the cost was too high.
I was angry at the Democratic caving at first, but I'm coming around to the notion that they held out long enough for the damage Republicans were doing to become apparent. If Republicans damage the ACA now, there's no way for them to blame Democrats.
This site says it better than I can:
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2025/Items/Nov12-1.html
We wish that, rather than poker, we had gone with retrenchment as our metaphor of choice on Monday. That's really a better characterization of what happened. The Democrats made some progress, concluded they would not be able to achieve their ultimate goal or goals, and fell back, presumably to fight another day.
We do not know what will happen next, of course. Certainly, in falling back, the Democrats had to give up some momentum and some goodwill from their base. And that could have been the wrong choice. However, if they so choose, they can resume the exact same fight at the end of January, when the budget is likely to run out again. In that case, they will likely or definitely have the following things going for them:
+ They will likely have a couple more months of Donald Trump showing fecklessness or callousness.
+ They will be considerably closer to election season.
+ They won't have to worry about SNAP recipients going hungry.
+ They won't have to worry about ruining people's holidays.
+ They will have lots of feedback from constituents, which will serve as both advice and motivation.
+ They will have time to come to a stronger consensus, among members in Congress, of the best way forward.
+ They will likely have, in their pockets, strong evidence of Republican indifference to people's health insurance costs.
If General Grant were here, we suspect he'd rather have a fight with these advantages than without.
So yeah.
"Not without a Constitutional amendment" is my way of saying, "Not until Hell freezes over."
Larry Hart
Here and in most countries, you can call an election early - as in a budget failure - but you can't delay one beyond the term
Alfred - to the rest of us the USA seems to be on a perpetual "election cycle" - can it get worse?
The solution is to limit the political spend
I've been seeing a lot of online disappointment and anger over the Democrat 'caving'. I've also seen sentiments echoing your own. Like Larry, I can sympathise with the former (it's frustrating!) but, hopefully, 'fighting another day' does prove to be the better strategy.
One thing caving did provide: in order to pass the budget, Thompson has had to reopen Congress, and finally swear in Grijalva, which means that the Epstein files are coming home to roost. How much of a distraction will they be, and to whom?
(some entries are already implicating Trump, *and* Thiel)
By the way, anyone with a bluesky account might like to put in a good word for Sarah Kendzior, whose account was suspended without explanation (or apparent reason) a couple of days ago.* A political reporter, and scathing critic of Trump and his enablers (irrespective of party). You don't have to agree with her views to realise this sort of treatment is wholly inappropriate.
* substack account: https://substack.com/@sarahkendzior/note/c-175914197
This weekend I'll begin posting my big 3-parter about the "Contract With America" and why we should do our own... and what should be in it. In fact, now that I think of it... I'll drop some of it down here for your comments. Starting with reforms to Congress:
PART I. REFORM CONGRESS
On the first day of the new Congress, our new Democratic majority will immediately pass the following major reforms of Congress itself, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people:
FIRST: We shall see to it that the very best parts of the 1994 Republican “Contract With America” -- the parts that the GOP immediately betrayed, ignored and forgot -- are finally implemented, both in letter and in spirit.
Among these good ideas that the GOP betrayed are these:
• Require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress;
• Arrange for regular audits of Congress for waste or abuse;
• Limit the terms of all committee chairs and party leadership posts;
• Ban the casting of proxy votes in committee and law-writing by lobbyists;
• Require that committee meetings be open to the public;
• Guarantee honest accounting of our Federal Budget.
…and in the same spirit…
• Members of Congress shall report openly all stock and other trades by the member or family, especially those trades which might be affected by the member’s inside knowledge.
By finally implementing these good ideas – some of which originated with decent Republicans - we show our openness to learn and to reach out, re-establishing a spirit of optimistic bipartisanship with sincere members of the opposing party, bringing ending an era of unwarranted and vicious political war.
But restoring those broken "contract' promises will only be the beginning.
Except for the last one, they were all in the Gingrich 1994 version.
Now comes a second reform that's wholly original with me:
SECOND: We shall establish rules in both House and Senate permanently allowing the minority party one hundred subpoenas per year, plus the time and staff needed to question their witnesses before open subcommittee hearings, ensuring that Congress will never again betray its Constitutional duty of investigation and oversight, even when the same party holds both Congress and the Executive.
As a possibly better alternative – to be negotiated – we shall establish a permanent rule and tradition that each member of Congress will get one peremptory subpoena per year, plus adequate funding to compel a witness to appear and testify for up to five hours before a subcommittee in which she or he is a member. In this way, each member will be encouraged to investigate as a sovereign representative and not just as a party member.
Planning for electoral mayhem:
https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2025/10/atlantics-december-cover-the-coming-election-mayhem/684716/
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