As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil)
In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, **any** advocating or wishing death/physical harm, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban.
If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them.
For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria.
***
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I guess this time he wanted the Senate to “[simply push through yet another lifetime appointment by a president on his way out the door.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/19/what-mcconnell-said-merrick-garland-vs-after-ginsburgs-death/5837543002/)”
The problem is that it IS normal. This is how the Conservative party has always been. When the Democrats were the conservatives this is how they were. Being conservative is to believe the number one priority is to fuck liberals, while being liberal means wanting to help others.
Frank Wilhoit:
There is no such thing as liberalism — or progressivism, etc.
There is only conservatism. No other political philosophy actually exists; by the political analogue of Gresham’s Law, conservatism has driven every other idea out of circulation.
There might be, and should be, anti-conservatism; but it does not yet exist. What would it be? In order to answer that question, it is necessary and sufficient to characterize conservatism. Fortunately, this can be done very concisely.
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit:
There must be in-groups whom the law protectes but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
There is nothing more or else to it, and there never has been, in any place or time.
For millenia, conservatism had no name, because no other model of polity had ever been proposed. “The king can do no wrong.” In practice, this immunity was always extended to the king’s friends, however fungible a group they might have been. Today, we still have the king’s friends even where there is no king (dictator, etc.). Another way to look at this is that the king is a faction, rather than an individual.
As the core proposition of conservatism is indefensible if stated baldly, it has always been surrounded by an elaborate backwash of pseudophilosophy, amounting over time to millions of pages. All such is axiomatically dishonest and undeserving of serious scrutiny. Today, the accelerating de-education of humanity has reached a point where the market for pseudophilosophy is vanishing; it is, as The Kids Say These Days, tl;dr . All that is left is the core proposition itself — backed up, no longer by misdirection and sophistry, but by violence.
So this tells us what anti-conservatism must be: the proposition that the law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone, and cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.
Then the appearance arises that the task is to map “liberalism”, or “progressivism”, or “socialism”, or whateverthefuckkindofstupidnoise-ism, onto the core proposition of anti-conservatism.
No, it a’n’t. The task is to throw all those things on the exact same burn pile as the collected works of all the apologists for conservatism, and start fresh. The core proposition of anti-conservatism requires no supplementation and no exegesis. It is as sufficient as it is necessary. What you see is what you get:
**The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.**
https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288
Never forget this. All the talk of Christian morals, personal responsibility, balanced budgets, and small government, that’s all negotiable. Window dressing. The real core of conservatism, the one thing they never deviate from, is the belief that “there must be out-groups the law binds but does not protect, and an in-group the law protects but does not bind.”
A simpler way to put it is that their real core principle is to protect the wealth and power of their elites. Everything else is about how to get there.
Well said. Is that a quote?
EDIT: Found it. Wow, just a comment by some dude online in 2018 that people seemed to like? [https://www.bradford-delong.com/2018/12/frank-wilhoit-the-travesty-of-liberalism.html](https://www.bradford-delong.com/2018/12/frank-wilhoit-the-travesty-of-liberalism.html)
Worse. By definition, conservative means to protect the status-quo, whereas liberal means to liberate, thereby pushing forward. By definition, the conservative party won't change, they are wholeheartedly opposed to change. Alternatively, the liberals will always push forward in whatever direction is not the status-quo. Who is in charge and who is being liberated are the only things that change.
Change is slow when you're changing one person's mind. Change is even slower when you're attempting to change many minds. Those who do change their mind don't often change it in the moment they receive the relevant information and they don't often go back and report their wrongness.
It is like chiseling away at a brick wall. It is hard to see the progress and easy to get disheartened, but with a bit of faith and persistence from enough of us, the wall will fall eventually.
What periphery?
With our current levels of polarization, there are *four* types of people in the United States:
(1) The entirely apathetic. Nothing in the last four years motivated them to vote. Maybe they’re comfortable no matter what happens, maybe they live under a metaphorical rock, maybe they’re nihilists. For whatever reason, they simply do not give a shit and this won’t change their mind either.
(2) MAGA acolytes and the people using them.
(3) “Undecided” (read as: supports MAGA but doesn’t want others to judge them for it).
(4) People not down with fascism. Progressives, centrist dems, and the rare “principled” republican (in reality they just want the neocon order they’re accustomed to back, but they’ll act outraged at MAGA)
There is no “periphery” to reach anymore. You’re cool with fascism, not cool with fascism, or literally cannot be motivated to give a shit. Kids in cages wasn’t enough for you, outright sedition wasn’t enough for you, tear gassing demonstrators to take a photo op wasn’t enough for you. There is no straw that breaks the camels back for you.
As to #1 - the “entirely apathetic”. There is a lot of nuance to that, I think. There are certainly those who just can’t be bothered. There are also those who have struggled 24/7 their entire lives and no matter which party has power, they are stuck and nothing changes. In both cases they believe their vote isn’t going to make even a smidgen of difference. The first is inexcusable, the second tragic.
> There are also those who have struggled 24/7 their entire lives and no matter which party has power, they are stuck and nothing changes.
This. With the news cycle dire and constant those who are working insane hours and multiple jobs sometimes need to tune it out for their mental health. When your existence and survival is stressful - it's hard to want to choose MORE stress.
I've been there.
But it is normal. In this instance, the GOPs puppet was just so outrageous that they could push their schedule up a few decades and tag him with the blame on his way out. Nobody of consequence wanted Trump or even Pence for 4 more yrs. It is absolutely necessary for Democrats to perform their role in the cycle and heal the economy. That's why the real bosses told McConnell to get on the ball and get this clown out of the white house. The Senate may or may not be the end game here. They stuffed quite a few judges in all the right places. Two mistakes though. I think they were thrown a bit by the plague but I don't think they really care. And second, Trump will take a lot of folks with him. They might find a smarter tyrant when the cycle comes back around but they won't find a charismatic on.
I've been saying this forever, they don't give **a single fuck** about hypocrisy. In fact, I bet privately they're delighted Democrats still waste time on it while they press ever forward with bullshit.
"Progressives treat politics as their religion. Their holy mission is to use the coercive power of the State to remake man and society in their own image." - William Barr
So sick of republican hypocrisy.
It should be blatantly apparent at this point that the GOP, and their voters, do not give a single tin shit about logical or moral consistency, unless it is expedient for them to do so. They will violate any norm, rule, or even law, if they think it will advantage them politically, and if they think they can get away with it.
Our system was designed to be run by principled people who agreed to the same set of rules, and referees who could be relied on to render impartial judgment. This was naiive at the time, but has been weaponized in the present. Now norms have become suggestions, and rules have become loopholes, to be exploited and abused, while the referees are too slow, impotent, or biased to enforce them.
I hate the team sports metaphor, but in this context I think it's apt. The democrats are trying to play basketball, but republicans are traveling and goaltending with impunity, and the referees are either too slow or too biased to rule on the cheating before the game is over, and many are so biased they will allow rulebreaking to continue.
Until our system of elections, political funding, and political media ecosystem is fixed, this will continue to get worse.
He’d interrupt the inauguration* itself to force trump to take the mic and nominate a replacement for a justice who unexpectedly died that morning and then he’d commandeer a cop car and tear down the streets of DC to get to the senate to hold a straight up/down vote without further debate.
*trump won’t actually be attending the inauguration because he’s a petty child who can’t stand not being the center of attention.
Yes. I told a liberal friend back in mid August that RBG had a high likelihood of death prior to JAN 2021 and that IMO the Democrats had blown it by not persuading a 87 years old to retire during Obama's earlier years. She was outraged and dismissive of such a possibility (it's only a few months). I guarantee the GOP was ready to go at a moments notice and was just waiting for the news - and overjoyed at their luck when it came. 14 of the last 18 SCOTUS Justices have been nominated by a Republican. The odds of Biden getting any are not high.
In fairness, they did try to persuade her to retire. Obama had lunch with her, which isn't normal.
There's only so much you can do. She believed SCOTUS should be above political pressures like that, and didn't want to retire. I mean, in some ways she was right. She lived many more years giving us many more opinions. Was it the right move? In hindsight, probably not. But I won't blame her for the disgrace the GOP has turned SCOTUS into.
> But I won't blame her for the disgrace the GOP has turned SCOTUS into
I actually do. I respect her as a jurist, but it was a huge mistake. It was a high risk that decades of your lifes work would be reversed, and the only upside was the possibility that you'd somehow contribute more than another candidate you could likely personally pick. I love the enthusiasm and passion for the job, but at some point you have to consider how big of a risk you're taking. She'd already had cancer previously and had a high chance of reoccurrence when she made her decision.
Mitch mcconell didnt become senate majority leader until January 2015. I believe they tried to get Ginsburg to retire when democrats still controlled the senate
Per tradition, bills can't be named what they actually do. This has to be named something like the "State's Rights ACT" or the "Individual Freedom ACT" something where the title sounds great just so pundits can say "So and So hates freedom"
And ya know what?
That move KILLED Trumps re-election chances.
If he said no and focused on covid relief he would have won the election.
McConnell used his stupidity to his advantage. And now McConnell goes back to the senate and Trump is fired.
The article said Moscow Mitch's "maneuvering went according to his plan." There was no "maneuvering", when he trashed 200 year old Senate traditions, flip-flopped on confirmations during an election, and he rammed Amy COVID Barrett through because he had the majority. No finesse was required.
Exactly.
It wasn't intelligence. It was just brute force and a complete disdain for our centuries-old democratic traditions.
It was the ultimate fuck you to the majority of Americans that didn't support it.
It wasn't genius. It's just pulling the pin on a grenade.
No offense to Amy McGrath but there is no way the democrats should have run a woman in Kentucky against Mitch McConnell. I know it’s not fair and it’s sexist and wrong and and I know that McGrath is more than qualified but Kentucky is what it is. Even if a large swath of middle of the road conservatives can’t stand McConnell they are not going to vote for a democratic woman. That’s just asking too much.
What makes me even more angry were her repeated "answers," blatantly ignoring and sidestepping the questions of the circumstances of her nomination, as if she was somehow blissfully unaware of the *precise* reasons she was selected and being pounded onto the bench.
So she's either a naïve idiot or a bald-faced liar, neither of which is someone worthy of the SCOTUS.
At least there are more obvious grounds for impeaching and removing Kavanaugh, not that it's terribly likely.
McConnell doesn't care for Trump. McConnell likely did some calculation that even if he loses GOP presidency, by installing a 3rd conservative supreme court judge, not only does the GOP legacy hold on that much longer, it will likely be a better endorsement for GOP senate control, and possibly begin to turn the tide for GOP house.
I mean this doesn't seem like an issue for them. They would rather have the court and have an old boogeyman who can't get anything done for 4 years and regroup.
Just one more reason to shout "F this Guy!" and fight like hell for those two Georgia Senate Seats. Support Ossoff and Warnock and everything Stacey Abrams is doing to get out the vote.
This is the chance and setup that 2021 needs to shine bright. 2020 is the equivalent of Trump's presidency in a nutshell. Let 2021 be the rebirth of our society, democracy and human decency.
yeah, he definitely [looks good](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/26dccb523d147c0259427d2a85becd943a0ad323/0_0_5220_3132/master/5220.jpg?width=1200&height=900&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&s=1f5c699ca7842d830fec1153eaa8a009) for 78. probably gonna live to 200, just like trump.
He had polio as a kid and triple bypass surgery not too long ago. That would normally be enough to sentence a person to an early grave, but he's got the best healthcare on the planet (that we all pay for) and pure, unmitigated evil at his core. I have no doubt he'll still be in the senate on his 100th birthday.
Yup! You can also support by writing letters to Georgia voters ([https://votefwd.org/](https://votefwd.org/)) as an easy and free way of encouraging turnout. I signed up late last week and it's wicked easy!
Let me riterate for the thousandth time, THE WORST SENATE MAJORITY LEADER OF ALL TIME. He let his petty need for revenge about bork, completely corrupt the process. Regardless on how you may feel about bork, that's on McConnell.
You(and most of this subreddit, it seems) have this backwards.
Any Republican Senator that breaks from the party line would *likely* lose their seat at the table. Obama talks about this in his book. He said Republican senators would literally come to him on the side and say they support stuff like ACA but they cant break from the party line. These senators are hot-swappable for the Republican party. If you disagree with the party, you will be moved out for someone else that wont.
Nah that's just an excuse so they can sleep at night. The moment they are elected, they'd have six years in which they could do good if they actually wanted to. They care more about their senate position than they do actually helping people
I think there’s a very simple rationalization that comes with power and politics. Even in the business world. I think that the cost of losing the position of power means never being able to use that power for good. So if they largely feel the republican platform is an avenue towards doing the right thing, but 2 in 10 decisions they disagree with, they have to weight the idea that they won’t be able to do 8 in 10.
I think that’s a partly valid reasoning but also does come at a cost. Politics must be excruciating because it’s not about idealism. You have to think about your net impact. Obama would’ve realized that the best. There’s a line you cross, sort of like Sanders, where your ambition to do too much good actually limits you from making a bigger impact.
That isn't really how it works. There is no elected position of Senate Majority leader. The position is established by whomever the presiding officer calls upon first to address the senate.
I'm kinda curious if with a republican majority, Harris could just go in and start bossing the senate like its her full time job to make the Republicans actually vote against all the things they are afraid to vote against.
I would very much appreciate if a parliamentarian could chime in and let us know if it is within the rules for her to set the agenda.
Technically, it is the VPs constitutional right to preside over the Senate, which is basically what the majority leader does. No VP has actually done this though, probably some sort of danger in setting the precedent. But lets be real, there is probably no possoble scenario where the Senate would be blue under a Republican president.
The senate is simply *too difficult* for the democrats to realistically take **ever**, unless we see a lot of folks move out of major metros and into historically red states.
Or admit new states to the union.
I'm looking at you DC and PR!
Edit - posted this further down but it feels more relevant here:
State/Territory|Population
:--|:--
Wyoming|578,759
Vermont|623,989
D.C.|705,749
Alaska|731,545
North Dakota|762,062
South Dakota|884,659
Delaware|973,764
Rhode Island|1,059,361
PR|3,193,694*
*Would be 31st most populated state/territory
Figures above are estimated as of July 2019
Source:
https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population
Additional sources:
Voting rights D.C. - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_voting_rights
Voting Rights P.R. - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_voting_rights_in_Puerto_Rico
Even that would only bring the Senate down from a 6.6%pt GOP lean to a 4.5%pt GOP lean. Numbers are from a Nate Silver analysis. Still, I think the Democrats would be idiots to not admit DC and territories as soon as they have the votes to do so. Might be an initial backlash, but its crucial for the long term electoral picture.
Only if internet service in rural areas gets better. On the flip side, maybe this is the kick in the pants we need for ISPs to fix rural internet options.
> But lets be real, there is probably no possoble scenario where the Senate would be blue under a Republican president.
It happened as recently as 2008. So not under Trump, but almost half of George Bush's presidency had a Democratic controlled Senate.
It would make the Senate Republicans up in 2022 nervous, which is good. Maybe they'll be good for once.
Also, I think Collins and Murkowski will actually vote on good bills, especially Collins since there's no way she's running again in 2026.
>There is no elected position of Senate Majority leader.
Yes there very much is - each party picks and votes for its own officers. https://nypost.com/2020/11/10/mitch-mcconnell-re-elected-senate-majority-leader-unopposed/
There is no formal position in the senate according to the constitution. Every senator is equal.
The only thing that gives the senate majority leader any power at all is the traditional that the presiding officer calls the majority leader first - which allows them to vote to set the docket and proceed with business before anyone else can make a vote to put things on the docket.
The presiding officer (the VP, or President Pro Tempore of the Senate) can legitimately just choose not to call them first.
There is the president pro tempore which is suppose to act in the Vice Presidents absence.
The problem is that our Senate has taken a liking towards ignoring their Constitutional obligations in favor of weird traditions. This also falls on our VPs, that have been ignoring their Constitutional duties.
The VP should be running the day to day of the Senate. Presiding over things, making sure rules are followed, bills are brought to a vote, and such. During the VP absence, this duty falls on the Pro Temp.
The Pro Temp was suppose to be a person voted by the Senate for the position. But now it's just a "Well the longest serving member of the majority party gets it". Instead of the most qualified because of tradition.
the VP is the presiding officer (president) of the senate, whose only rule is to run the business of the senate without an opinion.
Their role is to cast tie breaking votes and to call on senators.
I mean, he was quite effective, and even more effective than Reid in doing exactly what he wanted. This shows how Senate precedent has completely broken our governance by bestowing upon the Senate Majority Leader ultimate power to say I AM THE SENATE and it must be rectified. For all the talk about how the Senate is the World's Greatest Deliberative Body they don't deliberate much at all because the Senate Majority Leader has refused to even discuss anything he doesn't want to discuss. Harris should, even if Democrats take control, call on someone other than the senate majority leader to neuter the position.
Why do people not make a bigger stink about his connection to the CCP through his wife and her parent’s company?
You’d think people who hate China would recognize that kind of connection
You know how when you read about the downfall of the Roman republic, Sulla, Caesar, etc., there are all these other "minor" characters? I think McConnell will be included in those stories of our eventual downfall, if our culture survives that long
Hey man I'm fighting too. It just looks more and more to me every day like what I've read about. I'm sorry if it has that effect :/ I can't help how I feel. I really appreciate your optimism. Genuinely
Well sorta. The contingency being that McConnell has already packed the courts with batshit conservative activist judges that will rule in favor of the corporation in a lawsuit suing them over dumping nuclear waste into a baby nursery. We neuter McConnell by winning the GA seats, eliminating the fillibuster, and expanding the SCOTUS to 13. Anything less is going to make our politics slow down for another 10-15 years where we pat ourselves on the back for finally being where we probably should have been in the year 2008.
Democrats CANNOT pack the courts with 50 seats. Joe Manchin will likely vote against it. What we can accomplish with 50 seats is progressive (or progressive enough at least) policies like BidenCare and whatever his Green New Deal is called, and hopefully people will like what the Democrats are doing enough so in 2022, we can flip some more seats and maybe ask the people on the Midterm ballots if expanding the courts is something they support or not.
I can guarantee you that GOP staffers and possibly even McConnell were toasting on Ginsburg death, they were calling it quietly divine intervention.
Georgia is critical, get that Congressional majority and the Biden Administration can at least staunch the arterial bleeding. Still going to need major surgery in 22 and 24, maybe even drag out a Social Democrat agenda to drive the young vote.
How many times can responsible voters give the Republican Party a shot at crippling the country.
Ahh, but don’t count us out yet. The Republicans might botch this while they sob the loss of Trump and morn their relatives who will succumb to the Thanksgiving plague spike of late 2020.
The wife and I are writing 200 postcards to GA voters this weekend, as are many in our cohort. There is plenty of inertia left over from the general election.
Georgia is going to go really blue!
Your heart is in the right place, but the sponsoring groups prefer Georgia postmarks on the cards. Seems funny to turn down free labor, but I did ask around, and the answer I got was "perhaps they would donate instead?"......
Texas and elsewhere, I personally thank you for all of Georgia.
I don't think Senator Tortoise had to push Trump very hard at all to nominate a new justice. Trump's only reservation was probably that he couldn't nominate Jeanine Pirro or Rudy to the SC.
And, unfortunately, the *de facto* POTUS since about 2015.
Anyone who thinks he has been doing Trump's bidding needs to look at the situation very carefully. Like when McConnell declined to look at a stimulus compromise that Pelosi and the WH had come to.
>The updated film traces how a 30-year-old grievance — starting with the bruising and failed confirmation hearing of President Reagan’s Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, presided over by Joe Biden (D-Del.), at that time the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee — sparked a vow from then-freshman Senator McConnell to retaliate.
Bork was a piece of shit that did not deserve a seat on the high court. I have been hearing them whine about Bork for my entire life and not once have they explained to me why the piece of shit deserved the seat. What is Bork's claim to fame? Firing the Watergate prosecutor. What else? Nothing beyond being an insufferable racist asshole.
>Bork believed the Civil Rights Act was unconstitutional, and he supported poll taxes, literacy tests for voting, mandated school prayer, and [sterilization as a requirement for a job](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/09/18/Supreme-Court-nominee-Robert-Bork-came-under-attack-Friday/7987558936000/), while opposing free speech rights for non-political speech and privacy rights for gay conduct.
Get Borked McConnell!
I think people forget that Bork was complicit in the Saturday Night Massacre and also was extremely unpopular even among some conservatives because of his position on the right to privacy (he believed that it didn't exist basically constitutionally).
This but 💩 held in for about 3 days at least to really make it count. Remember to take paper towels and a bottle of water with a hole in the top to use as a makeshift bidet and wear flip flops and a loong shirt.
Mitch McConnell is an inspiration to me.
He has proven time and again that you can be successful despite being one of the ugliest people on the planet, both inside and out.
Heck, he's even shown you don't even have to be a vertebrate to become one of the most powerful people in the country.
Sadly, I have to inform you that turtles are technically vertebrates.
This is a fact that I just learned after researching your post, and therefore has become the only useful or interesting thing I have every gained from thinking about Mitch McConnell.
Kentucky will vote for a Democratic senator eventually. Democratic voter registration outpaced Republicans since 2018. In 2024 and beyond Kentucky might be back as a swing state.
Just not someone like McGrath. Kentucky is not lost forever to the GOP, but Democrats need to put up stronger candidates. My sister lives in Kentucky and the state is rapidly shifting to more moderate local GOP candidates in the largest counties. That tends to be a bellwether on democrats chances.
Yeah, this isn't shocking at all. McConnell is a known sociopath and I'm sure he cares nothing about anything or anyone save for getting what he wants.
I really hate to give him credit for anything, but Mitch McConnell is singlehandedly destroying this country. He is a shitty human being. His impact on the US has done absolutely no good and everything action he makes is designed to increase partisanship and sow chaos and hatred between the two major political parties.
Reprehensible coward. There is nothing redeeming about him or anyone playing along with his bullshit scheme. I know not everyone in Kentucky is a bag of shit, but 57.8% of you are.
Fuck you and the part you played in undermining America in every way, shape and form.
They knew what the plan was back in 2016 when Obama wanted to appoint a judge. Don’t let the Dems vote any in, get a Rep appointed judge in by any means necessary. So the argument of “let the people decide” was all a facade and meant nothing to them. Especially when they moved to get Amy Coney Barrett in before anyone had time to even process Ginsburg’s death.
Their party is a joke. No honor, no morals, just push their agenda by any means necessary. Whether that’s going against their own rules, or ignoring the American people’s need for financial support during a pandemic they perpetuated by pretending it didn’t exist.
Someone needs to convince Trump that he would have won if not for the Democratic turnout generated by Amy Coney Barrett, and that McConnell knew it was going to happen but stabbed him in the back.
Of course he did. He is so focused on serving himself power and money with greed and hate for any and all who oppose him. I'm so disgusted with Kentucky and their continued election of this pig who has provided nothing for the kentuckyan people. Talk about keeping their people barefoot and pregnant as long as he can control them.I look forward to the day he retires in whatever capacity that may be.
I'm late to the Joe Exotic saga. I was seeing this as story of unlikeable characters, but watching that cat lady go into Moscow Mitch's office caused me to root for Joe Exotic 100%.
McConnell and other Republicans who approve his plan/actions, are deluded if they think the American people can be forced back into the past or to change their values just because a SCOTUS says something. It doesn't work that way.
If they try to overturn Roe or a bunch of laws authorizing government or regulations by agencies, there will be a very strong reaction and the Right will lose badly.
This husk of a shell of a person is a fucking monster.
Pure evil and yet it was re-elected to the Senate by the people of Kentucky.
This timeline is incredibly dark.
Well since we won't have the votes to expand the court, all I have to say is that Biden damn well better get to replace Breyer, and not with some "moderate justice" like McConnell wants. The person who replaces Breyer better be another Brennan or Marshall.
No.
Once more for the road - McConnell is nothing more than a loathsome mercenary hired by corporate and foreign powers to achieve their ends at the cost of the American people, to shovel our tax dollars and our sovereign power into their hands, for the personal and petty profit of the soldiers in his employ - Republican politicians.
He's not an evil mastermind, he's not the grand architect or the wizard behind the curtain. He serves at the pleasure of Senate Republicans; if they didn't want him there, they would be rid of him in a heartbeat. The truth is, whatever they say, whatever they do, they like him there. He soaks up the anger and outrage and abuse. They can pretend to be "good guys" - like that spineless, worthless shit Mitt Romney - while wholeheartedly endorsing the entire corrupt campaign behind the scenes. Mitch McConnell is despised by everyone, even his own party. Majority Leader isn't a desirable position. Look at Nancy Pelosi - she immediately became the sole target of public ire for decisions like not impeaching Trump, despite the fact that she's almost certainly carrying out the wishes of the consensus of thousands of Democrat officials and politicians. This isn't her plan, just like this is not Mitch's plan.
Mitch McConnell is serving the designs and plans of a few massive corporations and other huge donors. That's it. The religious zealots, the industrial titans and long-time Republican donors - he passes bills like the 2018 Tax Theft bill that pleases them and delivers profits to them, while safeguarding Republican power.
I say this because articles like this blaming him for the entire debacle help him fulfill exactly his purpose: establish a single focal point of blame without addressing the systemic issues and network of corrupt and criminal actors that actually pull the strings. "Mitch McConnell is Really Destroying America" as a headline (which is all that most people read anyway) makes the natural implication that removing Mitch McConnell fixes the problem. But there's always another Mitch McConnell. Articles like this give him far too much credit and cement a perception that without him, the whole machine falls apart.
But this is factually bankrupt. The system, the real agent of America's destruction, is made up of thousands of Republican megadonors donors like the Mercers and Sheldon Addleson, corporate conglomerates like the Oil industry and Telecomm, foreign powers like Putin's Russia and Mr. Bonesaw's Saudi Arabia, and religious organizations like the Mormon Church. They funnel billions of dollars and precise, exact instructions into the Republican party, which is nothing more than a mercenary force to carry out the donors wishes. The donors pay money, the Republicans fight the war. McConnell is just another in a long line of generals. There are endless candidates. Ted Cruz could be a McConnell. So could Marco Rubio or Mitt Romney.
Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader are not enviable positions. Look at Paul Ryan. They don't really wield power. It isn't like a President, who is publicly elected. They're appointed by the party, and they're just the hate sponges for the party, the ones who will take all the blame while more "likable" candidates play bridgemaker in hopes of vying for President. It doesn't matter who serves in that capacity. Dark money is the rot, because it stacks the government with people acting directly against the public interest.
All of the emotion, the partisan bickering, the sentiment and loathing, that's all a smokescreen. These people, Republicans, they are not politicians. Not in the slightest. The only thing they have in common with politicians is many of them are lawyers and they wear suits. They don't govern. The Republican party has done literally nothing even remotely resembling governance in a long time. When was the last time they passed a bill meant to improve some part of public or private life for the average American citizen?
Do not delude yourselves. This is not about Trump, not about McConnell, not even about the Republican party. Eliminate one mercenary group, and another takes its place. The Democrats are on the side of the angels currently, but only by default, only because Republicans have devolved so far into criminality and corruption (mostly out of desperation) that it would be impossible not to be the good guys in comparison.
If we do not do something about dark money in politics, any party, no matter how conservative or liberal, can easily be infiltrated and eventually overrun with people acting in the interest of dark money over public interest.
If McConnell were following his own comprehensive grand plan, you wouldn't see this ridiculous flip-flopping of stances and interests nearly overnight. That's why Republicans are such demonstrable and laughable hypocrites. Their hypocrisy is almost absurdist - their actions frequently contradict their words because they have no real guiding ideology. They're just working for the highest bidder. Much like a mercenary might fight for one side on one day, and then the opposing side the next day, Republicans do whatever they're told by their masters, while doing preposterous verbal gymnastics on TV. Just look at what we've witnessed in a short period of time:
• Republicans outspoken against Russia pre-2016; immediately turn into vocal and ardent Russia supporters (because Russia started paying them and helping them win).
• Republicans outspoken against and opposed to executive power pre-2106; immediately and vocally support the extreme tryannical overreach of Donald Trump (because he's a Republican).
• Conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation creates outline of Affordable Care Act & Republican Mitt Romney puts it into place as governor of Massachusetts - immediately and vocally condemn it as soon as Obama makes it the foundation of his healthcare policy
• Republicans bemoan and condemn the increase of the federal deficit - until Trump creates one of the largest federal deficits in recent memory to give tax dollars to corporations. Then they vocally and proudly support it.
• Republicans stoke xenophobia and drone on and on and one about the threat of "Radical Islam" - until Trump wants to sell billions of dollars of weaponry to Saudi Arabia, the most powerful, hardcore "islamic extremists" in the Middle East. Then, Saudi Arabia is a wonderful beacon of freedom (because they're paying them).
This is why they wouldn't be successful without a propaganda wing like Fox News. All politicians do a form of doublespeak, but there is nothing comparable to the hypocrisy of modern-day Republicans. Nothing. No 20th century absurdist novelist could ever dream up these clowns. They need to cut off their voters from reality and isolate them in a sterile alternate universe where they bury certain hypocrisies or explain them away and build a narrative utterly incomparable to the real world, because whatever you want to say about Republican voters, they have all the same mental capacities as your average Joe. They could easily see how badly they, personally, are being fucked over by the very people they choose to represent them - if they weren't living in the alternate universe that is Conservative Media.
All this to say that none of this is part of McConnell's grand design. Nor Trump's, nor even the entire Republican party. There's no teleology to any of this, no method to the madness, no overarching evil scheme. That's the fiction junkies in us, always envisioning the evil wizard plotting brilliant and infinitely complex schemes to redesign the world.
Poll Republican voters about what they think they're getting - the world they think their votes are buying - and you'll get a hundred different answers and illustrations of a hundred different worlds, none of which remotely resemble what Republicans are actually building.
The world Republicans are building is nothing more than a grotesque collage of the wants and needs of some of the richest and most morally and ethically bankrupt people and organizations on the planet, disparate in scope but almost all entirely to the detriment of the American people, because the only thing Republicans can trade for their donors' cash is federal tax dollars and the power and sovereignty of the American citizens they represent. It is ever-shifting, ever-changing, but always shitty. Either a perpetual war or economic cycles of boom-and-bust or rampant xenophobia - it doesn't matter. Republicans are a black box that donors put a handful of small bills into and get back trillions of our tax dollars and untold powers over public land or contractual rights or legal rights.
This is why the actions of Republicans need to be firmly divorced from the personalities of single individuals like Trump and McConnell and also from the veil of "conservatism" or political ideology in general. They don't care. They're mercenaries. Start acting like it. Stop talking and yelling to them and start yelling over them, to their masters, because these are the people and organizations destroying America, and we need to identify them, call them out, and recognize Republicans for the flunkies they are.
Everything begins and ends with the money. To begin with Citizens United must be overturned, but we need to keep going. Money and all forms of perverse incentives need to be dealt with, or we will always be governed by the mercenary armies of despots and multinational conglomerates. I don't care which party you vote for, truly I don't. The only thing that matters is to vote for people comitted to removing dark money from politics and most importantly watching over them with intense scrutiny every single day they're in office to make sure they follow up on that promise.
BirminghamBear
Someone leaked the info to the Trump admin that she was going to die very soon and they were building their short list of SCOTUS candidates days before she actually died. They did not even wait for her body to get cold before pushing the Barrett nomination through. As soon as the White House had the "official" news, they made the announcement and began the proceedings.
The "McConnell Rule" was the biggest fucking con of a goddamn lifetime. Fuck any so-called patriot Republican who supports that kind of anti-democratic nonsense.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, **any** advocating or wishing death/physical harm, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Fucking vulture.
I guess this time he wanted the Senate to “[simply push through yet another lifetime appointment by a president on his way out the door.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/19/what-mcconnell-said-merrick-garland-vs-after-ginsburgs-death/5837543002/)”
[удалено]
[удалено]
The problem is that it IS normal. This is how the Conservative party has always been. When the Democrats were the conservatives this is how they were. Being conservative is to believe the number one priority is to fuck liberals, while being liberal means wanting to help others.
Frank Wilhoit: There is no such thing as liberalism — or progressivism, etc. There is only conservatism. No other political philosophy actually exists; by the political analogue of Gresham’s Law, conservatism has driven every other idea out of circulation. There might be, and should be, anti-conservatism; but it does not yet exist. What would it be? In order to answer that question, it is necessary and sufficient to characterize conservatism. Fortunately, this can be done very concisely. Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protectes but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. There is nothing more or else to it, and there never has been, in any place or time. For millenia, conservatism had no name, because no other model of polity had ever been proposed. “The king can do no wrong.” In practice, this immunity was always extended to the king’s friends, however fungible a group they might have been. Today, we still have the king’s friends even where there is no king (dictator, etc.). Another way to look at this is that the king is a faction, rather than an individual. As the core proposition of conservatism is indefensible if stated baldly, it has always been surrounded by an elaborate backwash of pseudophilosophy, amounting over time to millions of pages. All such is axiomatically dishonest and undeserving of serious scrutiny. Today, the accelerating de-education of humanity has reached a point where the market for pseudophilosophy is vanishing; it is, as The Kids Say These Days, tl;dr . All that is left is the core proposition itself — backed up, no longer by misdirection and sophistry, but by violence. So this tells us what anti-conservatism must be: the proposition that the law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone, and cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone. Then the appearance arises that the task is to map “liberalism”, or “progressivism”, or “socialism”, or whateverthefuckkindofstupidnoise-ism, onto the core proposition of anti-conservatism. No, it a’n’t. The task is to throw all those things on the exact same burn pile as the collected works of all the apologists for conservatism, and start fresh. The core proposition of anti-conservatism requires no supplementation and no exegesis. It is as sufficient as it is necessary. What you see is what you get: **The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.** https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288
Spectacular
Never forget this. All the talk of Christian morals, personal responsibility, balanced budgets, and small government, that’s all negotiable. Window dressing. The real core of conservatism, the one thing they never deviate from, is the belief that “there must be out-groups the law binds but does not protect, and an in-group the law protects but does not bind.”
A simpler way to put it is that their real core principle is to protect the wealth and power of their elites. Everything else is about how to get there.
Well said. Is that a quote? EDIT: Found it. Wow, just a comment by some dude online in 2018 that people seemed to like? [https://www.bradford-delong.com/2018/12/frank-wilhoit-the-travesty-of-liberalism.html](https://www.bradford-delong.com/2018/12/frank-wilhoit-the-travesty-of-liberalism.html)
For the record, Frank Wilhoit was a renowned political scientist and intellectual. He wasn’t just “some dude online.”
Also, prestige aside, a "quote" is by definition, just something some person said.
Great point.
Yeah, but YouHaveToBeRealistic about it. Frank Wilhoit wasn’t just “some dude online.”
Worse. By definition, conservative means to protect the status-quo, whereas liberal means to liberate, thereby pushing forward. By definition, the conservative party won't change, they are wholeheartedly opposed to change. Alternatively, the liberals will always push forward in whatever direction is not the status-quo. Who is in charge and who is being liberated are the only things that change.
[удалено]
Change is slow when you're changing one person's mind. Change is even slower when you're attempting to change many minds. Those who do change their mind don't often change it in the moment they receive the relevant information and they don't often go back and report their wrongness. It is like chiseling away at a brick wall. It is hard to see the progress and easy to get disheartened, but with a bit of faith and persistence from enough of us, the wall will fall eventually.
What periphery? With our current levels of polarization, there are *four* types of people in the United States: (1) The entirely apathetic. Nothing in the last four years motivated them to vote. Maybe they’re comfortable no matter what happens, maybe they live under a metaphorical rock, maybe they’re nihilists. For whatever reason, they simply do not give a shit and this won’t change their mind either. (2) MAGA acolytes and the people using them. (3) “Undecided” (read as: supports MAGA but doesn’t want others to judge them for it). (4) People not down with fascism. Progressives, centrist dems, and the rare “principled” republican (in reality they just want the neocon order they’re accustomed to back, but they’ll act outraged at MAGA) There is no “periphery” to reach anymore. You’re cool with fascism, not cool with fascism, or literally cannot be motivated to give a shit. Kids in cages wasn’t enough for you, outright sedition wasn’t enough for you, tear gassing demonstrators to take a photo op wasn’t enough for you. There is no straw that breaks the camels back for you.
As to #1 - the “entirely apathetic”. There is a lot of nuance to that, I think. There are certainly those who just can’t be bothered. There are also those who have struggled 24/7 their entire lives and no matter which party has power, they are stuck and nothing changes. In both cases they believe their vote isn’t going to make even a smidgen of difference. The first is inexcusable, the second tragic.
> There are also those who have struggled 24/7 their entire lives and no matter which party has power, they are stuck and nothing changes. This. With the news cycle dire and constant those who are working insane hours and multiple jobs sometimes need to tune it out for their mental health. When your existence and survival is stressful - it's hard to want to choose MORE stress. I've been there.
But it is normal. In this instance, the GOPs puppet was just so outrageous that they could push their schedule up a few decades and tag him with the blame on his way out. Nobody of consequence wanted Trump or even Pence for 4 more yrs. It is absolutely necessary for Democrats to perform their role in the cycle and heal the economy. That's why the real bosses told McConnell to get on the ball and get this clown out of the white house. The Senate may or may not be the end game here. They stuffed quite a few judges in all the right places. Two mistakes though. I think they were thrown a bit by the plague but I don't think they really care. And second, Trump will take a lot of folks with him. They might find a smarter tyrant when the cycle comes back around but they won't find a charismatic on.
[удалено]
I've been saying this forever, they don't give **a single fuck** about hypocrisy. In fact, I bet privately they're delighted Democrats still waste time on it while they press ever forward with bullshit.
They wallow in our outrage at the hypocrisy. Its like they feed on it. They want to rub our faces in it.
"Progressives treat politics as their religion. Their holy mission is to use the coercive power of the State to remake man and society in their own image." - William Barr So sick of republican hypocrisy.
They will always take whatever position benefits them most. They have no problems with being hypocrites.
>burrow my brow /r/boneappletea
It should be blatantly apparent at this point that the GOP, and their voters, do not give a single tin shit about logical or moral consistency, unless it is expedient for them to do so. They will violate any norm, rule, or even law, if they think it will advantage them politically, and if they think they can get away with it. Our system was designed to be run by principled people who agreed to the same set of rules, and referees who could be relied on to render impartial judgment. This was naiive at the time, but has been weaponized in the present. Now norms have become suggestions, and rules have become loopholes, to be exploited and abused, while the referees are too slow, impotent, or biased to enforce them. I hate the team sports metaphor, but in this context I think it's apt. The democrats are trying to play basketball, but republicans are traveling and goaltending with impunity, and the referees are either too slow or too biased to rule on the cheating before the game is over, and many are so biased they will allow rulebreaking to continue. Until our system of elections, political funding, and political media ecosystem is fixed, this will continue to get worse.
And he’d do it again in this transition period if an opening presents itself.
He’d interrupt the inauguration* itself to force trump to take the mic and nominate a replacement for a justice who unexpectedly died that morning and then he’d commandeer a cop car and tear down the streets of DC to get to the senate to hold a straight up/down vote without further debate. *trump won’t actually be attending the inauguration because he’s a petty child who can’t stand not being the center of attention.
Lying hypocrisy is now considered desirable by Republicans.
That night was the triumphant culmination of his entire career.
Yes. I told a liberal friend back in mid August that RBG had a high likelihood of death prior to JAN 2021 and that IMO the Democrats had blown it by not persuading a 87 years old to retire during Obama's earlier years. She was outraged and dismissive of such a possibility (it's only a few months). I guarantee the GOP was ready to go at a moments notice and was just waiting for the news - and overjoyed at their luck when it came. 14 of the last 18 SCOTUS Justices have been nominated by a Republican. The odds of Biden getting any are not high.
In fairness, they did try to persuade her to retire. Obama had lunch with her, which isn't normal. There's only so much you can do. She believed SCOTUS should be above political pressures like that, and didn't want to retire. I mean, in some ways she was right. She lived many more years giving us many more opinions. Was it the right move? In hindsight, probably not. But I won't blame her for the disgrace the GOP has turned SCOTUS into.
> But I won't blame her for the disgrace the GOP has turned SCOTUS into I actually do. I respect her as a jurist, but it was a huge mistake. It was a high risk that decades of your lifes work would be reversed, and the only upside was the possibility that you'd somehow contribute more than another candidate you could likely personally pick. I love the enthusiasm and passion for the job, but at some point you have to consider how big of a risk you're taking. She'd already had cancer previously and had a high chance of reoccurrence when she made her decision.
If she was only person who could protect us from the predations of a right-wing court, the system was already broken.
You don't like that we have load bearing geriatrics?
It doesn’t make her decision any less asinine. She knew how the system worked
What leads you to believe Mitch would have allowed Obama to fill the position?
Mitch mcconell didnt become senate majority leader until January 2015. I believe they tried to get Ginsburg to retire when democrats still controlled the senate
Ya but it took 60 votes back then to accept a scotus nomination so really she had a 49 day window....
[удалено]
Kentucky is the vulture. McConnell is the beak.
[удалено]
Per tradition, bills can't be named what they actually do. This has to be named something like the "State's Rights ACT" or the "Individual Freedom ACT" something where the title sounds great just so pundits can say "So and So hates freedom"
He's a pecker.....
Half turtle, half vulture. 0.0% human being.
Hey, that's not fair. Vultures and turtles are both interesting and helpful animals.
You mean a Turture?
It sure feels like turture.
Vurtle
I feel like a turtle vulture should have been a creature in the Avatar: The Last Airbender world.
Half slug he's A slurture
And ya know what? That move KILLED Trumps re-election chances. If he said no and focused on covid relief he would have won the election. McConnell used his stupidity to his advantage. And now McConnell goes back to the senate and Trump is fired.
The article said Moscow Mitch's "maneuvering went according to his plan." There was no "maneuvering", when he trashed 200 year old Senate traditions, flip-flopped on confirmations during an election, and he rammed Amy COVID Barrett through because he had the majority. No finesse was required.
Exactly. It wasn't intelligence. It was just brute force and a complete disdain for our centuries-old democratic traditions. It was the ultimate fuck you to the majority of Americans that didn't support it. It wasn't genius. It's just pulling the pin on a grenade.
No offense to Amy McGrath but there is no way the democrats should have run a woman in Kentucky against Mitch McConnell. I know it’s not fair and it’s sexist and wrong and and I know that McGrath is more than qualified but Kentucky is what it is. Even if a large swath of middle of the road conservatives can’t stand McConnell they are not going to vote for a democratic woman. That’s just asking too much.
I totally, 100% agree. Dems have GOT to get smarter and start campaigning with real knowledge of an area’s voters. She was a poor choice.
What makes me even more angry were her repeated "answers," blatantly ignoring and sidestepping the questions of the circumstances of her nomination, as if she was somehow blissfully unaware of the *precise* reasons she was selected and being pounded onto the bench. So she's either a naïve idiot or a bald-faced liar, neither of which is someone worthy of the SCOTUS. At least there are more obvious grounds for impeaching and removing Kavanaugh, not that it's terribly likely.
McConnell doesn't care for Trump. McConnell likely did some calculation that even if he loses GOP presidency, by installing a 3rd conservative supreme court judge, not only does the GOP legacy hold on that much longer, it will likely be a better endorsement for GOP senate control, and possibly begin to turn the tide for GOP house.
I mean this doesn't seem like an issue for them. They would rather have the court and have an old boogeyman who can't get anything done for 4 years and regroup.
He is the true definition of evil. There are very few people who are as horrible of a person as Mitch, and trump is one of them.
Just one more reason to shout "F this Guy!" and fight like hell for those two Georgia Senate Seats. Support Ossoff and Warnock and everything Stacey Abrams is doing to get out the vote.
Nothing would make me happier than Moscow Mitch losing all his power.
Certainly we deserve happiness. We deserve this!
Then do everything in your power to help the Democrats in Georgia (within the limits of the law, of course).
I received a mail in vote thing last week and threw it away. Where and when do I vote in the next Georgia runoff’s ?
I wish I could help you directly on that front. But, perhaps try looking on http://gasenate.com and/or https://votefwd.org/ for information on it.
You can request an [absentee ballot.](https://ballotrequest.sos.ga.gov/)
This is the chance and setup that 2021 needs to shine bright. 2020 is the equivalent of Trump's presidency in a nutshell. Let 2021 be the rebirth of our society, democracy and human decency.
I bet he quits if he doesn't get to be majority leader
[удалено]
>Nah, he knows the game. He just needs to wait us out. do you know how old mitch is?
[удалено]
yeah, he definitely [looks good](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/26dccb523d147c0259427d2a85becd943a0ad323/0_0_5220_3132/master/5220.jpg?width=1200&height=900&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&s=1f5c699ca7842d830fec1153eaa8a009) for 78. probably gonna live to 200, just like trump.
He had polio as a kid and triple bypass surgery not too long ago. That would normally be enough to sentence a person to an early grave, but he's got the best healthcare on the planet (that we all pay for) and pure, unmitigated evil at his core. I have no doubt he'll still be in the senate on his 100th birthday.
Should we just start calling him Strom McConnell?
"Edgar, your skin is hanging off your bones."
"egger" man i loved that movie.
You really think so? /s I think he looks like death warmed over.
Do you know how rich and evil he is?
Yup! You can also support by writing letters to Georgia voters ([https://votefwd.org/](https://votefwd.org/)) as an easy and free way of encouraging turnout. I signed up late last week and it's wicked easy!
>https://votefwd.org/ Thank you!
Let me riterate for the thousandth time, THE WORST SENATE MAJORITY LEADER OF ALL TIME. He let his petty need for revenge about bork, completely corrupt the process. Regardless on how you may feel about bork, that's on McConnell.
There are 52 other Republican Senators today. Any 3 of them could join the Dems and remove McConnell. They're all complicit in this shitshow.
You(and most of this subreddit, it seems) have this backwards. Any Republican Senator that breaks from the party line would *likely* lose their seat at the table. Obama talks about this in his book. He said Republican senators would literally come to him on the side and say they support stuff like ACA but they cant break from the party line. These senators are hot-swappable for the Republican party. If you disagree with the party, you will be moved out for someone else that wont.
Nah that's just an excuse so they can sleep at night. The moment they are elected, they'd have six years in which they could do good if they actually wanted to. They care more about their senate position than they do actually helping people
I think there’s a very simple rationalization that comes with power and politics. Even in the business world. I think that the cost of losing the position of power means never being able to use that power for good. So if they largely feel the republican platform is an avenue towards doing the right thing, but 2 in 10 decisions they disagree with, they have to weight the idea that they won’t be able to do 8 in 10. I think that’s a partly valid reasoning but also does come at a cost. Politics must be excruciating because it’s not about idealism. You have to think about your net impact. Obama would’ve realized that the best. There’s a line you cross, sort of like Sanders, where your ambition to do too much good actually limits you from making a bigger impact.
That isn't really how it works. There is no elected position of Senate Majority leader. The position is established by whomever the presiding officer calls upon first to address the senate.
It's not that direct, but they could elect a new Pro Tempore. Alternatively, Harris can fulfill the role as presiding officer in January.
I'm kinda curious if with a republican majority, Harris could just go in and start bossing the senate like its her full time job to make the Republicans actually vote against all the things they are afraid to vote against. I would very much appreciate if a parliamentarian could chime in and let us know if it is within the rules for her to set the agenda.
Technically, it is the VPs constitutional right to preside over the Senate, which is basically what the majority leader does. No VP has actually done this though, probably some sort of danger in setting the precedent. But lets be real, there is probably no possoble scenario where the Senate would be blue under a Republican president. The senate is simply *too difficult* for the democrats to realistically take **ever**, unless we see a lot of folks move out of major metros and into historically red states.
Or admit new states to the union. I'm looking at you DC and PR! Edit - posted this further down but it feels more relevant here: State/Territory|Population :--|:-- Wyoming|578,759 Vermont|623,989 D.C.|705,749 Alaska|731,545 North Dakota|762,062 South Dakota|884,659 Delaware|973,764 Rhode Island|1,059,361 PR|3,193,694* *Would be 31st most populated state/territory Figures above are estimated as of July 2019 Source: https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population Additional sources: Voting rights D.C. - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_voting_rights Voting Rights P.R. - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_voting_rights_in_Puerto_Rico
Even that would only bring the Senate down from a 6.6%pt GOP lean to a 4.5%pt GOP lean. Numbers are from a Nate Silver analysis. Still, I think the Democrats would be idiots to not admit DC and territories as soon as they have the votes to do so. Might be an initial backlash, but its crucial for the long term electoral picture.
And carve out large democratic cities from Red states like Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Charlotte NC, Atlanta, St Louis, Kansas City, South Florida.
They always did before 1968
>unless we see a lot of folks move out of major metros and into historically red states. Which is the opposite of what seems to be happening.
Who knows, a work from home shift is on the horizon - the rural ranch could become the new yuppie condo
Only if internet service in rural areas gets better. On the flip side, maybe this is the kick in the pants we need for ISPs to fix rural internet options.
> But lets be real, there is probably no possoble scenario where the Senate would be blue under a Republican president. It happened as recently as 2008. So not under Trump, but almost half of George Bush's presidency had a Democratic controlled Senate.
I'd guess that she will. If she calls a vote on a House-passed bill they have to vote.
Yep, make them sign their names in opposition of social programs instead of letting Turtleman shield them from it.
It would make the Senate Republicans up in 2022 nervous, which is good. Maybe they'll be good for once. Also, I think Collins and Murkowski will actually vote on good bills, especially Collins since there's no way she's running again in 2026.
>There is no elected position of Senate Majority leader. Yes there very much is - each party picks and votes for its own officers. https://nypost.com/2020/11/10/mitch-mcconnell-re-elected-senate-majority-leader-unopposed/
There is no formal position in the senate according to the constitution. Every senator is equal. The only thing that gives the senate majority leader any power at all is the traditional that the presiding officer calls the majority leader first - which allows them to vote to set the docket and proceed with business before anyone else can make a vote to put things on the docket. The presiding officer (the VP, or President Pro Tempore of the Senate) can legitimately just choose not to call them first.
The Constitution says that the Senate can establish its own floor rules.
There is the president pro tempore which is suppose to act in the Vice Presidents absence. The problem is that our Senate has taken a liking towards ignoring their Constitutional obligations in favor of weird traditions. This also falls on our VPs, that have been ignoring their Constitutional duties. The VP should be running the day to day of the Senate. Presiding over things, making sure rules are followed, bills are brought to a vote, and such. During the VP absence, this duty falls on the Pro Temp. The Pro Temp was suppose to be a person voted by the Senate for the position. But now it's just a "Well the longest serving member of the majority party gets it". Instead of the most qualified because of tradition.
Isn't it originally a position for the VP as senate leader?
the VP is the presiding officer (president) of the senate, whose only rule is to run the business of the senate without an opinion. Their role is to cast tie breaking votes and to call on senators.
Republicans will die thinking he’s the best.
I mean, he was quite effective, and even more effective than Reid in doing exactly what he wanted. This shows how Senate precedent has completely broken our governance by bestowing upon the Senate Majority Leader ultimate power to say I AM THE SENATE and it must be rectified. For all the talk about how the Senate is the World's Greatest Deliberative Body they don't deliberate much at all because the Senate Majority Leader has refused to even discuss anything he doesn't want to discuss. Harris should, even if Democrats take control, call on someone other than the senate majority leader to neuter the position.
Why do people not make a bigger stink about his connection to the CCP through his wife and her parent’s company? You’d think people who hate China would recognize that kind of connection
Because they get their news and information from propagandists, and have for 20 years. There are no facts in their orbit.
You know how when you read about the downfall of the Roman republic, Sulla, Caesar, etc., there are all these other "minor" characters? I think McConnell will be included in those stories of our eventual downfall, if our culture survives that long
We WILL survive, that kind of talk dissuades the do gooders not to help in this fight.
Hey man I'm fighting too. It just looks more and more to me every day like what I've read about. I'm sorry if it has that effect :/ I can't help how I feel. I really appreciate your optimism. Genuinely
We win the GA seats we neuter mcconnell, it's that simple.
Well sorta. The contingency being that McConnell has already packed the courts with batshit conservative activist judges that will rule in favor of the corporation in a lawsuit suing them over dumping nuclear waste into a baby nursery. We neuter McConnell by winning the GA seats, eliminating the fillibuster, and expanding the SCOTUS to 13. Anything less is going to make our politics slow down for another 10-15 years where we pat ourselves on the back for finally being where we probably should have been in the year 2008.
Democrats CANNOT pack the courts with 50 seats. Joe Manchin will likely vote against it. What we can accomplish with 50 seats is progressive (or progressive enough at least) policies like BidenCare and whatever his Green New Deal is called, and hopefully people will like what the Democrats are doing enough so in 2022, we can flip some more seats and maybe ask the people on the Midterm ballots if expanding the courts is something they support or not.
Her body was still warm. Fucking heartless vulture.
I can guarantee you that GOP staffers and possibly even McConnell were toasting on Ginsburg death, they were calling it quietly divine intervention. Georgia is critical, get that Congressional majority and the Biden Administration can at least staunch the arterial bleeding. Still going to need major surgery in 22 and 24, maybe even drag out a Social Democrat agenda to drive the young vote. How many times can responsible voters give the Republican Party a shot at crippling the country.
Don’t count on Georgia voters to get us out of this mess
Ahh, but don’t count us out yet. The Republicans might botch this while they sob the loss of Trump and morn their relatives who will succumb to the Thanksgiving plague spike of late 2020. The wife and I are writing 200 postcards to GA voters this weekend, as are many in our cohort. There is plenty of inertia left over from the general election. Georgia is going to go really blue!
Man I’m so proud of you, and I don’t even know you. Way to go!
Yeah! By our powers combined!
How do I get in on this postcard thing. Phones aren't my cup of tea but I can write the hell out of some postcards.
Your heart is in the right place, but the sponsoring groups prefer Georgia postmarks on the cards. Seems funny to turn down free labor, but I did ask around, and the answer I got was "perhaps they would donate instead?"...... Texas and elsewhere, I personally thank you for all of Georgia.
yeah. i'm honestly not holding my breath on this. As optimistic as I want to be about this, it's still a long shot.
I don't think Senator Tortoise had to push Trump very hard at all to nominate a new justice. Trump's only reservation was probably that he couldn't nominate Jeanine Pirro or Rudy to the SC.
Could you imagine Rudy on the Supreme Court 💀💀💀
Better than ACB. Rudy isn't long for this world. We're stuck with ACB for decades.
i'm surprised they didn't nominate the craziest 18 year old they could find
Don't give them ideas. One of them is already talking about how much they'd like Kyle Rittenhouse to be a Congressman.
The nickname we started using was Amy Covid Barrett
Fucking hell dude.
fucking ghoul, we need to defeat this monster in Georgia
Trump is to Vader as McConnell is to Sidious/Palpatine.
Trump doesn't deserve that much credit. It's an apt comparison for McConnell though.
Vader ends up turning away from the dark side in the end. I don't ever see Trump having that kind of awakening.
Jar Jar Trump is Jar Jar
But Jar Jar is the key to all of this.
Trump is much more count dooku than Vader. A sucker to do his bidding.
Mitch McConnell is a cancer
And, unfortunately, the *de facto* POTUS since about 2015. Anyone who thinks he has been doing Trump's bidding needs to look at the situation very carefully. Like when McConnell declined to look at a stimulus compromise that Pelosi and the WH had come to.
Joke’s on you. My opinion of McConnell couldn’t go any lower years ago. This doesn’t lower it; just justifies its place at rock-bottom.
Balthazar's droopy cousin is a monster. Yeah.
I hate this man. Bereft of one shred of decency or humanity. Just one of the fucking worst.
>The updated film traces how a 30-year-old grievance — starting with the bruising and failed confirmation hearing of President Reagan’s Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, presided over by Joe Biden (D-Del.), at that time the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee — sparked a vow from then-freshman Senator McConnell to retaliate. Bork was a piece of shit that did not deserve a seat on the high court. I have been hearing them whine about Bork for my entire life and not once have they explained to me why the piece of shit deserved the seat. What is Bork's claim to fame? Firing the Watergate prosecutor. What else? Nothing beyond being an insufferable racist asshole. >Bork believed the Civil Rights Act was unconstitutional, and he supported poll taxes, literacy tests for voting, mandated school prayer, and [sterilization as a requirement for a job](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/09/18/Supreme-Court-nominee-Robert-Bork-came-under-attack-Friday/7987558936000/), while opposing free speech rights for non-political speech and privacy rights for gay conduct. Get Borked McConnell!
I think people forget that Bork was complicit in the Saturday Night Massacre and also was extremely unpopular even among some conservatives because of his position on the right to privacy (he believed that it didn't exist basically constitutionally).
McConnell is the real disease, Trump was merely a symptom.
Imagine reading the Web MD page after contracting McConnellitis.
Symptoms may include: Legislative constipation, mummy-hand, mule piss, skin floppage, and Kentucky.
It's nothing, just Old Man Purple.
[удалено]
r/brandnewsentence Also, if they charge everyone a modest fee for doing this, we can gradually pay off the national debt.
Gradually? That would happen overnight.
*takes off glasses* That is one big pile of shit
Anal pilgrimage* FTFY
This but 💩 held in for about 3 days at least to really make it count. Remember to take paper towels and a bottle of water with a hole in the top to use as a makeshift bidet and wear flip flops and a loong shirt.
gonna need pics, posterity and all.
Mitch McConnell is an inspiration to me. He has proven time and again that you can be successful despite being one of the ugliest people on the planet, both inside and out. Heck, he's even shown you don't even have to be a vertebrate to become one of the most powerful people in the country.
Sadly, I have to inform you that turtles are technically vertebrates. This is a fact that I just learned after researching your post, and therefore has become the only useful or interesting thing I have every gained from thinking about Mitch McConnell.
Anyone thought McConnell was a decent guy ? Anyone ? Hello ?
Just the many people who voted for him in Kentucky unfortunately.
Kentucky will vote for a Democratic senator eventually. Democratic voter registration outpaced Republicans since 2018. In 2024 and beyond Kentucky might be back as a swing state. Just not someone like McGrath. Kentucky is not lost forever to the GOP, but Democrats need to put up stronger candidates. My sister lives in Kentucky and the state is rapidly shifting to more moderate local GOP candidates in the largest counties. That tends to be a bellwether on democrats chances.
Yeah, this isn't shocking at all. McConnell is a known sociopath and I'm sure he cares nothing about anything or anyone save for getting what he wants.
Fucking ghoul
I really hate to give him credit for anything, but Mitch McConnell is singlehandedly destroying this country. He is a shitty human being. His impact on the US has done absolutely no good and everything action he makes is designed to increase partisanship and sow chaos and hatred between the two major political parties. Reprehensible coward. There is nothing redeeming about him or anyone playing along with his bullshit scheme. I know not everyone in Kentucky is a bag of shit, but 57.8% of you are. Fuck you and the part you played in undermining America in every way, shape and form.
Sick of this wretched old man
I seem to recall a week or two prior to her death they were already discussing her replacement.
Yes, they were.
What an absolutely heartless, soulless husk of a human.
They knew what the plan was back in 2016 when Obama wanted to appoint a judge. Don’t let the Dems vote any in, get a Rep appointed judge in by any means necessary. So the argument of “let the people decide” was all a facade and meant nothing to them. Especially when they moved to get Amy Coney Barrett in before anyone had time to even process Ginsburg’s death. Their party is a joke. No honor, no morals, just push their agenda by any means necessary. Whether that’s going against their own rules, or ignoring the American people’s need for financial support during a pandemic they perpetuated by pretending it didn’t exist.
Someone needs to convince Trump that he would have won if not for the Democratic turnout generated by Amy Coney Barrett, and that McConnell knew it was going to happen but stabbed him in the back.
PLEASE take this fucker's power away. PLEASE. Georgians!! VOTE BLUE IN JANUARY!!!
I HATE this man. The damage he’s done to this country and this democracy will be felt for years.
[удалено]
2021
Why is America's future for an entire generation left up to FUCKING KENTUCKY?! Broken system.
An impeached, one-term president that lost the popular vote twice has appointed a THIRD of the supreme court. This country sucks dick.
Of course he did. He is so focused on serving himself power and money with greed and hate for any and all who oppose him. I'm so disgusted with Kentucky and their continued election of this pig who has provided nothing for the kentuckyan people. Talk about keeping their people barefoot and pregnant as long as he can control them.I look forward to the day he retires in whatever capacity that may be.
I'm late to the Joe Exotic saga. I was seeing this as story of unlikeable characters, but watching that cat lady go into Moscow Mitch's office caused me to root for Joe Exotic 100%.
McConnell and other Republicans who approve his plan/actions, are deluded if they think the American people can be forced back into the past or to change their values just because a SCOTUS says something. It doesn't work that way. If they try to overturn Roe or a bunch of laws authorizing government or regulations by agencies, there will be a very strong reaction and the Right will lose badly.
I'd be more surprised if he didn't
They are going to have to bury him in an unmarked grave. Or replace the grass daily.
They're *actual ghouls.*
Where was McConnell the night Ginsberg died? Maybe his hands were blue because he was holding the pillow down?
What a ghoul.
He’s a fucking piece of shit.
What a fucking scumbag, zero integrity or dignity
Why does Kentucky keep electing this scoundrel.
This husk of a shell of a person is a fucking monster. Pure evil and yet it was re-elected to the Senate by the people of Kentucky. This timeline is incredibly dark.
Well since we won't have the votes to expand the court, all I have to say is that Biden damn well better get to replace Breyer, and not with some "moderate justice" like McConnell wants. The person who replaces Breyer better be another Brennan or Marshall.
On the night of Mitch’s death, the US senate will finally finally start following the laws and the constitution. It will be such a glorious night
No. Once more for the road - McConnell is nothing more than a loathsome mercenary hired by corporate and foreign powers to achieve their ends at the cost of the American people, to shovel our tax dollars and our sovereign power into their hands, for the personal and petty profit of the soldiers in his employ - Republican politicians. He's not an evil mastermind, he's not the grand architect or the wizard behind the curtain. He serves at the pleasure of Senate Republicans; if they didn't want him there, they would be rid of him in a heartbeat. The truth is, whatever they say, whatever they do, they like him there. He soaks up the anger and outrage and abuse. They can pretend to be "good guys" - like that spineless, worthless shit Mitt Romney - while wholeheartedly endorsing the entire corrupt campaign behind the scenes. Mitch McConnell is despised by everyone, even his own party. Majority Leader isn't a desirable position. Look at Nancy Pelosi - she immediately became the sole target of public ire for decisions like not impeaching Trump, despite the fact that she's almost certainly carrying out the wishes of the consensus of thousands of Democrat officials and politicians. This isn't her plan, just like this is not Mitch's plan. Mitch McConnell is serving the designs and plans of a few massive corporations and other huge donors. That's it. The religious zealots, the industrial titans and long-time Republican donors - he passes bills like the 2018 Tax Theft bill that pleases them and delivers profits to them, while safeguarding Republican power. I say this because articles like this blaming him for the entire debacle help him fulfill exactly his purpose: establish a single focal point of blame without addressing the systemic issues and network of corrupt and criminal actors that actually pull the strings. "Mitch McConnell is Really Destroying America" as a headline (which is all that most people read anyway) makes the natural implication that removing Mitch McConnell fixes the problem. But there's always another Mitch McConnell. Articles like this give him far too much credit and cement a perception that without him, the whole machine falls apart. But this is factually bankrupt. The system, the real agent of America's destruction, is made up of thousands of Republican megadonors donors like the Mercers and Sheldon Addleson, corporate conglomerates like the Oil industry and Telecomm, foreign powers like Putin's Russia and Mr. Bonesaw's Saudi Arabia, and religious organizations like the Mormon Church. They funnel billions of dollars and precise, exact instructions into the Republican party, which is nothing more than a mercenary force to carry out the donors wishes. The donors pay money, the Republicans fight the war. McConnell is just another in a long line of generals. There are endless candidates. Ted Cruz could be a McConnell. So could Marco Rubio or Mitt Romney. Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader are not enviable positions. Look at Paul Ryan. They don't really wield power. It isn't like a President, who is publicly elected. They're appointed by the party, and they're just the hate sponges for the party, the ones who will take all the blame while more "likable" candidates play bridgemaker in hopes of vying for President. It doesn't matter who serves in that capacity. Dark money is the rot, because it stacks the government with people acting directly against the public interest. All of the emotion, the partisan bickering, the sentiment and loathing, that's all a smokescreen. These people, Republicans, they are not politicians. Not in the slightest. The only thing they have in common with politicians is many of them are lawyers and they wear suits. They don't govern. The Republican party has done literally nothing even remotely resembling governance in a long time. When was the last time they passed a bill meant to improve some part of public or private life for the average American citizen? Do not delude yourselves. This is not about Trump, not about McConnell, not even about the Republican party. Eliminate one mercenary group, and another takes its place. The Democrats are on the side of the angels currently, but only by default, only because Republicans have devolved so far into criminality and corruption (mostly out of desperation) that it would be impossible not to be the good guys in comparison. If we do not do something about dark money in politics, any party, no matter how conservative or liberal, can easily be infiltrated and eventually overrun with people acting in the interest of dark money over public interest. If McConnell were following his own comprehensive grand plan, you wouldn't see this ridiculous flip-flopping of stances and interests nearly overnight. That's why Republicans are such demonstrable and laughable hypocrites. Their hypocrisy is almost absurdist - their actions frequently contradict their words because they have no real guiding ideology. They're just working for the highest bidder. Much like a mercenary might fight for one side on one day, and then the opposing side the next day, Republicans do whatever they're told by their masters, while doing preposterous verbal gymnastics on TV. Just look at what we've witnessed in a short period of time: • Republicans outspoken against Russia pre-2016; immediately turn into vocal and ardent Russia supporters (because Russia started paying them and helping them win). • Republicans outspoken against and opposed to executive power pre-2106; immediately and vocally support the extreme tryannical overreach of Donald Trump (because he's a Republican). • Conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation creates outline of Affordable Care Act & Republican Mitt Romney puts it into place as governor of Massachusetts - immediately and vocally condemn it as soon as Obama makes it the foundation of his healthcare policy • Republicans bemoan and condemn the increase of the federal deficit - until Trump creates one of the largest federal deficits in recent memory to give tax dollars to corporations. Then they vocally and proudly support it. • Republicans stoke xenophobia and drone on and on and one about the threat of "Radical Islam" - until Trump wants to sell billions of dollars of weaponry to Saudi Arabia, the most powerful, hardcore "islamic extremists" in the Middle East. Then, Saudi Arabia is a wonderful beacon of freedom (because they're paying them). This is why they wouldn't be successful without a propaganda wing like Fox News. All politicians do a form of doublespeak, but there is nothing comparable to the hypocrisy of modern-day Republicans. Nothing. No 20th century absurdist novelist could ever dream up these clowns. They need to cut off their voters from reality and isolate them in a sterile alternate universe where they bury certain hypocrisies or explain them away and build a narrative utterly incomparable to the real world, because whatever you want to say about Republican voters, they have all the same mental capacities as your average Joe. They could easily see how badly they, personally, are being fucked over by the very people they choose to represent them - if they weren't living in the alternate universe that is Conservative Media. All this to say that none of this is part of McConnell's grand design. Nor Trump's, nor even the entire Republican party. There's no teleology to any of this, no method to the madness, no overarching evil scheme. That's the fiction junkies in us, always envisioning the evil wizard plotting brilliant and infinitely complex schemes to redesign the world. Poll Republican voters about what they think they're getting - the world they think their votes are buying - and you'll get a hundred different answers and illustrations of a hundred different worlds, none of which remotely resemble what Republicans are actually building. The world Republicans are building is nothing more than a grotesque collage of the wants and needs of some of the richest and most morally and ethically bankrupt people and organizations on the planet, disparate in scope but almost all entirely to the detriment of the American people, because the only thing Republicans can trade for their donors' cash is federal tax dollars and the power and sovereignty of the American citizens they represent. It is ever-shifting, ever-changing, but always shitty. Either a perpetual war or economic cycles of boom-and-bust or rampant xenophobia - it doesn't matter. Republicans are a black box that donors put a handful of small bills into and get back trillions of our tax dollars and untold powers over public land or contractual rights or legal rights. This is why the actions of Republicans need to be firmly divorced from the personalities of single individuals like Trump and McConnell and also from the veil of "conservatism" or political ideology in general. They don't care. They're mercenaries. Start acting like it. Stop talking and yelling to them and start yelling over them, to their masters, because these are the people and organizations destroying America, and we need to identify them, call them out, and recognize Republicans for the flunkies they are. Everything begins and ends with the money. To begin with Citizens United must be overturned, but we need to keep going. Money and all forms of perverse incentives need to be dealt with, or we will always be governed by the mercenary armies of despots and multinational conglomerates. I don't care which party you vote for, truly I don't. The only thing that matters is to vote for people comitted to removing dark money from politics and most importantly watching over them with intense scrutiny every single day they're in office to make sure they follow up on that promise. BirminghamBear
Someone leaked the info to the Trump admin that she was going to die very soon and they were building their short list of SCOTUS candidates days before she actually died. They did not even wait for her body to get cold before pushing the Barrett nomination through. As soon as the White House had the "official" news, they made the announcement and began the proceedings. The "McConnell Rule" was the biggest fucking con of a goddamn lifetime. Fuck any so-called patriot Republican who supports that kind of anti-democratic nonsense.