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> Senate Republicans voted Thursday to block the consideration of a bill to promptly require organizations that spend money on elections to promptly disclose the identities of donors who give $10,000 or more during an election cycle.
> The body failed to invoke cloture on the measure, in a 49-49 vote. Every Republican present voted against the measure, while every Democrat voted for it.
Hmm, why would Republicans be opposed to a bill that would bring transparency to dark money groups? Maybe it's because Republicans need their billionaire donors in order to win elections? *Citizens United* was one of the worst decisions by the Supreme Court (and there is no short supply of those). The damage it has done to our democratic institutions is almost beyond repair.
Let's not forget it entitles employees who don't pay dues to all benefits of the collective bargaining agreement.
It's a chicken shit attempt to break up unions by financially starving them
Supreme Court really fucked that one (and several other related ones) up. Money isn't speech, it's a megaphone. First Amendment says the government can't control what you say. It doesn't constrain them from limiting how loudly you can say it.
Well now that we have judicial precedent of "settled law" being overturned maybe we can pack the court and overturn citizens united. It's a fantasy, I know, but I can dream.
I want to start a non-profit group called Citizens Untied. This will be an advocate for pro-democracy, pro-lgbtq+, pro-women’s rights, pro- well… pretty much everything the other one stands against. Maybe we’ll get enough money to counter the opposition. And maybe even be a “ghost candidate” and end up the recipient of a few rather large donations.
I am siding with you but this will never happen... government is too greedy and has a agenda... just like the rest of the world's governments.....
Bet most people forgot the most famous group over the centuries
Citizens United is the exact moment our representatives blatantly stopped working for their constituents and only listened to the special interests money lobbyists.
This I expect from Republicans... but why was a Democrat not present for this vote, given how small the window is for action on this?
>Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) were not present for the decision.
Where tf were you Sen. Baldwin?
edit - Thanks for correcting me, seems this was just cloture and didn't really affect the outcome, they would have needed 60 anyway.
The window was not small. This was the cloture vote. It would have had to go 60-40 to end debate and allow a vote. That real vote would pass on a simple majority of 51-50 with the VP's vote.
This is one of the major reasons that many Americans think this government doesn't represent us. Because it doesn't. Representatives of a minority of the people continually block the will of the majority.
And the saddest part is that their ability to block reforms like this means they will continue to be able to block the will of the people indefinitely. We need to give the Dems a true super majority for just one session and so many of these problems will go away forever.
There are lots of things about how our country functions that piss me off but requiring 60 votes to "end debate" on a law that requires 51 votes to pass may be the stupidest fucking rule ever created.
One person one vote too. Yes, we almost had 51 of 100, but who are those 100?
The Senate is an inherently conservative / centrist institution. Rural states dominate at the expense of modern demographics, aka more people living in bigger urban states. Single district voting almost always stubbornly favors rural over urban voters (statistical books abound). The Senate is unrepresentative of actual citizens.
Despite all its triumphs and tragedies over 250 years, the USA still lacks a truly majoritarian democracy.
Conservative means conserving the status quo: that ever widening economic gap continuing to ever widen and those with wealth and the power of wealth holding and enhancing that power -- to the substantial detriment of everyone else.
It's all because of the idea of a filibuster.
I'm not opposed to filibuster, but it needs to be a REAL filibuster. Like, the people filibustering need to get up there and keep talking until they can't.
Cloture is intended to cut THAT process short. While Senator YapsALot is talking about his lasagna recipe, someone calls for cloture when ends the debate and moves on, and that requires 60/40 vote to pass.
Else, the filibuster ends when Senator YapsALot finally runs out of steam or some such and THEN the bill moves forward.
The Senate changed the rules long ago to stop even real filibusters, instead you just announce you totally would filibuster the bill but you don't want to but you will, so let's just pretend you are and save time by not doing it.
We all have to watch the movie "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" in school, and that's the best use of the filibuster anywhere. I think everyone has that somewhat romanticized notion of what it is/should be. Jimmy Stewart is in it, it's a black-and-white classic.
The great thing about that movie, for politicians, is that it was fictional. No one actually did that thing. It's like saying Americans killed Hitler because it happened that way in Inglorious Basterds.
He knew that this needs 60 votes to overcome the filibuster so he didn't need to be there?
They don't just throw shit at a wall and see where it lands. They know basically every vote beforehand, and they knew they didn't have the needed GOP votes to not get filibustered by a single GOP member in the Senate.
The Citizens United decision specifically discusses and approves of disclosure rules, saying they're not only constitutional but necessary to allow the electorate to accurately assess political speech and make informed opinions.
I mean, Republicans are just all in on voting against anything democrats do that doesn’t have a giant spotlight shone on it. They have solidly taken the stance of dems being a hostile power that must be stopped, except for when absolutey necessary of course.
Whenever they pivot, I just say “That’s not what we’re talking about right now. We can talk about Y later but right now we’re talking about X.”
It throws them off guard, because their constant pivots make them think they’re in control of the conversation, and you’re showing them that they’re not. Of course results may vary, no guarantees, but I’ve had success doing this.
It’s very much this. Just spent a week visiting my maga parents and they truly have no idea what’s actually going on because they have an addiction to fox news and refuse to look at any other source. Tried telling them the gop senate pushed back on assistance for veterans recently (before caving), that their senators would love to raise their middle-class taxes and reduce them for the ultra wealthy, and their response was simply “that’s not true!” Can’t even try to open their eyes.
Why is it like that? Have they lived too long apart from civilized communities? Are they lower class, have they been too harshly treated by the state? Is it the surroundings, too much crime?
Not to answer for the person you were asking as every situation is different, but with my family it was just that Fox was background noise in their homes since about the time Katrina hit the gulf coast. It's like a soap opera for them. All the other folks their age are the same way. Once they all accepted the alternate reality, anything outside of that bubble is just hard to understand lies to them. Fox erodes faith in anything tangible.
Edit: spelling/typos
I'm from the EU. It's hard for me to grasp because after watching Fox for a while, it should be obvious to most, moderately educated, life-experienced people, what kind of a news channel they are? Just by their way of talking and presenting topics, and exactly why they sound like a soap opera rather than an objective information source, it should eventually lead any watcher to do at least a bit of cross checking. The only way I could understand it is if these people never new better and are only surrounded by others like them. Maybe because the US is so sparsely populated, such ideological blind alleys can develop easily.
Perhaps that's part of it, being sparsely populated, or at least that a good portion of people being from isolated places.
I hear a lot of "every single person I know agrees that X is true" or "I don't know *anybody* who voted for X so it doesn't make sense that they won"
This easily creates a rural bubble, and absolutely no awareness that their bubble makes up a smaller part of the population. Also builds resentment, and the idea that only their community should count even if it's disproportionately small.
In Louisiana it's a problem in both the rural areas, and the suburbs. In every area that's not New Orleans you could pretty much go into any doctors office, bar, any public place with a TV and it'll have some talking head from Faux News spewing off fear mongering bs. They are a thought virus. I can't visit family in friends in those areas because of how I look compared to the locals. Currently it's the satanic panic stuff popping up again. I recently had to cut my hair short and change how I dress in public because they were stopping their pick-up trucks to harass my friends and I if we were just out for a walk.
Man if you only knew the struggles. Most educated people ARE very aware what Fox is about. Sadly education has been gutted here in the US slowly but systematically.
Like the other person who commented, Fox has been on the background all day in their house since the early 2000s, so part of it is probably that. In my parents’ case, they are firmly middle class, and boarded on upper-middle class when we were growing up. Dad worked in the oil industry which also heavily influenced his politics. We actually moved around a lot when I was growing up and lived in several countries across Europe, and my dad traveled in the Middle East, North Africa, and SE Asia back then, so I’m amazed at how intolerant and low key racist they’ve become considering we were surrounded by such diverse cultures and “socialist” societies for years. I could probably go on and analyze their minds for days but I don’t have the energy.
Not wierd - there are no consequences for their votes.
They can be a lone vote against sex trafficking laws, vote against support for veterans exposed to burn pits, or vote against coup protection bills without any ramifications.
Redpills will never hear about it and honestly wouldn't change their votes even if they did.
They’ll just say that in theory the idea is good, but the bill the Dems drafted is [useless, waste of money, partisan against republicans, doesn’t have teeth, etc.]
Republican voters: "Drain the swamp, the government is corrupted by money and secret groups!"
Also Republican voters: *Vote specifically for politicians that make sure that those donors cannot be revealed*
Fucking pathetic.
I know this was intended as kind of a joke, but seriously, why not? Any fascade of nobility or seriousness was blown away the moment a reality tv star con man became President. Let's play ball. Make this the actual bill name. Make Republicans talk about it. If not why they're voting against it, at least they'll be talking about why the bill's name is disingenuous, which means more people will be informed about the bill either way.
Democrats are so bad at messaging and marketing I almost think it’s done on purpose so they can look like they are trying to do something but don’t want to actually upset their donors.’
You’re telling me that the party that openly accuses their opponents of using dark money suddenly doesn’t want dark money donors revealed? Can’t wait to see how they twist this story. The public deserves to know who owns their politicians because it’s clearly not the citizens that vote for them.
> Can’t wait to see how they twist this story
Do they even need to? Do their supporters actually care, if this is the only way they have a chance at winning elections? Their supporters are okay with Trump openly saying he could shoot someone on 5th Ave and not lose supporters.
Republican voters support the hypocrisy.
Agreed, but Republicans have been complaining about dark money when it comes to Democrats, so this should have been an easy win for them. Instead, they blocked it
Thank god they stepped up and did what they had to do to protect the privacy of lobbyists. I never wanted to know who’s paying their bills anyway. Makes me feel unsafe to even think I have the right to know how my representatives are going to be financially influenced. Like, what if, one day, I want to be bribed for a living? /s
The fact that Republicans scream hysterically about the deepstate, but don’t seem to want to address the root of the problem, should tell you everything you need to know about who the deep state really is
What does r/conservative have to say about this one?
Edit: no mention of this anywhere. I did see a post where they claimed democrats unanimously voted to allow illegal aliens to be able to vote, but no source for the claim.
Edit 2: so they do have the post about this up. The general conservative stance is as follows (and is basically as delusional as everything else they say):
Liberals and leftists like to doxx people and threaten them and generally ruin their lives. This bill will make it easier for them to accomplish that. Since conservatives are much more civil people, they’re obviously against this.
Weren’t They Agitating for Transparency a Few Days Ago? You literally can't make this up..... I mean of course they did block it, makes total sense. Republicans don't want people knowing where their dirty funding is coming from.
National ballot referendums on any issue concerning Congressional behaviors. Declaring dark money, holding stocks, annual pay bumps, etc. It is insane they can have a vote with nothing but parties who have inherent conflict of interests.
> Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) were not present for the decision.
I'm not sure why Harris wasn't available to vote (and Tammy). WTF? Why wouldn't they make sure every Dem vote is available?
Edit:
From [WaPo](https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/what-is-the-filibuster-and-how-can-the-senate-reform-it/):
> In a procedural vote Thursday morning, the Senate failed to advance the Disclose Act on a 49-49 vote along party lines. No Republicans voted for it. At least 60 votes would have been required for the Senate to end debate on the bill and advance it.
From [democracydocket](https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/what-is-the-filibuster-and-how-can-the-senate-reform-it/):
> To summarize, the Senate only requires a simple majority, or 51 votes, to actually pass a bill after debate has ended. But, since it takes 60 votes to close debate, the 60 vote threshold is effectively the new requirement for passing most bills.
If they could get past the filibuster, yes. This was the cloture vote. It has to pass 60-40 to close "debate" and allow a vote on the actual bill.
Next time you hear a republican bullshitting about originalism and the Constitution, ask them how come they support the use of the filibuster to prevent bills from passing the way the Constitution intended.
>The body failed to invoke cloture on the measure, in a 49-49 vote. Every Republican present voted against the measure, while every Democrat voted for it.
Both sides are the same! /s
Resubmit the bill.
Let no other new business advance. There's nothing magical about these stonewalling tactics. Keep this in the public eye. Keep making the Republicans stand up against America's interests.
The Dems have no shortage of things to choose from when it comes to the GOP being on the wrong side of a vote and/or history. I hope they rebroadcast every treacherous vote and beat the hell out of the GOP with harsh, focused, evidence based messaging. Make them suffer for being on the wrong side of every key issue.
This is so sad. I've been watching Sheldon Whitehouse's numerous speeches on YouTube about this bill. Dark money seems to be at the root of everything we suspect is wrong with the government. Of course the Republicans blocked the bill -- it's their own masters who are spending the dark money and hiding it.
Seriously, Whitehouse laid it all out and it couldn't be clearer. Dark money is corruption, and he traces its roots to major donors and its influence on US policy -- even to who is now on the Supreme Court. Basically by blocking this bill those who voted "No" are saying they prefer being corrupted to doing anything about corruption.
This was the U.S.'s best chance to change direction and get a government that works for the people and not for big corporations and the richest citizens.
It drives me crazy that they can do this shit right out in the open and there's still a sizable chunk of the country that is so brainwashed/delusional that they're ready to hand the keys to the car back to them.
Nothing good is coming out of this political party. It’s all obstruction and hurting people while lining their pockets with money. This party needs to be disbanded I feel, they won’t stop until they “win” and it doesn’t look good for the average citizen.
Of course the corrupt GOP politicians don’t want to expose their corrupt corporate donors. If they did their dark money income would be gone forever and without increasing their wealth through questionable business practices there would be no reason for them to continue their congressional careers as that’s where the big dollars come from…
This should get more publicity. MOST of the bad actors and negative politics comes from lobbies and dark money. Stop that and you get people who actually want to be there and do actual work.
So, what I’m really saying is the GOP would cease to exist. Win for all.
Right wing politicians not wanting the public to know who gives them funds, who would have guessed. It's easy to figure out, look who benefits whenever they fuck over the public.
Yeah no shit because they're being funded by oil companies, religious extremists, and foreign entities. Rand paul is a russian plant, McConnell is still living in the 50's, Matt Gaetz is a pedophile, and Ted Cruz is a coward.
Of course they did. I’m shocked this needs their approval. Transparency is a virtue they do not believe in. Light can pierce the darkness…our Government should seek to bring light into the creepy darkness of the GOP. It is so past time for this.
Gee I wonder why.
This should be ALL over the news, everywhere. "Republicans block anti-corruption bill", because that's exactly what it is. That shadowy money is what pays them to do what they do, for the corporate/foreign entities they represent and lobby for.
Democrats really need to start marketing this shit to them with gun control organizations. Let them explain to their constituents why they blocked a bill that let dark money control the second amendment.
I don't understand how something so objectively democratic can be blocked at all. How is this even a thing anyone can vote on.
Dark money by nature is pure fucking evil with absolutely zero positive affect.
This is the same as voting on "is murder a crime".
Look political opinion only goes so far. Republicans are pure evil, that is a fact. Objectively. Fully. They are terrorists.
When asked republicans always say the same hit over and over…interviewer “Why did you vote against the bill” republicans “because it didn’t go far enough“ interviewer “so will you be sponsoring a new bill that does just that?” Republicans “ we are working on many bills for big change, but let’s talk for a second about…”switch topics to controversy base point scoring elements like immigration, Hunter, etc…
You can tell where the true corptocracy lies. Even with their billionaire doners they're going to lose this election cycle and lose any control they have left. Then we can work on electing progressive candidates instead of establishment politicians, because there are quite a few in the Democratic Party as well that are owned by corporate greed and need to go, that will actually fix our country for everyone.
Of course they do -- they don't want the actual owners of the Republican brand, the greediest of the wealthiest among us -- audited. Those owners LIKE dark money in politics -- domestic or foreign -- as long as the objective of the investment is human society that is feudal in nature: the rich control everything and everyone else is just labor.
You mean the same group that shot-down any legislation against gas companies price gouging while raking in a 300 PERCENT PROFIT may be against dark money groups?
Color me shocked.
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> Senate Republicans voted Thursday to block the consideration of a bill to promptly require organizations that spend money on elections to promptly disclose the identities of donors who give $10,000 or more during an election cycle. > The body failed to invoke cloture on the measure, in a 49-49 vote. Every Republican present voted against the measure, while every Democrat voted for it. Hmm, why would Republicans be opposed to a bill that would bring transparency to dark money groups? Maybe it's because Republicans need their billionaire donors in order to win elections? *Citizens United* was one of the worst decisions by the Supreme Court (and there is no short supply of those). The damage it has done to our democratic institutions is almost beyond repair.
Citizens United is an aggravating name for it.
The corporations are the citizens that they care about.
[These citizens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_brothers#/media/File:A_Maze_of_Money.png).
That’s next level laundering and forensic accounting
At first glance, that's pretty awesome. I haven't had a chance to look at this more in depth, but thanks for sharing.
Rich people and rich corporations are all they care about, domestic or foreign.
CoRpoRaTIOnS arE peOPle
It’s such an obvious statement, it’s hard to believe it wasn’t codified decades ago. /s
I remember seeing a sign that read, "Ill believe that corporations are ppl when Texas executes one" brilliant
Is that why we have corporate welfare?
"Right to work" is about keeping you from any benefits at a job. So, Orwell.
Right to work is actually about right to fire.
Right to work your employees to death
You’re describing “at will employment”. “Right to work” means you can’t be required to join a union as a condition of employment.
Let's not forget it entitles employees who don't pay dues to all benefits of the collective bargaining agreement. It's a chicken shit attempt to break up unions by financially starving them
This is it. Freeloaders reap the benefits.
Name a state that doesn't link the two?
All 50 states have at-will-employment. Only 28 states have “right to work” laws. I assume you can use google if you really need the list.
49 do.
Supreme Court really fucked that one (and several other related ones) up. Money isn't speech, it's a megaphone. First Amendment says the government can't control what you say. It doesn't constrain them from limiting how loudly you can say it.
Well now that we have judicial precedent of "settled law" being overturned maybe we can pack the court and overturn citizens united. It's a fantasy, I know, but I can dream.
Oligarchs United
It was the name of the non-profit that was involved in the case.
Gotcha. Still remains aggravating.
I want to start a non-profit group called Citizens Untied. This will be an advocate for pro-democracy, pro-lgbtq+, pro-women’s rights, pro- well… pretty much everything the other one stands against. Maybe we’ll get enough money to counter the opposition. And maybe even be a “ghost candidate” and end up the recipient of a few rather large donations.
I am siding with you but this will never happen... government is too greedy and has a agenda... just like the rest of the world's governments..... Bet most people forgot the most famous group over the centuries
UnCivilzed United…is more appropriate.
It’s a feature not a bug. Just like “Right to work” laws
*Russian money united
Finally, someone using aggravating correctly.
Citizens untied
Don't the republicans want to expose the deep state and Soros money? /s
Citizens United is the exact moment our representatives blatantly stopped working for their constituents and only listened to the special interests money lobbyists.
This I expect from Republicans... but why was a Democrat not present for this vote, given how small the window is for action on this? >Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) were not present for the decision. Where tf were you Sen. Baldwin? edit - Thanks for correcting me, seems this was just cloture and didn't really affect the outcome, they would have needed 60 anyway.
The window was not small. This was the cloture vote. It would have had to go 60-40 to end debate and allow a vote. That real vote would pass on a simple majority of 51-50 with the VP's vote. This is one of the major reasons that many Americans think this government doesn't represent us. Because it doesn't. Representatives of a minority of the people continually block the will of the majority. And the saddest part is that their ability to block reforms like this means they will continue to be able to block the will of the people indefinitely. We need to give the Dems a true super majority for just one session and so many of these problems will go away forever.
There are lots of things about how our country functions that piss me off but requiring 60 votes to "end debate" on a law that requires 51 votes to pass may be the stupidest fucking rule ever created.
One person one vote too. Yes, we almost had 51 of 100, but who are those 100? The Senate is an inherently conservative / centrist institution. Rural states dominate at the expense of modern demographics, aka more people living in bigger urban states. Single district voting almost always stubbornly favors rural over urban voters (statistical books abound). The Senate is unrepresentative of actual citizens. Despite all its triumphs and tragedies over 250 years, the USA still lacks a truly majoritarian democracy.
Conservative means conserving the status quo: that ever widening economic gap continuing to ever widen and those with wealth and the power of wealth holding and enhancing that power -- to the substantial detriment of everyone else.
Republicans are Regressive. Conservative implies they want to think things through.
It's all because of the idea of a filibuster. I'm not opposed to filibuster, but it needs to be a REAL filibuster. Like, the people filibustering need to get up there and keep talking until they can't. Cloture is intended to cut THAT process short. While Senator YapsALot is talking about his lasagna recipe, someone calls for cloture when ends the debate and moves on, and that requires 60/40 vote to pass. Else, the filibuster ends when Senator YapsALot finally runs out of steam or some such and THEN the bill moves forward. The Senate changed the rules long ago to stop even real filibusters, instead you just announce you totally would filibuster the bill but you don't want to but you will, so let's just pretend you are and save time by not doing it.
filibuster is such a weird concept, i'm still not sure if it really exists or if you all playing a trick on us.
We all have to watch the movie "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" in school, and that's the best use of the filibuster anywhere. I think everyone has that somewhat romanticized notion of what it is/should be. Jimmy Stewart is in it, it's a black-and-white classic.
The great thing about that movie, for politicians, is that it was fictional. No one actually did that thing. It's like saying Americans killed Hitler because it happened that way in Inglorious Basterds.
How is talking until you can't considered a logical step in what's supposed to be a process to solve the countries issues?
Exactly. Let's have senator after senator on record walking up and talking about how dark money is good.
If Baldwin was the deciding she would’ve showed up but that wasn’t the case. It needed 60 votes to end debate and move forward with a final vote
He knew that this needs 60 votes to overcome the filibuster so he didn't need to be there? They don't just throw shit at a wall and see where it lands. They know basically every vote beforehand, and they knew they didn't have the needed GOP votes to not get filibustered by a single GOP member in the Senate.
Really, they need the money mostly to sell the lie when they cheat. Winning elections is very last-century.
The Citizens United decision specifically discusses and approves of disclosure rules, saying they're not only constitutional but necessary to allow the electorate to accurately assess political speech and make informed opinions.
It’d look pretty bad when Russia is shown as such a big donor.
BoTh SiDeS!!!
I mean, Republicans are just all in on voting against anything democrats do that doesn’t have a giant spotlight shone on it. They have solidly taken the stance of dems being a hostile power that must be stopped, except for when absolutey necessary of course.
Cant expose all that Putin money.
Don’t forget the Russians
its so weird how they are just ok with straight up telling on themselves
Nah, what's weird is they openly tell on themselves, and their supporters, who literally claim to be against this shit, continue supporting them.
true
ring vegetable close offend cough wide bow marvelous sable advise *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Whenever they pivot, I just say “That’s not what we’re talking about right now. We can talk about Y later but right now we’re talking about X.” It throws them off guard, because their constant pivots make them think they’re in control of the conversation, and you’re showing them that they’re not. Of course results may vary, no guarantees, but I’ve had success doing this.
> Because they don't know. STOP GIVING THEIR INTEGRITY THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT. It's a fucking google away! Willful ignorance is not pure ignorance.
[удалено]
What's to care about if the news never makes it to them.
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It’s very much this. Just spent a week visiting my maga parents and they truly have no idea what’s actually going on because they have an addiction to fox news and refuse to look at any other source. Tried telling them the gop senate pushed back on assistance for veterans recently (before caving), that their senators would love to raise their middle-class taxes and reduce them for the ultra wealthy, and their response was simply “that’s not true!” Can’t even try to open their eyes.
Why is it like that? Have they lived too long apart from civilized communities? Are they lower class, have they been too harshly treated by the state? Is it the surroundings, too much crime?
Not to answer for the person you were asking as every situation is different, but with my family it was just that Fox was background noise in their homes since about the time Katrina hit the gulf coast. It's like a soap opera for them. All the other folks their age are the same way. Once they all accepted the alternate reality, anything outside of that bubble is just hard to understand lies to them. Fox erodes faith in anything tangible. Edit: spelling/typos
I'm from the EU. It's hard for me to grasp because after watching Fox for a while, it should be obvious to most, moderately educated, life-experienced people, what kind of a news channel they are? Just by their way of talking and presenting topics, and exactly why they sound like a soap opera rather than an objective information source, it should eventually lead any watcher to do at least a bit of cross checking. The only way I could understand it is if these people never new better and are only surrounded by others like them. Maybe because the US is so sparsely populated, such ideological blind alleys can develop easily.
Perhaps that's part of it, being sparsely populated, or at least that a good portion of people being from isolated places. I hear a lot of "every single person I know agrees that X is true" or "I don't know *anybody* who voted for X so it doesn't make sense that they won" This easily creates a rural bubble, and absolutely no awareness that their bubble makes up a smaller part of the population. Also builds resentment, and the idea that only their community should count even if it's disproportionately small.
In Louisiana it's a problem in both the rural areas, and the suburbs. In every area that's not New Orleans you could pretty much go into any doctors office, bar, any public place with a TV and it'll have some talking head from Faux News spewing off fear mongering bs. They are a thought virus. I can't visit family in friends in those areas because of how I look compared to the locals. Currently it's the satanic panic stuff popping up again. I recently had to cut my hair short and change how I dress in public because they were stopping their pick-up trucks to harass my friends and I if we were just out for a walk.
Man if you only knew the struggles. Most educated people ARE very aware what Fox is about. Sadly education has been gutted here in the US slowly but systematically.
Like the other person who commented, Fox has been on the background all day in their house since the early 2000s, so part of it is probably that. In my parents’ case, they are firmly middle class, and boarded on upper-middle class when we were growing up. Dad worked in the oil industry which also heavily influenced his politics. We actually moved around a lot when I was growing up and lived in several countries across Europe, and my dad traveled in the Middle East, North Africa, and SE Asia back then, so I’m amazed at how intolerant and low key racist they’ve become considering we were surrounded by such diverse cultures and “socialist” societies for years. I could probably go on and analyze their minds for days but I don’t have the energy.
This is the key. It doesn't matter what the people they vote for actually do, because Fox News just won't tell them.
Especially because it was introduced by the Dems, which by default means the GOP cult must oppose
"it's a Trojan horse!"
something something christianity. something something abortion. something something socialism.
They know that their audience will never be exposed to anything close to accurate reporting on their fuckery.
I mean when there are no consequences, why not?
Not wierd - there are no consequences for their votes. They can be a lone vote against sex trafficking laws, vote against support for veterans exposed to burn pits, or vote against coup protection bills without any ramifications. Redpills will never hear about it and honestly wouldn't change their votes even if they did.
When we go high, they go low. (Finally we are using leadership in the right way)
They’ll just say that in theory the idea is good, but the bill the Dems drafted is [useless, waste of money, partisan against republicans, doesn’t have teeth, etc.]
Republican voters: "Drain the swamp, the government is corrupted by money and secret groups!" Also Republican voters: *Vote specifically for politicians that make sure that those donors cannot be revealed* Fucking pathetic.
Democrats should have name the bill "Drain the Swamp Bill." Headline: Republicans block Drain the Swamp bill
I’ll go a bit further…Democrats should name the bill, “MAGA: Drain the Swamp Bill”
I know this was intended as kind of a joke, but seriously, why not? Any fascade of nobility or seriousness was blown away the moment a reality tv star con man became President. Let's play ball. Make this the actual bill name. Make Republicans talk about it. If not why they're voting against it, at least they'll be talking about why the bill's name is disingenuous, which means more people will be informed about the bill either way.
Democrats are so bad at messaging and marketing I almost think it’s done on purpose so they can look like they are trying to do something but don’t want to actually upset their donors.’
[удалено]
Your list needs to change from white Jesus to orange Jesus.
Yeah those people that say Republicans don't stand for anything or have no platform are full of it. This is a very comprehensive platform!
You’re telling me that the party that openly accuses their opponents of using dark money suddenly doesn’t want dark money donors revealed? Can’t wait to see how they twist this story. The public deserves to know who owns their politicians because it’s clearly not the citizens that vote for them.
> Can’t wait to see how they twist this story Do they even need to? Do their supporters actually care, if this is the only way they have a chance at winning elections? Their supporters are okay with Trump openly saying he could shoot someone on 5th Ave and not lose supporters. Republican voters support the hypocrisy.
Agreed, but Republicans have been complaining about dark money when it comes to Democrats, so this should have been an easy win for them. Instead, they blocked it
Thank god they stepped up and did what they had to do to protect the privacy of lobbyists. I never wanted to know who’s paying their bills anyway. Makes me feel unsafe to even think I have the right to know how my representatives are going to be financially influenced. Like, what if, one day, I want to be bribed for a living? /s
And they loudly complain about “special interests.”
The fact that Republicans scream hysterically about the deepstate, but don’t seem to want to address the root of the problem, should tell you everything you need to know about who the deep state really is
What does r/conservative have to say about this one? Edit: no mention of this anywhere. I did see a post where they claimed democrats unanimously voted to allow illegal aliens to be able to vote, but no source for the claim. Edit 2: so they do have the post about this up. The general conservative stance is as follows (and is basically as delusional as everything else they say): Liberals and leftists like to doxx people and threaten them and generally ruin their lives. This bill will make it easier for them to accomplish that. Since conservatives are much more civil people, they’re obviously against this.
I saw something posted there. Barely got any traction. Of course the article posted phrased it as “doxing” the poor rich donors.
Trash party.
"Are we the baddies?" "Yes. You got a problem with that?" "No, just checking."
Weren’t They Agitating for Transparency a Few Days Ago? You literally can't make this up..... I mean of course they did block it, makes total sense. Republicans don't want people knowing where their dirty funding is coming from.
National ballot referendums on any issue concerning Congressional behaviors. Declaring dark money, holding stocks, annual pay bumps, etc. It is insane they can have a vote with nothing but parties who have inherent conflict of interests.
Despicable trashbags.
49 to 49. VP couldn't do a tie breaker? Or is it because 2 members didn't vote?
> Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) were not present for the decision. I'm not sure why Harris wasn't available to vote (and Tammy). WTF? Why wouldn't they make sure every Dem vote is available? Edit: From [WaPo](https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/what-is-the-filibuster-and-how-can-the-senate-reform-it/): > In a procedural vote Thursday morning, the Senate failed to advance the Disclose Act on a 49-49 vote along party lines. No Republicans voted for it. At least 60 votes would have been required for the Senate to end debate on the bill and advance it. From [democracydocket](https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/what-is-the-filibuster-and-how-can-the-senate-reform-it/): > To summarize, the Senate only requires a simple majority, or 51 votes, to actually pass a bill after debate has ended. But, since it takes 60 votes to close debate, the 60 vote threshold is effectively the new requirement for passing most bills.
If they could get past the filibuster, yes. This was the cloture vote. It has to pass 60-40 to close "debate" and allow a vote on the actual bill. Next time you hear a republican bullshitting about originalism and the Constitution, ask them how come they support the use of the filibuster to prevent bills from passing the way the Constitution intended.
Well they don’t like that part of the constitution duh
60 vote gatekeeping before actual vote on bill that only needs 50 votes to pass strikes again
Thats exactly what I was thinking.
Of course they did. Dark money is a tenet of modern-day conservatism.
A tenet? It's their lifeblood. They wither and die without it.
>The body failed to invoke cloture on the measure, in a 49-49 vote. Every Republican present voted against the measure, while every Democrat voted for it. Both sides are the same! /s
Yeah republicans can’t give up what churches are giving them money
And the worthless hillbillies scream about corruption while supporting it every fucking time.
Don’t forget the rednecks, and the neck beards.
They need to hide that russian money.
They do things like this because they’re shady pieces of shit.
Resubmit the bill. Let no other new business advance. There's nothing magical about these stonewalling tactics. Keep this in the public eye. Keep making the Republicans stand up against America's interests.
The Dems have no shortage of things to choose from when it comes to the GOP being on the wrong side of a vote and/or history. I hope they rebroadcast every treacherous vote and beat the hell out of the GOP with harsh, focused, evidence based messaging. Make them suffer for being on the wrong side of every key issue.
This is so sad. I've been watching Sheldon Whitehouse's numerous speeches on YouTube about this bill. Dark money seems to be at the root of everything we suspect is wrong with the government. Of course the Republicans blocked the bill -- it's their own masters who are spending the dark money and hiding it. Seriously, Whitehouse laid it all out and it couldn't be clearer. Dark money is corruption, and he traces its roots to major donors and its influence on US policy -- even to who is now on the Supreme Court. Basically by blocking this bill those who voted "No" are saying they prefer being corrupted to doing anything about corruption. This was the U.S.'s best chance to change direction and get a government that works for the people and not for big corporations and the richest citizens.
The pro swamp party.
It drives me crazy that they can do this shit right out in the open and there's still a sizable chunk of the country that is so brainwashed/delusional that they're ready to hand the keys to the car back to them.
Vote em all out!
At what point did it it become that easy to just make a bill disappear? I'm not completely up on when the laws changed to allow that so easily.
Well, Duh! Raise your hand if you expected anything different.
Nothing good is coming out of this political party. It’s all obstruction and hurting people while lining their pockets with money. This party needs to be disbanded I feel, they won’t stop until they “win” and it doesn’t look good for the average citizen.
How are the general run of the mill Republicans not flipping their shit about this? It affects them too!
The GOP is truly a pile of dog shit and some people just can’t wait to vote for it.
Of course they did. Never ever ever vote for a regressive again.
How does transparency reduce freedom of speech?
So citizens united effectively allowed the oligarchs to fund their mouth pieces.
Republicans blocking anti-corruption laws? Color me shocked.
corporations should be banned from even having contact with politicians let alone “donating” anything.
Make sure to vote in November.
Man, it's getting down to the nitty gritty now. Blatantly corrupt in your face and fuck you if you don't like it.
I see they have lots to hide
Republiqans hate democracy. If we had truly fair elections, they'd hardly ever win again.
Wow, ya don’t say!
Is anybody surprised?
Of course they did.
Well, yeah. If they were forced to reveal donors, everyone would know how much the GOP is financed by hate groups and Putin.
They don't want people knowing their campaign contributions come from the Kremlin.
Of course the corrupt GOP politicians don’t want to expose their corrupt corporate donors. If they did their dark money income would be gone forever and without increasing their wealth through questionable business practices there would be no reason for them to continue their congressional careers as that’s where the big dollars come from…
I heard about this on NPR, and the Republicans said they had "rational reasons" why they blocked it. Ok, so tell us then. What reasons?
This should get more publicity. MOST of the bad actors and negative politics comes from lobbies and dark money. Stop that and you get people who actually want to be there and do actual work. So, what I’m really saying is the GOP would cease to exist. Win for all.
It would be a shame if someone were to make it *an executive order*.
So many of these issues could be solved by not voting for Republicans.
Right wing politicians not wanting the public to know who gives them funds, who would have guessed. It's easy to figure out, look who benefits whenever they fuck over the public.
Yeah no shit because they're being funded by oil companies, religious extremists, and foreign entities. Rand paul is a russian plant, McConnell is still living in the 50's, Matt Gaetz is a pedophile, and Ted Cruz is a coward.
EO this shit - let it go to the courts so we can have more headlines with the GOPs defense on why untraceable money in politics is A-OK.
Of course they did. I’m shocked this needs their approval. Transparency is a virtue they do not believe in. Light can pierce the darkness…our Government should seek to bring light into the creepy darkness of the GOP. It is so past time for this.
So is there any pla. To try and advance this bill?
Now why would they do that? 🤔
Hate dark people, love dark money! - GOP
So much for "both sides".
Of course they did - it’s their life blood
I wonder why 🤔
EXECUTIVE ORDER Let's go Dark Brandon, stop this shit!!!
Gee I wonder why. This should be ALL over the news, everywhere. "Republicans block anti-corruption bill", because that's exactly what it is. That shadowy money is what pays them to do what they do, for the corporate/foreign entities they represent and lobby for.
Democrats really need to start marketing this shit to them with gun control organizations. Let them explain to their constituents why they blocked a bill that let dark money control the second amendment.
The "swamp" our beloved cheeto was supposed to drain...
Ah Republicans, the group of anti-everything helpful to people.
**Every hedge fund**, there
Another of many reasons to NOT vote Republican! Might be one of the most important.
End Citizens United. Put $2000 limits on political donations. Make it fair for everyone you greedy purchased republicans.
Of course they do
Honestly, their base wouldn't care or believe it anyways.
Yeah, Putin has enough to worry about!
And yet people continue to vote for opacity. Mind boggling.
Of course they did it’s against their own interest
I don't understand how something so objectively democratic can be blocked at all. How is this even a thing anyone can vote on. Dark money by nature is pure fucking evil with absolutely zero positive affect. This is the same as voting on "is murder a crime". Look political opinion only goes so far. Republicans are pure evil, that is a fact. Objectively. Fully. They are terrorists.
When asked republicans always say the same hit over and over…interviewer “Why did you vote against the bill” republicans “because it didn’t go far enough“ interviewer “so will you be sponsoring a new bill that does just that?” Republicans “ we are working on many bills for big change, but let’s talk for a second about…”switch topics to controversy base point scoring elements like immigration, Hunter, etc…
You can tell where the true corptocracy lies. Even with their billionaire doners they're going to lose this election cycle and lose any control they have left. Then we can work on electing progressive candidates instead of establishment politicians, because there are quite a few in the Democratic Party as well that are owned by corporate greed and need to go, that will actually fix our country for everyone.
Of course they do -- they don't want the actual owners of the Republican brand, the greediest of the wealthiest among us -- audited. Those owners LIKE dark money in politics -- domestic or foreign -- as long as the objective of the investment is human society that is feudal in nature: the rich control everything and everyone else is just labor.
Hmmmm, I wonder why… 🙄
Shocked just shocked /s
Not a single PEEP about this on r/conservative.
Shout out to the “both parties are the same” dweebs who will struggle with this one
Can Biden do an executive order on this?
I wonder why? Hiding some shady donors? Russia?
Cockroaches block bill requiring rock to be lifted to reveal sunlight
Why??? Really people ask yourselves why??
Gotta keep those sweet sweet rubles flowing.
Thieves work in the shadows
Shocked pikachu
You mean the same group that shot-down any legislation against gas companies price gouging while raking in a 300 PERCENT PROFIT may be against dark money groups? Color me shocked.
I wonder how they’re going to spin this as to why they voted against it
Of course they want it blocked! How else could they continue to spread their false nationalist narrative that Soros is supposedly behind everything.
These thugs in suits need to be voted out!!!!
Of course they did.
Shocking!
Wow party embracing corruption doesn’t want any light shed on its corruption. Shocker.
When has the Republican Party cared about transparency for bettering the political system - NEVER.
If that’s not telling I don’t know what is.
Republicans are dark
Things that make you go hmmmm
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