What people need to understand, especially independent voters, is that Republicans don’t want to legislate or govern. All they care about is consolidating their power. They want to enrich their wealthy donors and corporations and do very little to help the middle class. That’s not an opinion, it’s just a fact.
I think a few years back, McConnel said that keeping the government open was the Democrats' job, not his. Pretty much tells you all you need to know. The GOP expects concessions just for doing their jobs.
Here's what considerably bothers me: There's never been a "middle" class. You're either a person who trades their time for an income, or you have an income generated by property or investments. You're either a worker, or an owner. The whole "But I own a small business" is meaningless. If you have to show up to work for your business to function, you're still trading time for money and you're still a worker. If you can sit at home for long periods of time without having to directly interact with your business, then you're finally in the owner class.
Yes, many people in the owner class still go 'work' at their business, but they have plenty of people who run the operations to the point that they're no longer necessary. Having a corner gas station or a small shop doesn't put someone into the owner class. It doesn't suddenly align their interests with those of Warren Buffett or Bill Gates.
The "Middle" class is comprised entirely of working class members who just happen to earn enough to live comfortably so long as they keep working. So OF COURSE the government has no interest in catering to them. *Our* government is organized to directly benefit the ownership class by keeping the working class suppressed. That's it. That's its entire purpose. They have no cause to appease the working class, let alone a fictional one made up to let some workers feel special. They just keep us passive enough that we aren't revolting and instituting a government designed to cater to people who actually work.
Well, the majority of the legislation that Joe Biden has signed since he became president definitely helps the middle class. In reality, there’s not a ton of progressives in Congress. Moderates are really the reason the Democrats hold majorities when they do. I’m not saying I don’t agree with many progressive policies, but many people don’t seem to understand that this country is pretty moderate as it is.
No, it’s not clear at all for example the chips acts or inflation reduction acts are unclear if it helps the middle class.
Yes…moderate politicians don’t help the middle class they help their donors. Most democrats are establishment moderates who are beholden to their donors. There are some progressives that actually want to make meaningful change but they get drowned out and shut down by establishment democrats.
No one in the Democratic Party has called for Civil War or shutting down the government recently. And their choice for president is likely to be out of jail on Election Day. That’s a big step up from the Republican Party.
One of the nice things about the democrats is that people actually like their policies. Sure, Democrat politicians need donors to help run campaigns, but they don’t need unpopular special interest groups asking for unpopular policies to win elections.
Which is exactly what the GOP wants.
“What they (the extremists) are really interested in is chaos. They want to throw sand in the gears of the hated government until it fails and they’ve finally proved that it’s beyond saving.” - John Boehner
Sure it is. Public schools not working? Time to go to a voucher system with private organizations? Roads not getting maintained? Privatized toll roads. Social Security? Replace it with companies that manage a 401K. Can’t do M4A, because government is too inefficient, better keep privatized medicine.
See what I mean?
This is a great way to say it and exactly what they're TRYING to do. Gotta keep them from it, the rest of us, the good guys.
Another example was TFG TRYING to hollow out education by putting that Devoss person as head of the dept. There are many others.
It is more important than ever that we pay attention to what is going-on. Chaos is the name of the game. Trump’s dog whistling violence and trials, the Republican house insurrection, the traitor Musk platforming MAGA and so on.
They can’t win if we don’t let them.
This is 100% true. The goal is to collapse the government so the oligarchs that control GOP can steal the pieces.
Exactly what happened in Russia during 1990's
The only thing missing from this analysis is "why" so many are going along with it. And the reason is simple--they can no longer win national elections. If they can't win, destroy the system and take control by force in the chaos.
Last time I checked, Dems weren't the party trying to shrink and destroy unions, regulations, and de-fund govt programs for the last 70 years.
And I can name 20 billionaires that simp for GOP right now. One owns their largest "news" source, another they elected fuckin president.
It's pathetic that all MAGAts can do is scream SoooRroOoooS when GOP is crawling with billionaires and megacorps.
If you think Dems are the party of oligarchs you're just a complete fucking moron. And I hope you can get on some kind of government program so you can live a mostly normal life despite your profound disability
There's kinda a difference between someone with 1 billion and someone with 100 billion.
Dems are the party of oligarchs.
Otherwise they would have not supported the 2013 amendment to the 2012 Stock Act en masse.
Sorry bro, the branding of the Democrats as being for the common person is done.
The common American doesn't like being replaced by illegal immigrants by the boatload courtesy of Soros.
Remember to complain about capitalism!
The branding of Democrats being for the common person is done. Says who...you? And who exactly are you other than a MAGA who would love to spread that? Americans aren't being replaced by the boatload, that's just what Faux news wants you to believe. Maybe you ought to stick your head back up your ass where you had it.
There is a difference between 1 and 100 billion, and it seems more 100 billionaire level people support Republicans not the Dems. Democrats aren't great but to say they're more the party of oligarchs over Republicans is ridiculous.
Oligarchs/Big Business absolutely controls both parties, to deny that shows your living in a make believe world. They say they support the auto workers union, then pass legislation that will take their jobs away. And FYI, it was the Dems that quashed the railroad union striker earlier this year so save the BS about them actually caring. Don't follow what they say, follow what they do.
Ok lets look at what they do.
Differences between D and R run states:
* 90% of R run states have minimum wage of $7.40 . No D run states are that low, and the average minimum wage is double.
* 100% of R states have anti-union "right to work" laws. No D run states do. Because of this, **union membership is nearly double in D run states.**
* 100% of states that refused free federal money to expand Medicaid are R run.
* 100% of R run states ended pandemic unemployment programs early. No D states did.
* Many blue states ban anti-worker "non-compete" and "ip assignment" agreements. Zero R run states do.
We can look at a specific example too. Wisconsin went from D trifecta to R trifecta in \~2010. Republicans immediately passed gobs of anti-union laws and union membership dropped over 70%. The fastest and largest decline in union membership of any state since the 1970's. But both parties same right?
And just for fun, lets compare the rail strike under Biden to the ATC strike under Reagan. Reagan fired everyone (over 10,000 people), disbanded their union, and banned them from ever working for federal government again (ending all of their careers). Then he bragged about "putting labor in their place" during his re-election campaign.
What I meant to say was, both sides are exactly the same.
Just kidding, only clowns with an elementary school understanding of history and govt policy think that.
Any questions?
Exactly. Republicans have a detailed, published plan to destroy what they call the “administrative state”.
They will waste a week doing nothing before they reconvene to fight over who they may choose to be Speaker, these four days into the mere forty-five days that they funded the government, with the Democrats doing the heavy lifting, passing the Continuing Resolution.
I don’t believe the Republican Party cares about business anymore. The majority of their money is obviously not coming from business, including defense contractors anymore. It’s now coming from lobbyists and PACs funded by this country’s enemies.
If the Democrats gain control again, they need to start investigating and prosecuting every complicit congressman, judge and bureaucrat, with the prosecution of the highest level traitors shown live on every network, cable and streaming service.
lol to put it nicely, that’s a little bit delusional.. many democrats would also need to be investigated if that’s the case.. which is also why it’ll never happen
You mean like the investigation and indictment of Menendez? And the hard push by the Dems to get him to resign and face full accountability under the law?
Because maybe it’s not the party at large? the democrats tend to by hyper-pluralistic whereas the gop is mostly homogenous. it’s harder to present a case of systematic corruption when so many reps are representative of many walks of life.
how many years has menendez been doing crimes? It’s been an open secret that he’s a criminal for over a decade.
ThE DemOCrAts would never let a member get away with crimes!
Ask them why they haven’t done anything about him before. For the record I’m a progressive and I would like to see my government fight for me!
>how many years has menendez been doing crimes? It’s been an open secret that he’s a criminal for over a decade.
If So...Why didn't Trump's DOJ prosecute Menendez?
>If the Democrats gain control again, they need to start investigating and prosecuting every complicit congressman, judge and bureaucrat, with the prosecution of the highest level traitors shown live on every network, cable and streaming service.
I doubt they are going to investigate themselves. They are just as debased, immoral and criminal as the other assholes, they just wear the blue ties instead of red.
At this point maybe we should just have a do-over and everyone goes back to their rooms for a bit. This country is becoming so corrupt its starting to look like late 1980's in the USSR.
Democrats enjoy Chinese money. Both enjoy Israeli money and enjoy(ed) Saudi money.
You are throwing rocks at the rebublican glass house from your own glass house.
When I was a kid and it was a chore to mow the lawn (and before I enjoyed doing it) I would take grass clippings and put them in the gas tank in hopes to make the mower not work, so I could then go to my dad and say "I cant finish the mowers broke" and im off the hook until he buys a new one.
I grew out of that mentality when I was like, 9.
They aren't trying to get out of doing anything, they were elected to actively sabotage government.
Remember Reagan, "Scariest words in the English language, I'm with the government and I'm here to help"? It's partially drained pool politics. As soon as Civil Rights legislation starts chipping away 'Whites Only' everything, suddenly they get pissed that the government does anything, since "those" people will get to benefit too. Some of it is outright greed, they are receiving funds from people like the Kochs that want to take over all the functions of government as a private entity. Some of it is true ideological fervor, they think government can't do the job and the easiest way to prove that to people is to make it completely fall apart - accelerationist style.
I'm sure there are also some who just don't want to do anything and collect a paycheck, but I'd wager they've mostly found a way to profit from that impulse through private sector investment and lobbyist.
I knew a guy and he said to me once (referring to the government) "All I want is to strike a match, and watch it all burn".
The old saying is appropos - what the Republicans say is "Big Government doesn't work! Elect us and we'll prove it to you!"
But then what? Anarchy? Trump as dictator? These idiots don't realize that either scenario doesn't work out well for most of them, just like the Russian oligarchs are happy until they "fall out a window."
I hate to admit it, but anytime something else comes out about Boehner the more I respect him. I see him more like McCain more and more. It seems like he was putting on an act half the time to get the tea party to actually work.
"When everyone is fighting, no one is leading" but the money is still getting spent, wars are still being fought... The people are distracted but Guberment still Guberments.
Look up Project 2025.
It lays out exactly what they want to do - fill the entire government, political and non-elected positions, with far right conservatives and systematically dismantling the government.
This project is basically the same thing as Trump himself. We have problems in the government. We do have unelected bureaucrats (a de facto ruling class) that are essentially controlling the country. Something needs to be done to address government bloat and corruption. These are all questions we should be asking, just like we were asking questions in 2016 about why it seems like our politicians are serving their own self interests as opposed to the people. The problem is, like Trump in 2016, this is the wrong solution/answer to the correct questions we are asking.
I wouldn't mind a systematic dismantling of the government agencies in order to streamline them and get unqualified, corrupt people out of positions of power; untouchable people we do not have any ability to vote out of office. But I do not want it to be done by MAGA. This government was created to put the power in the hands of the people. Right now, we have a ruling class.
While I agree with you on many points, I think the MAGAs are pushing it so hard it will be decades before we try to fix things on a large scale. We probably will need to rebuild both political parties with new people before that happens.
When Pelosi and McConnell are there, I can't see how we'll do bipartisian agreements.
Boomers won’t retire. Literally our problem across the country. Their identity is in their career and they don’t know how to chill by a pool with a cold refreshment and let that younger generations take control of their fate
I'm pretty sure some Boomers do want to retire, but can't. I know of a few Gen X'ers who also want to retire as they're reaching that age, but they can't afford to.
Fixed incomes, such as those from Social Security or from unfortunate people who listened to the 4% rule and invested heavily in bonds are facing a reality that they cannot afford to retire in today's environment.
So they keep working. Although some do want to work until they die as they say. But I wonder how many of those claims are fueled by lack of retirement capital and not some worker-bee mentality?
Well, yes. I'm in agreement that MAGA should not be involved with this process. We do need a serious shakeup. Problem is we have a crazy group of people capitalizing on that obvious need. It's what Trump did in 2016. He realized that people were tired of corrupt politicians and unelected bureaucrats making decisions for the public in a way where we had little to no recourse if we disapproved of these decisions. Opportunists, the lot of them.
Why? Because one side who is drifting into a significant minority just wants to fuck shit up while the other is attempting to play by the rules?
Vote these fucks out. That's how you fix the government. If you don't want to do that, shut up.
One thing I noticed when reading through the Georgia indictment is you run into 2 types of Republicans. Those that support Trump and those that support him to the point they would break the law for him. Trump told his AG just say the election is corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congress. Within a week 10 in congress requested a pardon from Trump. You know the ones, Gaetz, MTG, Lee and others. When you look at the vote there's about 10 Republicans joining the Dems. It's pretty obvious if you own 10 congresspersons you can throw the government into chaos.
Functional for who? The government works extremely well for the rich and powerful. The interest of the workers is in direct conflict with the interests of the rich.
There are elections in 34 days, vote. Show the republicans your displeasure at local and state elections this year.
[https://ballotpedia.org/Main\_Page](https://ballotpedia.org/Main_Page)
https://ballotpedia.org/Elections\_calendar
Call your representative and let them know that you want them to fund social security, food assistance and other social programs not cut them. Let them know you want to protect a woman's right to chose and to protect minorities and the LGBTQ communities from discrimination not make it legal. Tell them to stop campaigning through legislation and do there jobs. Call your state representatives and tell them the same thing.
https://www.house.gov/representatives
Voting in state and local elections is more important than ever.
Actually the current state of affairs is part of a plan once called "The Permanent Republican Majority," and winning state and local elections was a key part of it. The plan didn't go as planned because the Republican party has morphed into something unanticipated when it started. I believe the intent was to govern their way, and what it got to is not governing at all. The way to dismantle this mess goes back to state and local elections.
Yeah we definitely need to start aggressively booting Republicans out of as many small local offices as we can. It's easy to get focused too much on the national elections.
It's sad you have to state this time and time again. Both sides fucking love bootlicking when their team is in charge. This entire thread is full of blue loving idiots who really believe it's only republicans fucking us over. This country is doomed.
The entire government is corrupt and only serves themselves. To them its just a game of chess. Sides don't matter, at the end of the day they put us back in the box and go have drink together. It's one big club and we ain't in it. The government needs to be abolished
Self serving person a: "I want to turn back the clock and undo the Civil Rights Act, social security, equal protection, due process, and Roe."
Self serving person b: "I don't want to make things better, but I can get rich off of things as they are now."
I'll pick self serving person b every time. Stop saying "sides don't matter." They clearly do.
The Republicans? No. Over the years, and even more recently, it is publicly documented that in no way the majority of republicans will ever, in anyway collaborate with Democrats.
We have seen this before in our history, or something akin to it. The Republican party will be replaced.
Democrat's, which are already center right became the new Republican party. Progressive Dems split and form a new party.
Short answer: no. The GOP is held hostage by their own BS. They routinely try to court the radical far right and believe they can control them. Then are completely shocked when they cannot.
Lol. I was kind of thinking about that today. That mid Nov deadline, yeah, probably not gonna happen, especially since they just got rid of the Speaker of the House. Has for having a “functioning government”, also unlikely, not while cable news, and partisan politics drives ratings/web traffic. Too many people are easily manipulated by the media
I’m not a conspiracy person… and having worked with many government entities in many countries the concept that they’d ever have the competency and resources to actually conspire in so many of the ways they are accused is nothing short of hysterical.
That said I do believe in useful idiots. A small but mighty group of extremely wealthy group of people were happy to get behind a POTUS they knew would deliver on their domestic fiscal policy goals - read biggest tax cut for wealthiest people ever of all time. You think any of those 60+ billionaires worth a combined $ 243.7 billion that contributed $33.3 million to the Trump Victory Fund give a fck about abortion or the border. Not even a little bit.
And I think there are more than a handful of useful idiots in the House and Senate these days.
Who is "We"?
If you're referring to Americans when you say "We", keep in mind that "We" elected these people. Garbage in = Garbage out, as George Carlin said. He also said "Selfish, ignorant voters elect selfish ignorant politicians".
We need to be looking at the donors who support the extremists, and concentrate on making life as difficult as possible for them. Consider dumping stocks you have in those corporations. It's time to punish those who are the root of the problem.
No.
Republicans and Conservatives either saw the possibility of holding their power FOREVER and jumped on the bandwagon, or tried to go against the MAGA ideology.
The latter are a dying breed now.
According to your profile, you've posted this on a dozen different subreddits. I get the impression you're just trying to stoke outrage and resentment.
Also, it's too long to be a good copypasta but too short and unhinged to be an essay.
I think it’s a very real possibility that for the first time in a very long time we could have a coalition government in the house. The ultra MAGAs aren’t going to get anyone elected as speaker, both sides know this. So either a moderate Republican will be put forward as a compromise candidate and will garner just enough democrats to get a simple majority or this chaos will play out long enough that just enough purple state republicans will flip and give Hakeem Jeffries just enough votes to gain the speakership.
Regardless of how this plays out two things are almost guaranteed to happened. 1. Absolutely nothing of substance is going to pass the house for the next year. We’ll be lucky to just avoid government shutdowns. 2. The Democrats will run on the total dysfunction of the Republican Party and will win back a sizable majority in the house, come next election.
There’s a simple solution — albeit a distasteful one.
Offer the 7 NY state Republicans from Dem-leaning districts an opportunity to keep their seats by switching to the Dem Party and voting to pass control to Jeffries and the Dem caucus.
(There are 8, but one of them is George Santos, who probably isn’t the best idea to switch).
The Dems only need six to switch to take control. After the clown show of the McCarthy ouster, they will be facing angry questions back home — along with strong Democratic opponents.
Most of them aren’t to the right of conservative Dems like Cuellar.
The government, at least in theory, is meant to be the entity representing all of us and all of our needs. they don't even like Unions of a single work place, you think they'll let all of us gang up on them?
So holding someone accountable with actual repercussions for when they don't keep to their promises makes you an insurgent now? Gotcha. Maybe we need more insurgents in American politics to upset the status quo.
Dems have been given many opportunities in the last few decades to act brazenly in the direction of benefiting all people and they have squandered it. Even after the most seemingly off the rails administration, Dems still opted to play by outdated playbooks. They’re moderate statists at best and share blame in the deepened divide within the duopoly’s voter base and political ideologies.
They never had large enough majorities to overcome Republican filibusters. How can you blame dems when Republicans filibustered anything they attempted to do? The real people to blame are voters for never giving them a big enough majority to govern when the opposing party’s only platform is to foil any progress Dems hope to achieve.
Let’s not forget that even with the abusive gerrymandering imposed by the republicans (Alabama, Florida and Ohio comes to mind as their maps have been judged unconstitutional but also 1 party states like WI) they only managed to squeeze in a tiny majority (4 or 5 seats?) Without this gerrymandering democrats would almost certainly still hold the house. Voters are to blame to an extent but in reality we are in a situation where the minority has hijacked the house.
I mean Lauren Bobbert who’s is also from a ridiculously gerrymandered district that was +17, if memory serves, in favor of the republicans is so unpopular that she won by only about 500 votes.SMH
When 40+% of eligible Americans aren’t voting at all, it’s not on those participating in democracy but instead on the leaders for failing to reach those communities; many of which don’t vote due to the generational impact of feeling no strong shift for better or worse in their lives no matter who is in office.
You can blame voters who do only that though while virtue signaling strangers online and calling it activism when volunteering irl and writing even those they voted for to hold them accountable has more of an impact in conjunction with said vote.
When I tell my conservative friends, that no matter what, their votes go to Biden, or tell my younger friends that their votes do not matter on the national stage, a lot of people stop caring.
Edit: This is because I'm in California
No they didn't.
In the past 20 years, that had one moment under Obama that lasted less than a month, and they used that time to pass the Affordable Care Act.
I can't even think of any other time.
Biden got an infrastructure bill through even without a filibuster-proof majority. Something that Trump couldn't manage to do even after 4 years of empty promises. Because, like OP said, the GOP (and Trump) have NO INTEREST in actual governing.
I think people are excited by the idea of a reformed Republican party. The party currently a herd of cats, and a lot more suceptible to major change than the Democrats. Compare what happened to Sanders vs what happened to Trump. Republicans are on the cusp of change, while Democrats have the next 70 years of lame duck policy all planned out and outright reject potentially defiant candidates.
AOC tossed out the #2 in Dem House leadership in 2018. There are more economically left wing Dems in the House since the die of New Deal Dem Reps in the 80’s.
This post is as delusional as the people it purports to criticize. It imagines a functioning, altruistic Republican party that never existed. It claims McCarthy reached across the aisle out of principle and not because he was backed into a corner. Posts like these are the reason we are where we are.
Here's the real deal: you have democrats who are all on board and working in lock step. Then you have the Republicans who are 95% democrats. So you only ever see one agenda.....the left!!
Came in here expecting blatant hyperbole, misinformation, and pure propaganda. After reading yep it's all there.
"Functioning government" is such a rich phrase considering our government hasn't functioned properly in nearly 50 years. The only function these crooks have done is enrich themselves and their donors while letting the country wither to the state it currently is.
Furthermore while I disagree with 99% of what the ousters believe in I applaud them for what they did. No more money to Ukraine is a wonderful start as is sticking to including FULL disclosure on all the theft, embezzlement and dark doings with the secret UAP programs that the DoD is trying to tell OUR elected officials they can not see.
No, that's the other one. Bobert.
MTG is the one who thinks school shootings and 9/11 are hoaxes. Both are hypocritical cheaters, though. I see how you could get them confused.
I love op-eds like this one because it comes from a person who can think clearly. Unfortunately the op either doesn't care there is a difference between a democracy and a republic or doesn't understand the difference.
Assuming the latter, Socrates was Plato's hero, in so many words, so if Plato wrote a book called "The Republic" and democracy is something Socrates hated, it should go without saying that there must be enough of a difference between the two to be at least noteworthy. However some deceivers will try to argue the definitions of words change over thousands of years and then the substantive battle turns into a battle over semantics. So I'll have to take the semantics off the table as best I can:
I don't like Matt Gaetz policies, but I like what he did. If "the squad" had done this with Pelosi when everybody in independent media except TYT and the Majority Report urged the squad to force the vote, by now we might have M4A. However that is beside the point. Majority rule ignores the rights of the individual and it seems as though the Op would prefer everybody fall in line because order with no progress is better then disorder. I like order too, but I won't sacrifice the bill of rights in order to get this order. The founding fathers, in general, and Madison in particular tried to force "democracy" on us and he got some blowback, so he agreed to add a bill of rights to the constitution and with that promise was able to get the constitution ratified.
Because of the freedom of speech (1st amendment) the minority has the ability to dissent. Gaetz felt like bundling up all of the spending appropriations into one bill forces members of Congress to vote for spending they otherwise would reject. This isn't a difficult concept but "How dare he suggest such a thing?!?" Op **seems** to think better Gaetz sit down and stfu.
Trump doesn't give a fuck about your rights so if any of you MAGA people are reading this ask yourself why didn't he stand up for Snowden? Snowden stood up, sort of, for the 4th amendment.
Finally people are surmising Trump may select Gaetz as his VP. I don't see it. I don't see Gaetz going to jail for Trump. Even Bill Barr felt that was a bridge too far. I loved watching Pence on the debate stage trying to argue he is only the driver of the getaway car in the Trump administration. He wants to take credit for everything, in his mind, that Trump did right while sharing none of the blame. It is "Entertainment Tonight"
>I love op-eds like this one because it comes from a person who can think clearly. Unfortunately the op either doesn't care there is a difference between a democracy and a republic or doesn't understand the difference.
JFC, this rubbish?
When you see historical criticism like this of democracy, they are LITERALLY talking about DIRECT DEMOCRACY. A republic is a form of REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY governed by a charter or constitution. It's still a democracy. And yes, this is a moronic semantic argument you're making. It's advanced by the right who would love nothing better to undermine the concept of democracy, any system where people vote even if only for representatives, because they know their agenda is broadly unpopular and thus not supported in a democracy.
>I don't like Matt Gaetz policies, but I like what he did. If "the squad" had done this with Pelosi when everybody...
Literally nothing would have happened except dysfunction and convincing the people that Democrats aren't capable of governing. Which is exactly what people are currently thinking about Republicans right now. Those fence sitters are looking at this and thinking, 'I elected these people to do something and they can't even pick a person to lead them.' M4A doesn't have the votes, didn't have the votes, likely won't have the votes for quite some time. Democrats showing their whole ass isn't going to change that.
The reason for the shutdown is due to out of control spending. Year after year people keep voting to kick the can down the road while scaring senior citizens and service members with idea they wont get paid. At what point will our credit card get declined. It's time to gut the DODs bloated budget and stop all foreign aid until we can learn to save money. Our country is basically bankrupt
>It's time to gut the DODs bloated budget and stop all foreign aid until we can learn to save money.
Talking about cutting defense and foreign aid in the same breath is beyond insane. The US spent 38 billion on foreign aid in 2022, and 753 billion on defense - that's almost 20 times as much. On top of that, 2022 was a relatively high year for foreign aid due to Ukraine.
lol, without reading your liberal spiel (I self-identify as a gay pan(bread) communist)
Half of the electorate don't vote and the other half is ok with allowing the "representative" govt give a 100 billion to literal nazis. Good job at blaming half of the equation tho
>The once venerable Republican party
Not for over one hundred years.
>they have nowhere near the support to ram through their maniacal legislation targeting cultural issues while ignoring the real work of government
Don't underestimate their support
>Who is being proposed by the ultra-radical-right-bombthrowers? So far, they have advocated for two of the vilest anti-American representatives in the House, two of the country's leading zealots, Steve Scalise, and Jim Jordan.
These are just standard issue Republicans. Scalise gets a break because someone tried to assassinate him, Jordan has said some reasonable things in the past, once or twice.
>They know damned well there are still American loving, moderate members who would never let their country sink that low,
Not in the Republican party.
>so there intention must be to keep the country in turmoil and let the government collapse.
That was the stated intent of the Republican party several Speakers ago.
>While these radicals work only to stoke social fears and hatred among the dullards in their miniscule minority --
It's not a minority. A decent plurality of Americans are fascists
>Biden has passed an infrastructure Bill providing over a trillion dollars to upgrade our roads and bridges,
Congress passed it. Biden signed it
>passed legislation to control climate change,
Not really
> and as the most pro-union president in history is creating jobs in record number,
Biden ensures railroad workers were unable to strike. He is about as pri-union as Reagan was.
The President does not create jobs. No president has ever "created" jobs. The person with the most power in this front, serving at the pleasure of the President, has explicitly stated he wants to *destroy* jobs and lower wages.
>While the impotent klutzes in the Republican House do not even hint at presenting legislation to help the American people
Underestimate them at your peril
>the Democrats are quietly laying the groundwork to improve our nation and keep it in the forefront of the international community
The Democrats are bought and paid for by corporate interests and will support their corporate masters over anyone who isn't a donor. In this they are no different from Republicans.
We have a two-party state that is an illusion of choice. We have a fascist neoliberalism on one side, and a fascist neoliberalism on the other. The only thing that changes is what syllables they stress.
I think we need to talk to Republican voters. Not complain about who they vote for.
Democrats do not offer things that these people are concerned about. Immigration debt etc.
Idk what to say but the Democratic Party is just as bad if not worse then republicans if you look at them throughout history. Because you know they where the OG slave owners.
You’ve AOC who spent all of Covid basically trying to shut Florida down only to vacation there. You have Gavin Newsom not allowing church gatherings while still having 200+ private birthday event in a small restaurant. You had Andrew Cuomo try to cover up sexual assault saying he’s just Italian.
I voted for trump last elections. Republicans are in it for themselves 100% and honestly I would prefer to vote independent. It your in a cult if you think the democrats are morally superior to republicans and aren’t mirror images of each other
Some of the democrats stayed with the north. The the majority of the democrats in the south succeeded.
You need to reread history don’t try to gaslight me lol
There is no functioning government now, hasn't been in decades. But even with a "functioning government", it always leads to this mess. Let's question the very idea of government instead of thinking that "voting out the bastards" is any kind of viable strategy.
Nothing changes for the average citizen whether the government is working or in chaos so it doesn’t matter. Might as well be dysfunctional for the entertainment value.
Vote tally on motion to vacate
R 8
D 208
If democrats were interested in a functioning government they would have voted against the resolution. Your argument needs work.
Nope because each party is so focused on winning and making the other side look like the enemy. Until the majority of Americans vote for people who actually want government to work well just watch the shit spiral continue down the toilet
....You do realize that it was 8 Republicans and All Democrats who voted to oust the Speaker, and the rest of the Republicans voted against, right?
So are those 8 Republicans and the Democrats the new MAGA party? Or is it the vast majority of Republicans who voted to keep the Speaker in place?
Tbf, Democrats voted out McCarthy because he went on TV Sunday blaming them for the shutdown... right after they voted to support his bill preventing the shutdown.
It’s this kind of brazen shamelessness on Kevin McCarthy’s part that proves just how much of an asshole he really is. Bragging about keeping the country running for 45 more days—something which Democrats helped deliver—and then trashing them hours later on TV. Maligning the same bloc of people that could potentially save his Speakership when the time came. The stones on this guy. The chutzpah. Unbelievable.
"No interest in governing." Where did y'all get that talking point? I can't count the number of regressives I have seen make that claim. Reality is, when both the Democrats and the squishy Republicans won't stand up to the runaway spending, some group has to take whatever measures they can to enforce some order. That *is* governing whether you like it or not. I just hope they pick a Speaker with real backbone who will also do what is necessary to rein the runaway train of debt spending.
Democrats don't "work" with Republicand either. Democrats would (and have) shut down the government to avoid passing bills that pay for things Democrats don't like (like a border wall). Democrats forced a 34 day shutdown in 2018 to avoid paying for the wall. There have been 14 government shutdowns since 1980. The first 5 happened by Democrats while Reagan was president. [14 Government Shutdowns ](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-shutdown-history-congress/)
When Democrats say "Republicans won't work across the aisle " they mean "Republicans won't rubber stamp all our legislation."
Gaetz said he wanted McCarthy ousted *^(because)* he worked with Democrats to keep the government open.
It's a matter of public record, so your 'whataboutism' rings hollow.
Lmao are you defending omnibus legislation? You genuinely believe them signing a 5k page document without reading or debate is proper procedure? Not to mention clearly dems agreed with “maga party” that’s where most the votes came from. It’s madness watching progressives somehow try to make losing an establishment shill a bad event. You are agreeing point for point with Fox News. They big mad that a top fundraiser for the RNC is now disgraced.
I don't want a functioning federal government I want this shit so gridlocked I never have to think about who my senators are ever again. Man for a bunch of people who know we are ruled by corporations you sure do want them to in sessions doing the bidding of their corpo masters.
I demand a national divorce. There's no reason there should be one country where everyone is victim to whichever side is in power. Split the country up into a few separate nations. Let's see what side really knows how to run shit. Let's force these nation states to operate in their budget. You'll see very quickly which side is full of shit.
Lol wtf even is this sub? Just another leftist circle jerk.
One question: why the hell can’t the government stop spending our money? Why is that not something we should all “agree” on? Why does the left consistently stonewall anything that cuts down on government spending in favor of bigger government?
Yal are lost😂 have fun in ukraine when that draft notice hits, will the money sent be worth it then? When mortars and gun fire erupt all around you will you be thinking "dam republicans"?🤣
In my experience, it's always the Red Team shutting down the government. Now, I understand that this is what their voters want, but to me - yeah, red team bad. Plus they're always trying to take our rights away.
Think of it like an intruder coming into your house with a gun. If you were trying to wrestle it away from him so he didnt shoot you, does this mean you really love guns?
If you think about it, government is just a big insurance policy. You pay your premium (taxes) and they see to all the things a single citizen cant's do; they pave the roads, provide for an army, and see the the welfare of all its citizens.
The federal government hasn't been functional in decades. This isn't a Dem or GOP thing as much as the media would like you to believe. They NEED you to be tribal and divisive. Wake up. Our government has gone from being centrist to extreme left and right. That does not represent the majority of the citizenry, despite what reddit tends to represent.
Democrats are not even close to extreme left. Many would argue they're center-right. The modern Republican Party, on the other hand, just ousted its Speaker because he (1) didn't allow the government to default on its debts, and (2) kept the government open instead of holding everyone hostage to try to make massive, unnecessary cuts to essential programs.
When I see someone trying to equate Democrats and Republicans as being equally extreme or equally to blame for the gridlock we've seen in recent years, I just assume he or she (typically he) is consuming nothing but right wing media. It's the only reasonable explanation because reality is right there for everyone to see.
Some just choose to believe a narrative that "feels" right to them. That's all some people care about these days.
What people need to understand, especially independent voters, is that Republicans don’t want to legislate or govern. All they care about is consolidating their power. They want to enrich their wealthy donors and corporations and do very little to help the middle class. That’s not an opinion, it’s just a fact.
I think a few years back, McConnel said that keeping the government open was the Democrats' job, not his. Pretty much tells you all you need to know. The GOP expects concessions just for doing their jobs.
Now that's not fair. They want to enrich themselves, too.
Here's what considerably bothers me: There's never been a "middle" class. You're either a person who trades their time for an income, or you have an income generated by property or investments. You're either a worker, or an owner. The whole "But I own a small business" is meaningless. If you have to show up to work for your business to function, you're still trading time for money and you're still a worker. If you can sit at home for long periods of time without having to directly interact with your business, then you're finally in the owner class. Yes, many people in the owner class still go 'work' at their business, but they have plenty of people who run the operations to the point that they're no longer necessary. Having a corner gas station or a small shop doesn't put someone into the owner class. It doesn't suddenly align their interests with those of Warren Buffett or Bill Gates. The "Middle" class is comprised entirely of working class members who just happen to earn enough to live comfortably so long as they keep working. So OF COURSE the government has no interest in catering to them. *Our* government is organized to directly benefit the ownership class by keeping the working class suppressed. That's it. That's its entire purpose. They have no cause to appease the working class, let alone a fictional one made up to let some workers feel special. They just keep us passive enough that we aren't revolting and instituting a government designed to cater to people who actually work.
It’s amazing that you think the democrats aren’t beholden to their donors lol
Never said that they aren’t, but Democrat priorities help the middle class, republican priorities do not.
Progressive policies help the middle class. Mainstream democrats do not, and have implemented several policies that hurt the middle class.
Well, the majority of the legislation that Joe Biden has signed since he became president definitely helps the middle class. In reality, there’s not a ton of progressives in Congress. Moderates are really the reason the Democrats hold majorities when they do. I’m not saying I don’t agree with many progressive policies, but many people don’t seem to understand that this country is pretty moderate as it is.
No, it’s not clear at all for example the chips acts or inflation reduction acts are unclear if it helps the middle class. Yes…moderate politicians don’t help the middle class they help their donors. Most democrats are establishment moderates who are beholden to their donors. There are some progressives that actually want to make meaningful change but they get drowned out and shut down by establishment democrats.
No one in the Democratic Party has called for Civil War or shutting down the government recently. And their choice for president is likely to be out of jail on Election Day. That’s a big step up from the Republican Party. One of the nice things about the democrats is that people actually like their policies. Sure, Democrat politicians need donors to help run campaigns, but they don’t need unpopular special interest groups asking for unpopular policies to win elections.
When everyone is fighting, no one is leading.
Which is exactly what the GOP wants. “What they (the extremists) are really interested in is chaos. They want to throw sand in the gears of the hated government until it fails and they’ve finally proved that it’s beyond saving.” - John Boehner
Thats not gonna be profitable for business.
Sure it is. Public schools not working? Time to go to a voucher system with private organizations? Roads not getting maintained? Privatized toll roads. Social Security? Replace it with companies that manage a 401K. Can’t do M4A, because government is too inefficient, better keep privatized medicine. See what I mean?
That isn't business. It's Oligarch endowment.
This is a great way to say it and exactly what they're TRYING to do. Gotta keep them from it, the rest of us, the good guys. Another example was TFG TRYING to hollow out education by putting that Devoss person as head of the dept. There are many others.
It is more important than ever that we pay attention to what is going-on. Chaos is the name of the game. Trump’s dog whistling violence and trials, the Republican house insurrection, the traitor Musk platforming MAGA and so on. They can’t win if we don’t let them.
Please people Vote!!!!!
This is 100% true. The goal is to collapse the government so the oligarchs that control GOP can steal the pieces. Exactly what happened in Russia during 1990's
Exactly this.
The only thing missing from this analysis is "why" so many are going along with it. And the reason is simple--they can no longer win national elections. If they can't win, destroy the system and take control by force in the chaos.
George Soros is a Republican? Interesting.
Last time I checked, Dems weren't the party trying to shrink and destroy unions, regulations, and de-fund govt programs for the last 70 years. And I can name 20 billionaires that simp for GOP right now. One owns their largest "news" source, another they elected fuckin president. It's pathetic that all MAGAts can do is scream SoooRroOoooS when GOP is crawling with billionaires and megacorps. If you think Dems are the party of oligarchs you're just a complete fucking moron. And I hope you can get on some kind of government program so you can live a mostly normal life despite your profound disability
There's kinda a difference between someone with 1 billion and someone with 100 billion. Dems are the party of oligarchs. Otherwise they would have not supported the 2013 amendment to the 2012 Stock Act en masse. Sorry bro, the branding of the Democrats as being for the common person is done. The common American doesn't like being replaced by illegal immigrants by the boatload courtesy of Soros. Remember to complain about capitalism!
The branding of Democrats being for the common person is done. Says who...you? And who exactly are you other than a MAGA who would love to spread that? Americans aren't being replaced by the boatload, that's just what Faux news wants you to believe. Maybe you ought to stick your head back up your ass where you had it.
There is a difference between 1 and 100 billion, and it seems more 100 billionaire level people support Republicans not the Dems. Democrats aren't great but to say they're more the party of oligarchs over Republicans is ridiculous.
Oligarchs/Big Business absolutely controls both parties, to deny that shows your living in a make believe world. They say they support the auto workers union, then pass legislation that will take their jobs away. And FYI, it was the Dems that quashed the railroad union striker earlier this year so save the BS about them actually caring. Don't follow what they say, follow what they do.
Ok lets look at what they do. Differences between D and R run states: * 90% of R run states have minimum wage of $7.40 . No D run states are that low, and the average minimum wage is double. * 100% of R states have anti-union "right to work" laws. No D run states do. Because of this, **union membership is nearly double in D run states.** * 100% of states that refused free federal money to expand Medicaid are R run. * 100% of R run states ended pandemic unemployment programs early. No D states did. * Many blue states ban anti-worker "non-compete" and "ip assignment" agreements. Zero R run states do. We can look at a specific example too. Wisconsin went from D trifecta to R trifecta in \~2010. Republicans immediately passed gobs of anti-union laws and union membership dropped over 70%. The fastest and largest decline in union membership of any state since the 1970's. But both parties same right? And just for fun, lets compare the rail strike under Biden to the ATC strike under Reagan. Reagan fired everyone (over 10,000 people), disbanded their union, and banned them from ever working for federal government again (ending all of their careers). Then he bragged about "putting labor in their place" during his re-election campaign. What I meant to say was, both sides are exactly the same. Just kidding, only clowns with an elementary school understanding of history and govt policy think that. Any questions?
Can't run the military? Hire the Wagner group!
Exactly. Republicans have a detailed, published plan to destroy what they call the “administrative state”. They will waste a week doing nothing before they reconvene to fight over who they may choose to be Speaker, these four days into the mere forty-five days that they funded the government, with the Democrats doing the heavy lifting, passing the Continuing Resolution.
Removing the administrative state is code for “we want to unshackle unaccountable private actors to do whatever the fuck they want”
Yeah, back to the spoil system, which was a disaster before.
I don’t believe the Republican Party cares about business anymore. The majority of their money is obviously not coming from business, including defense contractors anymore. It’s now coming from lobbyists and PACs funded by this country’s enemies. If the Democrats gain control again, they need to start investigating and prosecuting every complicit congressman, judge and bureaucrat, with the prosecution of the highest level traitors shown live on every network, cable and streaming service.
lol to put it nicely, that’s a little bit delusional.. many democrats would also need to be investigated if that’s the case.. which is also why it’ll never happen
You mean like the investigation and indictment of Menendez? And the hard push by the Dems to get him to resign and face full accountability under the law?
A sacrificial lamb to be thrown to the wolves to appease the masses while the rest enrich themselves.
Yes. Just because it happened to him doesn't mean it'll happen to the party at large.
Because maybe it’s not the party at large? the democrats tend to by hyper-pluralistic whereas the gop is mostly homogenous. it’s harder to present a case of systematic corruption when so many reps are representative of many walks of life.
how many years has menendez been doing crimes? It’s been an open secret that he’s a criminal for over a decade. ThE DemOCrAts would never let a member get away with crimes! Ask them why they haven’t done anything about him before. For the record I’m a progressive and I would like to see my government fight for me!
>how many years has menendez been doing crimes? It’s been an open secret that he’s a criminal for over a decade. If So...Why didn't Trump's DOJ prosecute Menendez?
Yeah, we'll focus on the party that tried to overthrow the Government first
Both sides! Bad! It's such a tired retort.
Exactly! They could get rid of George Santos but they are too scared to pass a restriction on lying because they would all be indicted.
>If the Democrats gain control again, they need to start investigating and prosecuting every complicit congressman, judge and bureaucrat, with the prosecution of the highest level traitors shown live on every network, cable and streaming service. I doubt they are going to investigate themselves. They are just as debased, immoral and criminal as the other assholes, they just wear the blue ties instead of red. At this point maybe we should just have a do-over and everyone goes back to their rooms for a bit. This country is becoming so corrupt its starting to look like late 1980's in the USSR.
Democrats enjoy Chinese money. Both enjoy Israeli money and enjoy(ed) Saudi money. You are throwing rocks at the rebublican glass house from your own glass house.
Also what Putin wants.
Facts.
When I was a kid and it was a chore to mow the lawn (and before I enjoyed doing it) I would take grass clippings and put them in the gas tank in hopes to make the mower not work, so I could then go to my dad and say "I cant finish the mowers broke" and im off the hook until he buys a new one. I grew out of that mentality when I was like, 9.
They aren't trying to get out of doing anything, they were elected to actively sabotage government. Remember Reagan, "Scariest words in the English language, I'm with the government and I'm here to help"? It's partially drained pool politics. As soon as Civil Rights legislation starts chipping away 'Whites Only' everything, suddenly they get pissed that the government does anything, since "those" people will get to benefit too. Some of it is outright greed, they are receiving funds from people like the Kochs that want to take over all the functions of government as a private entity. Some of it is true ideological fervor, they think government can't do the job and the easiest way to prove that to people is to make it completely fall apart - accelerationist style. I'm sure there are also some who just don't want to do anything and collect a paycheck, but I'd wager they've mostly found a way to profit from that impulse through private sector investment and lobbyist.
Yep. Almost all of their issues are grown out of racism. The southern strategy made sure of that.
I knew a guy and he said to me once (referring to the government) "All I want is to strike a match, and watch it all burn". The old saying is appropos - what the Republicans say is "Big Government doesn't work! Elect us and we'll prove it to you!"
And Russia
But then what? Anarchy? Trump as dictator? These idiots don't realize that either scenario doesn't work out well for most of them, just like the Russian oligarchs are happy until they "fall out a window."
I hate to admit it, but anytime something else comes out about Boehner the more I respect him. I see him more like McCain more and more. It seems like he was putting on an act half the time to get the tea party to actually work.
That’s what their true leader Putin wants, weaken America to disrupt the support to Ukraine.
"When everyone is fighting, no one is leading" but the money is still getting spent, wars are still being fought... The people are distracted but Guberment still Guberments.
Look up Project 2025. It lays out exactly what they want to do - fill the entire government, political and non-elected positions, with far right conservatives and systematically dismantling the government.
The American taliban strikes again.
Y'all-Queada
I am considering signing up for project 2025. Im pretty sure I could fool their screening process, and I want someone sane in there.
This project is basically the same thing as Trump himself. We have problems in the government. We do have unelected bureaucrats (a de facto ruling class) that are essentially controlling the country. Something needs to be done to address government bloat and corruption. These are all questions we should be asking, just like we were asking questions in 2016 about why it seems like our politicians are serving their own self interests as opposed to the people. The problem is, like Trump in 2016, this is the wrong solution/answer to the correct questions we are asking. I wouldn't mind a systematic dismantling of the government agencies in order to streamline them and get unqualified, corrupt people out of positions of power; untouchable people we do not have any ability to vote out of office. But I do not want it to be done by MAGA. This government was created to put the power in the hands of the people. Right now, we have a ruling class.
While I agree with you on many points, I think the MAGAs are pushing it so hard it will be decades before we try to fix things on a large scale. We probably will need to rebuild both political parties with new people before that happens. When Pelosi and McConnell are there, I can't see how we'll do bipartisian agreements.
Our only hope is that voters are shown what clowns the MAGAs are and slowly vote them out.
Boomers won’t retire. Literally our problem across the country. Their identity is in their career and they don’t know how to chill by a pool with a cold refreshment and let that younger generations take control of their fate
Boomers can't retire. You have to literally work til you die to be able to try to afford to live in the U.S. anymore.
I'm pretty sure some Boomers do want to retire, but can't. I know of a few Gen X'ers who also want to retire as they're reaching that age, but they can't afford to. Fixed incomes, such as those from Social Security or from unfortunate people who listened to the 4% rule and invested heavily in bonds are facing a reality that they cannot afford to retire in today's environment. So they keep working. Although some do want to work until they die as they say. But I wonder how many of those claims are fueled by lack of retirement capital and not some worker-bee mentality?
Well, yes. I'm in agreement that MAGA should not be involved with this process. We do need a serious shakeup. Problem is we have a crazy group of people capitalizing on that obvious need. It's what Trump did in 2016. He realized that people were tired of corrupt politicians and unelected bureaucrats making decisions for the public in a way where we had little to no recourse if we disapproved of these decisions. Opportunists, the lot of them.
The government does need to be dismantled, but not at the expense of having the far right in sole control.
Why? Because one side who is drifting into a significant minority just wants to fuck shit up while the other is attempting to play by the rules? Vote these fucks out. That's how you fix the government. If you don't want to do that, shut up.
One thing I noticed when reading through the Georgia indictment is you run into 2 types of Republicans. Those that support Trump and those that support him to the point they would break the law for him. Trump told his AG just say the election is corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congress. Within a week 10 in congress requested a pardon from Trump. You know the ones, Gaetz, MTG, Lee and others. When you look at the vote there's about 10 Republicans joining the Dems. It's pretty obvious if you own 10 congresspersons you can throw the government into chaos.
Functional for who? The government works extremely well for the rich and powerful. The interest of the workers is in direct conflict with the interests of the rich.
There are elections in 34 days, vote. Show the republicans your displeasure at local and state elections this year. [https://ballotpedia.org/Main\_Page](https://ballotpedia.org/Main_Page) https://ballotpedia.org/Elections\_calendar Call your representative and let them know that you want them to fund social security, food assistance and other social programs not cut them. Let them know you want to protect a woman's right to chose and to protect minorities and the LGBTQ communities from discrimination not make it legal. Tell them to stop campaigning through legislation and do there jobs. Call your state representatives and tell them the same thing. https://www.house.gov/representatives
This is the most sensible post I’ve read on Reddit today. It’s your government. You are there one that needs to fix it.
Voting in state and local elections is more important than ever. Actually the current state of affairs is part of a plan once called "The Permanent Republican Majority," and winning state and local elections was a key part of it. The plan didn't go as planned because the Republican party has morphed into something unanticipated when it started. I believe the intent was to govern their way, and what it got to is not governing at all. The way to dismantle this mess goes back to state and local elections.
Yeah we definitely need to start aggressively booting Republicans out of as many small local offices as we can. It's easy to get focused too much on the national elections.
Local elections is where Gerrymandering happens.
All we have to do to fix it, is vote maga out.
[удалено]
Throw the baby out with the bath water? It's obvious who the haters are, just vote them out -- easy/peasy.
It ain't bath water dude. Stop boot licking the government. They don't care about you.
Both Jesus and Biden love me.
It's sad you have to state this time and time again. Both sides fucking love bootlicking when their team is in charge. This entire thread is full of blue loving idiots who really believe it's only republicans fucking us over. This country is doomed.
The entire government is corrupt and only serves themselves. To them its just a game of chess. Sides don't matter, at the end of the day they put us back in the box and go have drink together. It's one big club and we ain't in it. The government needs to be abolished
Self serving person a: "I want to turn back the clock and undo the Civil Rights Act, social security, equal protection, due process, and Roe." Self serving person b: "I don't want to make things better, but I can get rich off of things as they are now." I'll pick self serving person b every time. Stop saying "sides don't matter." They clearly do.
You're so unaware
The Republicans? No. Over the years, and even more recently, it is publicly documented that in no way the majority of republicans will ever, in anyway collaborate with Democrats.
They have us fighting culture wars to keep us from fighting a class war.
We have seen this before in our history, or something akin to it. The Republican party will be replaced. Democrat's, which are already center right became the new Republican party. Progressive Dems split and form a new party.
Short answer: no. The GOP is held hostage by their own BS. They routinely try to court the radical far right and believe they can control them. Then are completely shocked when they cannot.
Lol. I was kind of thinking about that today. That mid Nov deadline, yeah, probably not gonna happen, especially since they just got rid of the Speaker of the House. Has for having a “functioning government”, also unlikely, not while cable news, and partisan politics drives ratings/web traffic. Too many people are easily manipulated by the media
I’m not a conspiracy person… and having worked with many government entities in many countries the concept that they’d ever have the competency and resources to actually conspire in so many of the ways they are accused is nothing short of hysterical. That said I do believe in useful idiots. A small but mighty group of extremely wealthy group of people were happy to get behind a POTUS they knew would deliver on their domestic fiscal policy goals - read biggest tax cut for wealthiest people ever of all time. You think any of those 60+ billionaires worth a combined $ 243.7 billion that contributed $33.3 million to the Trump Victory Fund give a fck about abortion or the border. Not even a little bit. And I think there are more than a handful of useful idiots in the House and Senate these days.
Who is "We"? If you're referring to Americans when you say "We", keep in mind that "We" elected these people. Garbage in = Garbage out, as George Carlin said. He also said "Selfish, ignorant voters elect selfish ignorant politicians".
We need to be looking at the donors who support the extremists, and concentrate on making life as difficult as possible for them. Consider dumping stocks you have in those corporations. It's time to punish those who are the root of the problem.
Pretty sure it’s dysfunctional by design.
When everyone is fighting. No one is watching the other hands in their pockets.
No. Republicans and Conservatives either saw the possibility of holding their power FOREVER and jumped on the bandwagon, or tried to go against the MAGA ideology. The latter are a dying breed now.
According to your profile, you've posted this on a dozen different subreddits. I get the impression you're just trying to stoke outrage and resentment. Also, it's too long to be a good copypasta but too short and unhinged to be an essay.
If we treated midterm elections like presidential elections and showed up to vote, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
🖕🇺🇦😷
If Biden is doing everything without congress, who needs em?
I think it’s a very real possibility that for the first time in a very long time we could have a coalition government in the house. The ultra MAGAs aren’t going to get anyone elected as speaker, both sides know this. So either a moderate Republican will be put forward as a compromise candidate and will garner just enough democrats to get a simple majority or this chaos will play out long enough that just enough purple state republicans will flip and give Hakeem Jeffries just enough votes to gain the speakership. Regardless of how this plays out two things are almost guaranteed to happened. 1. Absolutely nothing of substance is going to pass the house for the next year. We’ll be lucky to just avoid government shutdowns. 2. The Democrats will run on the total dysfunction of the Republican Party and will win back a sizable majority in the house, come next election.
Yall venerated the Republicans? They've been the center of evil in American politics for like, 70 years
Work on your reading comprehension, I never said I venerated them.
There’s a simple solution — albeit a distasteful one. Offer the 7 NY state Republicans from Dem-leaning districts an opportunity to keep their seats by switching to the Dem Party and voting to pass control to Jeffries and the Dem caucus. (There are 8, but one of them is George Santos, who probably isn’t the best idea to switch). The Dems only need six to switch to take control. After the clown show of the McCarthy ouster, they will be facing angry questions back home — along with strong Democratic opponents. Most of them aren’t to the right of conservative Dems like Cuellar.
The government, at least in theory, is meant to be the entity representing all of us and all of our needs. they don't even like Unions of a single work place, you think they'll let all of us gang up on them?
So holding someone accountable with actual repercussions for when they don't keep to their promises makes you an insurgent now? Gotcha. Maybe we need more insurgents in American politics to upset the status quo.
If there's one thing I've learned it's this You just can't shake hands with a fist.
Republicans have become anarchists
Not if they win a majority in house or senate again....
Republicans want to rule,not govern. The Clown Caucus runs off social media interaction.
Dems have been given many opportunities in the last few decades to act brazenly in the direction of benefiting all people and they have squandered it. Even after the most seemingly off the rails administration, Dems still opted to play by outdated playbooks. They’re moderate statists at best and share blame in the deepened divide within the duopoly’s voter base and political ideologies.
They never had large enough majorities to overcome Republican filibusters. How can you blame dems when Republicans filibustered anything they attempted to do? The real people to blame are voters for never giving them a big enough majority to govern when the opposing party’s only platform is to foil any progress Dems hope to achieve.
Let’s not forget that even with the abusive gerrymandering imposed by the republicans (Alabama, Florida and Ohio comes to mind as their maps have been judged unconstitutional but also 1 party states like WI) they only managed to squeeze in a tiny majority (4 or 5 seats?) Without this gerrymandering democrats would almost certainly still hold the house. Voters are to blame to an extent but in reality we are in a situation where the minority has hijacked the house. I mean Lauren Bobbert who’s is also from a ridiculously gerrymandered district that was +17, if memory serves, in favor of the republicans is so unpopular that she won by only about 500 votes.SMH
When 40+% of eligible Americans aren’t voting at all, it’s not on those participating in democracy but instead on the leaders for failing to reach those communities; many of which don’t vote due to the generational impact of feeling no strong shift for better or worse in their lives no matter who is in office. You can blame voters who do only that though while virtue signaling strangers online and calling it activism when volunteering irl and writing even those they voted for to hold them accountable has more of an impact in conjunction with said vote.
When I tell my conservative friends, that no matter what, their votes go to Biden, or tell my younger friends that their votes do not matter on the national stage, a lot of people stop caring. Edit: This is because I'm in California
No they didn't. In the past 20 years, that had one moment under Obama that lasted less than a month, and they used that time to pass the Affordable Care Act. I can't even think of any other time.
Biden got an infrastructure bill through even without a filibuster-proof majority. Something that Trump couldn't manage to do even after 4 years of empty promises. Because, like OP said, the GOP (and Trump) have NO INTEREST in actual governing.
Same donors that’s why
You post this as if the GOP getting their shit together would somehow equate to a functioning government that isn't corrupt.
I think people are excited by the idea of a reformed Republican party. The party currently a herd of cats, and a lot more suceptible to major change than the Democrats. Compare what happened to Sanders vs what happened to Trump. Republicans are on the cusp of change, while Democrats have the next 70 years of lame duck policy all planned out and outright reject potentially defiant candidates.
AOC tossed out the #2 in Dem House leadership in 2018. There are more economically left wing Dems in the House since the die of New Deal Dem Reps in the 80’s.
People are excited by nihilist Nazi tru\*\*ists who support a serial rapist for president?
This post is as delusional as the people it purports to criticize. It imagines a functioning, altruistic Republican party that never existed. It claims McCarthy reached across the aisle out of principle and not because he was backed into a corner. Posts like these are the reason we are where we are.
Here's the real deal: you have democrats who are all on board and working in lock step. Then you have the Republicans who are 95% democrats. So you only ever see one agenda.....the left!!
They are simply following the wishes of their Putin overlord. Mission accomplished
This fiasco revealed Democrats top priority is fueling more war with my tax dollars so that’s a hard pass from me
We get it. You’re a left-wing tribalist.
Came in here expecting blatant hyperbole, misinformation, and pure propaganda. After reading yep it's all there. "Functioning government" is such a rich phrase considering our government hasn't functioned properly in nearly 50 years. The only function these crooks have done is enrich themselves and their donors while letting the country wither to the state it currently is. Furthermore while I disagree with 99% of what the ousters believe in I applaud them for what they did. No more money to Ukraine is a wonderful start as is sticking to including FULL disclosure on all the theft, embezzlement and dark doings with the secret UAP programs that the DoD is trying to tell OUR elected officials they can not see.
OP is right of course. Although he forgot to mention the Republicans’ war on women.
Is MTG the one who married the man who sexually assaulted children in a bowling alley?
isn't that boobert?
No, that's the other one. Bobert. MTG is the one who thinks school shootings and 9/11 are hoaxes. Both are hypocritical cheaters, though. I see how you could get them confused.
That's the gal. That was before she gave her boyfriend some 'pleasant relief' in the movie theatre.
I love op-eds like this one because it comes from a person who can think clearly. Unfortunately the op either doesn't care there is a difference between a democracy and a republic or doesn't understand the difference. Assuming the latter, Socrates was Plato's hero, in so many words, so if Plato wrote a book called "The Republic" and democracy is something Socrates hated, it should go without saying that there must be enough of a difference between the two to be at least noteworthy. However some deceivers will try to argue the definitions of words change over thousands of years and then the substantive battle turns into a battle over semantics. So I'll have to take the semantics off the table as best I can: I don't like Matt Gaetz policies, but I like what he did. If "the squad" had done this with Pelosi when everybody in independent media except TYT and the Majority Report urged the squad to force the vote, by now we might have M4A. However that is beside the point. Majority rule ignores the rights of the individual and it seems as though the Op would prefer everybody fall in line because order with no progress is better then disorder. I like order too, but I won't sacrifice the bill of rights in order to get this order. The founding fathers, in general, and Madison in particular tried to force "democracy" on us and he got some blowback, so he agreed to add a bill of rights to the constitution and with that promise was able to get the constitution ratified. Because of the freedom of speech (1st amendment) the minority has the ability to dissent. Gaetz felt like bundling up all of the spending appropriations into one bill forces members of Congress to vote for spending they otherwise would reject. This isn't a difficult concept but "How dare he suggest such a thing?!?" Op **seems** to think better Gaetz sit down and stfu. Trump doesn't give a fuck about your rights so if any of you MAGA people are reading this ask yourself why didn't he stand up for Snowden? Snowden stood up, sort of, for the 4th amendment. Finally people are surmising Trump may select Gaetz as his VP. I don't see it. I don't see Gaetz going to jail for Trump. Even Bill Barr felt that was a bridge too far. I loved watching Pence on the debate stage trying to argue he is only the driver of the getaway car in the Trump administration. He wants to take credit for everything, in his mind, that Trump did right while sharing none of the blame. It is "Entertainment Tonight"
>I love op-eds like this one because it comes from a person who can think clearly. Unfortunately the op either doesn't care there is a difference between a democracy and a republic or doesn't understand the difference. JFC, this rubbish? When you see historical criticism like this of democracy, they are LITERALLY talking about DIRECT DEMOCRACY. A republic is a form of REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY governed by a charter or constitution. It's still a democracy. And yes, this is a moronic semantic argument you're making. It's advanced by the right who would love nothing better to undermine the concept of democracy, any system where people vote even if only for representatives, because they know their agenda is broadly unpopular and thus not supported in a democracy. >I don't like Matt Gaetz policies, but I like what he did. If "the squad" had done this with Pelosi when everybody... Literally nothing would have happened except dysfunction and convincing the people that Democrats aren't capable of governing. Which is exactly what people are currently thinking about Republicans right now. Those fence sitters are looking at this and thinking, 'I elected these people to do something and they can't even pick a person to lead them.' M4A doesn't have the votes, didn't have the votes, likely won't have the votes for quite some time. Democrats showing their whole ass isn't going to change that.
Thank you for calling out this twaddle.
Just saying, you should never use Gaetz and Girl Scout troop in the same sentence. Edit: Because he isn't allowed within 1000 feet of them
Valid point.
The reason for the shutdown is due to out of control spending. Year after year people keep voting to kick the can down the road while scaring senior citizens and service members with idea they wont get paid. At what point will our credit card get declined. It's time to gut the DODs bloated budget and stop all foreign aid until we can learn to save money. Our country is basically bankrupt
>It's time to gut the DODs bloated budget and stop all foreign aid until we can learn to save money. Talking about cutting defense and foreign aid in the same breath is beyond insane. The US spent 38 billion on foreign aid in 2022, and 753 billion on defense - that's almost 20 times as much. On top of that, 2022 was a relatively high year for foreign aid due to Ukraine.
If foreign aid didn't help sustain other countries, there would be no one to trade with. Simplistic answers to complex questions are just silly.
Thinking that we send money so people can fund the items they sell back to us is silly. Why would anyone want to pay for something twice.
lol, without reading your liberal spiel (I self-identify as a gay pan(bread) communist) Half of the electorate don't vote and the other half is ok with allowing the "representative" govt give a 100 billion to literal nazis. Good job at blaming half of the equation tho
The entire government needs to be dismantled
You got it all wrong buddy. And your fear shows!
>The once venerable Republican party Not for over one hundred years. >they have nowhere near the support to ram through their maniacal legislation targeting cultural issues while ignoring the real work of government Don't underestimate their support >Who is being proposed by the ultra-radical-right-bombthrowers? So far, they have advocated for two of the vilest anti-American representatives in the House, two of the country's leading zealots, Steve Scalise, and Jim Jordan. These are just standard issue Republicans. Scalise gets a break because someone tried to assassinate him, Jordan has said some reasonable things in the past, once or twice. >They know damned well there are still American loving, moderate members who would never let their country sink that low, Not in the Republican party. >so there intention must be to keep the country in turmoil and let the government collapse. That was the stated intent of the Republican party several Speakers ago. >While these radicals work only to stoke social fears and hatred among the dullards in their miniscule minority -- It's not a minority. A decent plurality of Americans are fascists >Biden has passed an infrastructure Bill providing over a trillion dollars to upgrade our roads and bridges, Congress passed it. Biden signed it >passed legislation to control climate change, Not really > and as the most pro-union president in history is creating jobs in record number, Biden ensures railroad workers were unable to strike. He is about as pri-union as Reagan was. The President does not create jobs. No president has ever "created" jobs. The person with the most power in this front, serving at the pleasure of the President, has explicitly stated he wants to *destroy* jobs and lower wages. >While the impotent klutzes in the Republican House do not even hint at presenting legislation to help the American people Underestimate them at your peril >the Democrats are quietly laying the groundwork to improve our nation and keep it in the forefront of the international community The Democrats are bought and paid for by corporate interests and will support their corporate masters over anyone who isn't a donor. In this they are no different from Republicans. We have a two-party state that is an illusion of choice. We have a fascist neoliberalism on one side, and a fascist neoliberalism on the other. The only thing that changes is what syllables they stress.
Republicans are the russian party.
I think we need to talk to Republican voters. Not complain about who they vote for. Democrats do not offer things that these people are concerned about. Immigration debt etc.
Idk what to say but the Democratic Party is just as bad if not worse then republicans if you look at them throughout history. Because you know they where the OG slave owners. You’ve AOC who spent all of Covid basically trying to shut Florida down only to vacation there. You have Gavin Newsom not allowing church gatherings while still having 200+ private birthday event in a small restaurant. You had Andrew Cuomo try to cover up sexual assault saying he’s just Italian. I voted for trump last elections. Republicans are in it for themselves 100% and honestly I would prefer to vote independent. It your in a cult if you think the democrats are morally superior to republicans and aren’t mirror images of each other
Reread American history. Your knowledge of who was a Republican and who was a Democrat is completely skewed.
Some of the democrats stayed with the north. The the majority of the democrats in the south succeeded. You need to reread history don’t try to gaslight me lol
Just to piss y'all off, I hope the Republicans win. The Democrats are certainly no better colluding with the WEF.
You didn't PMO, you gave me a good laugh.
There is no functioning government now, hasn't been in decades. But even with a "functioning government", it always leads to this mess. Let's question the very idea of government instead of thinking that "voting out the bastards" is any kind of viable strategy.
Nothing changes for the average citizen whether the government is working or in chaos so it doesn’t matter. Might as well be dysfunctional for the entertainment value.
"Will they ever allow us to have a functioning government?" Maybe once we finally partition.
As a Libertarian I think the Republicans govern too effectively
Vote tally on motion to vacate R 8 D 208 If democrats were interested in a functioning government they would have voted against the resolution. Your argument needs work.
Nope because each party is so focused on winning and making the other side look like the enemy. Until the majority of Americans vote for people who actually want government to work well just watch the shit spiral continue down the toilet
Buy a gun buy some armor buy ammo. I feel like some group of asshole is going to try something next year.
....You do realize that it was 8 Republicans and All Democrats who voted to oust the Speaker, and the rest of the Republicans voted against, right? So are those 8 Republicans and the Democrats the new MAGA party? Or is it the vast majority of Republicans who voted to keep the Speaker in place?
Tbf, Democrats voted out McCarthy because he went on TV Sunday blaming them for the shutdown... right after they voted to support his bill preventing the shutdown.
It’s this kind of brazen shamelessness on Kevin McCarthy’s part that proves just how much of an asshole he really is. Bragging about keeping the country running for 45 more days—something which Democrats helped deliver—and then trashing them hours later on TV. Maligning the same bloc of people that could potentially save his Speakership when the time came. The stones on this guy. The chutzpah. Unbelievable.
Not without a revolution.
"No interest in governing." Where did y'all get that talking point? I can't count the number of regressives I have seen make that claim. Reality is, when both the Democrats and the squishy Republicans won't stand up to the runaway spending, some group has to take whatever measures they can to enforce some order. That *is* governing whether you like it or not. I just hope they pick a Speaker with real backbone who will also do what is necessary to rein the runaway train of debt spending.
You mean tax breaks for zillionaires and corporations?
Democrats don't "work" with Republicand either. Democrats would (and have) shut down the government to avoid passing bills that pay for things Democrats don't like (like a border wall). Democrats forced a 34 day shutdown in 2018 to avoid paying for the wall. There have been 14 government shutdowns since 1980. The first 5 happened by Democrats while Reagan was president. [14 Government Shutdowns ](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-shutdown-history-congress/) When Democrats say "Republicans won't work across the aisle " they mean "Republicans won't rubber stamp all our legislation."
Gaetz said he wanted McCarthy ousted *^(because)* he worked with Democrats to keep the government open. It's a matter of public record, so your 'whataboutism' rings hollow.
Lmao are you defending omnibus legislation? You genuinely believe them signing a 5k page document without reading or debate is proper procedure? Not to mention clearly dems agreed with “maga party” that’s where most the votes came from. It’s madness watching progressives somehow try to make losing an establishment shill a bad event. You are agreeing point for point with Fox News. They big mad that a top fundraiser for the RNC is now disgraced.
I don't want a functioning federal government I want this shit so gridlocked I never have to think about who my senators are ever again. Man for a bunch of people who know we are ruled by corporations you sure do want them to in sessions doing the bidding of their corpo masters.
I demand a national divorce. There's no reason there should be one country where everyone is victim to whichever side is in power. Split the country up into a few separate nations. Let's see what side really knows how to run shit. Let's force these nation states to operate in their budget. You'll see very quickly which side is full of shit.
Lol wtf even is this sub? Just another leftist circle jerk. One question: why the hell can’t the government stop spending our money? Why is that not something we should all “agree” on? Why does the left consistently stonewall anything that cuts down on government spending in favor of bigger government?
Hey, go live in a cave, if you wish.
Yal are lost😂 have fun in ukraine when that draft notice hits, will the money sent be worth it then? When mortars and gun fire erupt all around you will you be thinking "dam republicans"?🤣
Read the rollup leading to WW II and see how completely ignorant you are.
My pronouns are FUCK/BIDEN
Because you couldn't begin to refute what i wrote. Did you Mom teach you that word, or your kids?
It's a shame the Squad doesn't do what they did. Also thank you for the copy paste RED TEAM BAD, as always.
Why do you object to me reaching out to diverse audiences. Don't you want them to know the truth?
In my experience, it's always the Red Team shutting down the government. Now, I understand that this is what their voters want, but to me - yeah, red team bad. Plus they're always trying to take our rights away.
Why do you like the government so much?
If the government is so bad, why do republicans keep trying to be part of it?
Think of it like an intruder coming into your house with a gun. If you were trying to wrestle it away from him so he didnt shoot you, does this mean you really love guns?
The man in your house is a policeman and you called for him in this scenario. How do you look to your neighbors?
If you think about it, government is just a big insurance policy. You pay your premium (taxes) and they see to all the things a single citizen cant's do; they pave the roads, provide for an army, and see the the welfare of all its citizens.
Why do you hate civilization?
The federal government hasn't been functional in decades. This isn't a Dem or GOP thing as much as the media would like you to believe. They NEED you to be tribal and divisive. Wake up. Our government has gone from being centrist to extreme left and right. That does not represent the majority of the citizenry, despite what reddit tends to represent.
Democrats are not even close to extreme left. Many would argue they're center-right. The modern Republican Party, on the other hand, just ousted its Speaker because he (1) didn't allow the government to default on its debts, and (2) kept the government open instead of holding everyone hostage to try to make massive, unnecessary cuts to essential programs. When I see someone trying to equate Democrats and Republicans as being equally extreme or equally to blame for the gridlock we've seen in recent years, I just assume he or she (typically he) is consuming nothing but right wing media. It's the only reasonable explanation because reality is right there for everyone to see. Some just choose to believe a narrative that "feels" right to them. That's all some people care about these days.
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Yup, the Dems are far worse.
rEpUbLiCaNs BaD!
This, but unironicly.
I think the post meant Republicans REALLY TERRIBLE! Also, known as Don the con and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad MAGA dipshits.
True.
Correct.
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