OP
OP
VHS
Be kind, rewind.
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Not okay with just better than the alternative
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StarTopic US Politics |ST| The Kyrsten Sinema-tic Universe
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- Start date
Tlozbj
Cappy
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At least on the politician side, that is 50% because they serve as shields for some other moderate Dems like Coons and Carper. While the other 50% is because they know that in a majority of exactly 50 seats + VP, they need more of Manchin and Sinema, than Manchin and Sinema need the party, so they can't push them to much as they may flip.
However, part of the issue is that Dems have let Manchin and Sinema carry the legislative kingmaker title for the past nine months. When reality is that any Dem can take up that role in such a small majority. For example, earlier on Duckworth and Hirono took the mantle to push the Administration to present more AAPI nominations. While on the House, the Progressive Caucus is using the similar slim majority to block the BIB until reconciliation passes the Senate. Just deny Manchin and/or Sinema the votes needed for one of their priorities until they budge on reconciliation and/or the filibuster.
Army of Light
Rattata
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- She/Her
Of course the coal mine puppet is going to oppose efforts to combat climate change.
Army of Light
Rattata
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There's no constitutional mechanism I can see for the reforms that need to be made but the interests of reactionaries are vastly over represented in the senate because of the rule of having two senators per state regardless of size. I would love to see the Senate abolished but again, no constitutional way to do that.
Here are some options, I can see.
A multigenerational, long term strategy to revitalize unions and bring people in rural areas back to the Democratic party that transcends the election cycle, though we may not have time for this given how the earth will soon become uninhabitable. People in these communities are not as bad as people think they are. Sure there are an abundance of shitheads but not a majority. They are heavily propagandized, right down to the text books. I'm from the south originally. We learned that the civil war "wasn't really about slavery." But there used to be a pro-union spirit, even in West Virginia, its just that the Democrats spent 40 years abandoning the working class, and the Republicans swooped in with culture war bullshit.
Bring in more states and play hardball when the Democrats are in charge and in general. Mitch McConnell doesn't care about "norms" or "taking the high road"
Allow felons and inmates to vote. The disenfranchisement of mass incarcerated people only provides a bigger incentive to incarcerate more people.
Here are some options, I can see.
A multigenerational, long term strategy to revitalize unions and bring people in rural areas back to the Democratic party that transcends the election cycle, though we may not have time for this given how the earth will soon become uninhabitable. People in these communities are not as bad as people think they are. Sure there are an abundance of shitheads but not a majority. They are heavily propagandized, right down to the text books. I'm from the south originally. We learned that the civil war "wasn't really about slavery." But there used to be a pro-union spirit, even in West Virginia, its just that the Democrats spent 40 years abandoning the working class, and the Republicans swooped in with culture war bullshit.
Bring in more states and play hardball when the Democrats are in charge and in general. Mitch McConnell doesn't care about "norms" or "taking the high road"
Allow felons and inmates to vote. The disenfranchisement of mass incarcerated people only provides a bigger incentive to incarcerate more people.
Army of Light
Rattata
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- She/Her
The last possible option and it's the most depressing but it's probably the one that we're going to have to face, is that the Democrats just aren't going to do it.
We are on our own.
The things that are required to happen to make climate change a priority in the United States requires a system of power and accountability that just isn't there under the Constitution that we have. The Senate will always be a roadblock towards anything happening and we have to accept that.
We have to face the possible outcome that the Democrats will never ever implement any kind of climate change policy and we are going to have to stay the course in which case our only option is to prepare for a drastically changed world. We are going to need to prepare for a world that's going to have severe supply shortages for the foreseeable future because of droughts and natural disasters. We are going to have to prepare for building dual power to circumvent government aid. We're going to need to become preppers because the end of the world as we know it is coming, not necessarily the end of the world itself but the end of the world as we understand it.
Back in the '90s Francis fukuyama predicted the end of history and that was widely mocked after 9/11. Covid has shown that when it comes to a true crisis, our government is woefully inadequate and unprepared to make even the smallest changes to stop a calamity. We could have stopped covid in 2020 had we all gotten on board at the same time with paying people not to work, staying home, wearing masks, listening to qualified experts and it would have been over in a few weeks but instead we had the US government in charge of the United States. And they just couldn't do it.
The political process had given us a woefully incompetent leader who started
a culture war over masks instead and Congress was completely unwilling to pay people to stay home outside of three lump sum payments that didn't cover rent. Even with him gone, he's not gone. His stink remains. We also still have McConnell. If we didn't have McConnell we would have a different Republican doing the same thing.
1/6/21 was a demonstration that our government cannot and will not control the far right. They will try again and we might not be as lucky as we were in january. We are extremely lucky that that crowd of far-right people who had signs talking about murdering the Democrats and hanging Mike pence, we are extremely lucky that they didn't massacre the Democratic caucus so that they could have enough uncertainty to replace democracy with a trump dictatorship. That was an unlikely outcome but it gets more and more uncomfortably close every political shock. Even all that being the case, the government is treating the people who did this insurrection with kid clubs and most certainly is not prosecuting Trump himself. What should have been a dire warning has become a mirror echo. The far right hasn't gone anywhere. If anything they are even angrier than they were in January.
So what do we do? I don't actually know but I do know that we're going to need to build an alternative power structure that can fulfill our needs. If the government collapses we need to be ready to take care of people's need for food and housing. As the climate worsens we're going to see more and more horrific climate incidents such as that heat dome that happened in the Pacific Northwest that killed a whole bunch of people. There were people willing to help when that happened but then the police broke them up as anarchists agitators, spraying pepper spray on homeless people. Elsewhere there have been wildfires that have created climate refugees within the United States that have been shut out of any help because of reactionaries being elected to "take care of the homeless problem."
Our ruling class is willing to completely screw us over and then fly out to New Zealand to bunker down. When a horrific freeze happened in texas, where did Ted Cruz go? He went right to Cancun. And what about doing something about the climate emergency that would have been part of that. He's of course part of the Republican caucus and will not vote to do anything about our contribution to climate change. They can fly around and move to different parts of the world and leave you to die.
We are on our own. We cannot depend on these people in the Senate, Democrat or Republican. They just aren't going to help. So we have to work towards making it so we can help ourselves. I'm not talking about arming up or anything like that. But I am talking about having lunch programs, cooling stations, warming stations, stockpiling water and medicine, urban farming. Being ready for disasters when FEMA fails.
We are on our own.
The things that are required to happen to make climate change a priority in the United States requires a system of power and accountability that just isn't there under the Constitution that we have. The Senate will always be a roadblock towards anything happening and we have to accept that.
We have to face the possible outcome that the Democrats will never ever implement any kind of climate change policy and we are going to have to stay the course in which case our only option is to prepare for a drastically changed world. We are going to need to prepare for a world that's going to have severe supply shortages for the foreseeable future because of droughts and natural disasters. We are going to have to prepare for building dual power to circumvent government aid. We're going to need to become preppers because the end of the world as we know it is coming, not necessarily the end of the world itself but the end of the world as we understand it.
Back in the '90s Francis fukuyama predicted the end of history and that was widely mocked after 9/11. Covid has shown that when it comes to a true crisis, our government is woefully inadequate and unprepared to make even the smallest changes to stop a calamity. We could have stopped covid in 2020 had we all gotten on board at the same time with paying people not to work, staying home, wearing masks, listening to qualified experts and it would have been over in a few weeks but instead we had the US government in charge of the United States. And they just couldn't do it.
The political process had given us a woefully incompetent leader who started
a culture war over masks instead and Congress was completely unwilling to pay people to stay home outside of three lump sum payments that didn't cover rent. Even with him gone, he's not gone. His stink remains. We also still have McConnell. If we didn't have McConnell we would have a different Republican doing the same thing.
1/6/21 was a demonstration that our government cannot and will not control the far right. They will try again and we might not be as lucky as we were in january. We are extremely lucky that that crowd of far-right people who had signs talking about murdering the Democrats and hanging Mike pence, we are extremely lucky that they didn't massacre the Democratic caucus so that they could have enough uncertainty to replace democracy with a trump dictatorship. That was an unlikely outcome but it gets more and more uncomfortably close every political shock. Even all that being the case, the government is treating the people who did this insurrection with kid clubs and most certainly is not prosecuting Trump himself. What should have been a dire warning has become a mirror echo. The far right hasn't gone anywhere. If anything they are even angrier than they were in January.
So what do we do? I don't actually know but I do know that we're going to need to build an alternative power structure that can fulfill our needs. If the government collapses we need to be ready to take care of people's need for food and housing. As the climate worsens we're going to see more and more horrific climate incidents such as that heat dome that happened in the Pacific Northwest that killed a whole bunch of people. There were people willing to help when that happened but then the police broke them up as anarchists agitators, spraying pepper spray on homeless people. Elsewhere there have been wildfires that have created climate refugees within the United States that have been shut out of any help because of reactionaries being elected to "take care of the homeless problem."
Our ruling class is willing to completely screw us over and then fly out to New Zealand to bunker down. When a horrific freeze happened in texas, where did Ted Cruz go? He went right to Cancun. And what about doing something about the climate emergency that would have been part of that. He's of course part of the Republican caucus and will not vote to do anything about our contribution to climate change. They can fly around and move to different parts of the world and leave you to die.
We are on our own. We cannot depend on these people in the Senate, Democrat or Republican. They just aren't going to help. So we have to work towards making it so we can help ourselves. I'm not talking about arming up or anything like that. But I am talking about having lunch programs, cooling stations, warming stations, stockpiling water and medicine, urban farming. Being ready for disasters when FEMA fails.
Brock Reiher
aka "Smokeshow"
This is really what it comes down to. If Democrats can only win the senate by electing senators who can then be bought out to not do anything, then the Democrats will never be able to do anything. You union idea is a good one, but there's no reason that should have to involve the Democrats.
NarohDethan
Piranha Plant
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So Colin Powell is dead. Rest in piss bitch.