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It's not too late but they're not getting credit until they actually fucking do it and they deserve credit for just saying they want to do it without doing it.
(Edit: And to be clear the credit they're going to get would be credit for doing the bare minimum, long after they promised to do it, long after they had multiple opportunities to do it.)
Holy fucking shit, I wish I shared your generalized optimism
Whether this winds up being true or not, you’ve made my day just a bit better with your optimism. Thanks my dude.
They've only had a filibuster-proof majority once since 1980. They used it to pass the ACA (which should have included codifying Roe v Wade, among other things). It's not too late if we can elect enough willing Congress members.
This is a story about suspending the filibuster. Which they should have done in Obama's term instead of letting Lieberman dictate terms for the insurance industry.
I'm aware of that. They need 51 votes to do it. They talked about suspending the filibuster in 2020 but Manchin and Sinema shut that down.
You don't need a filibuster proof majority to suspend the filibuster, so there's no relevance to how rarely they've had that.
Talking about the Democratic party's history with the filibuster isn't related to a current Democratic Senator's comments on the filibuster?
No? Why would it be. You don't need a filibuster proof margin to eliminate the filibuster. If your point had been "a filibuster proof majority is so incredibly rare it makes governing essentially impossible" that would be relevant, but just pointing out we only had one once so that's why Roe wasn't codified is not.
Senator Warren's comments, and this post about them, aren't just about the filibuster. It's also about codifying Roe v Wade. And I was replying to someone who said they should have done something about when they could have. The only times they could have are when they either suspended the filibuster or when they had a filibuster-proof majority. And my reply related to the last time the Democratic party could have reasonably done anything about Roe v Wade, which just so happens to have been the last time the only time they had a filibuster-proof majority.
I don't know why you're gatekeeping so hard here. The votes on my comments indicate everyone else thinks I'm making positive contributions to the discussion. So maybe just relax a little and let people converse on the topic.
Roe v Wade looked secure in 2008. It's only in hindsight that we can say "coulda woulda shoulda".
All it takes is 51 votes to eliminate the filibuster.
Just for fun, I looked at the last 50 years to see WHEN they could have codified Roe. There were only 4 periods with dem trifectas:
-1977-81 senate majority 6
-1993-95 senate majorty 4
-2009-11 senate majority 9 (10 for a month)
-2021-23 senate majority 1
The senate majority is the number of senators you could loose who didn't want to get rid of the filibuster on this topic OR who were pro life (like Harry Reid, the senate majority leader from 2005 to 2017, though in the senate from 1987-2017)
The problem is the Dems have TWO conservative senators who refused to codify Roe. Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema both refused to suspend the filibuster.
So we did NOT have a filibuster-proof majority 2021-2023.
So ONLY 4 times when there was absolutely nothing standing in their way except themselves?
That they don't do what they promised on the rare occasions where they DO get the magic majorities they ask to get first isn't exactly a good argument in their favor..
We got the ACA in the last one, and in the most recent one two Democrat senators defected to oppose it so it couldn't go forward.
Which they negotiated into a giant giveaway to insurance companies with no price controls or other ways to limit profiteering. WITHOUT any Republicans forcing them to or even voting for the bill.
Yeah, there's always a rotating villain or two who acts as a roadblock and scapegoat. So very convenient for a party that votes for legislation that their rich owner donors want much more often than legislation that the people at large want.
Especially since the rotating villains are always heavily promoted by party leadership and paid more party funds for their campaigns than most other candidates.
The ACA, while not perfect, literally saved my life. It prohibits lifetime maximums and eliminated the idea of pre-existing conditions.
Without that, I'd be dead.
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
This place is full of people who want to turn an aircraft carrier on a dime. They'll never be happy with anything and it explains why their big ideas will never happen.
They turn everyone off and discourage everyone because nothing is ever good enough. It would be one thing to be happy but not satisfied but even that isn't enough.
I'm glad it saved your life and I am aware that it was an improvement over the former status quo.
That being said, though, it's inadequacies HAVE lead to the deaths of many, perhaps thousands or even hundreds of thousands, from not being able to afford treatment before it's too late.
Dems had a unique opportunity to save as many lives as possible, and they negotiated themselves down to a tiny step in the right direction and then pretended that it's the best anyone could possibly do.
It's been over a decade and a half since they took that tiny step and they're still resting on their laurels and vehemently opposing anyone who suggests that improvements are needed or even possible.
I'm so fucking tired of that lame argument for complacency.
Incrementalism isn't good. Taking a tiny step in the right direction and then declaring victory as the other party predictably makes it worse than it originally was as both parties gradually turn further and further right isn't good.
It's throwing rare scraps to the starving masses from the banquets they throw for their owner donors, including the health insurance industry leeches that the ACA massively enriches.
Politics is about incremental progress, which is not sexy enough for you guys. If you want the revolution, go start it. Shit or get off the can. All this moral grandstanding is vacuous and meaningless
Because that's what the powerful have decided for you, NOT because it's the best way.
"If you don't like my favorite band, make better music yourself" 🙄
Yeah, expressing dissent should be for those with the power to change things themselves only. What a great idea! 🙄
Having a pro-lifer as the majority leader is a big stumbling block. Don't know much about the first two post-roe trifectas, but I do know there was a particular democratic house member that voted to amend the constitution to overturn Roe
Which they put there themselves. Like with most of the barriers they blame their feckless inaction on.
And they awarded him by making him a senator, then VP and then president.
If they have all of those things (again) and still don't give us Medicare for all (again) I'm fucking done.
I was at the beginning of my voting age when Obama came around with his "Yes we can" campaign. Turns out, no we couldn't. The corruption is too entrenched for any lasting progress to withstand the types of legalized bribery we have now. Biden is more of the same. Everyone knows it and is pissed off on both sides! The right has been hijacked by grifters and fascists. The left is desperately trying to squeeze out a few more good years. Yet the underlying problem of corruption remains steadfast. It would be nice to unify both sides and cut down those that are selling our country out.
When elected into a supermajority with a clear mandate: “well, sorry sweetie, we just have other priorities.”
When facing a landslide defeat this election season: “trust us voters, we will do the right thing this time and totally not let you down!”
I think Machinema opposed it then. Though if she says she's got 50 now, it requires at least one of them. They should have done this all in Obama's first term though.
You mean in the couple months that the democrats controlled all three branches of government in the past 20 years? During that time we got the ACA. Vote blue across the board in November to have a chance at getting all three branches blue again to actually accomplish something.
Damn, I thought they'd actually grown a pair for once.
As always, they are actually bound by the rules of our government. Checks and balances. They can't just do something, they need the numbers. They are stating their intent on what they'll do if voters give them the numbers.
Because it's entirely in voters hands now. There is no bipartisanship to be had. We need absolute majorities, even super majorities if we actually want to truly fix things like our blatantly corrupt SCOTUS.
Voting matters.
So many fucking tired excuses and so much blaming the voters for the people they elected not representing them faithfully 🤦
It is the job of politicians to earn the faith of voters and then repay that faith by representing the will of the people.
It's not the job of voters to reward them for decades of bad deals and for always giving up in advance "because we just don't have the votes" by voting for more conservative Democrats who will just do the same bullshit with the same excuses and victim blaming.
Tell that to the Dem leadership and their pet media who act like compromise for the sake of compromise is the highest political virtue even now that the other party is a literal fascist party 🤬
And that's a whole lot of ignoring reality on your part.
Our government, for better AND for worse, was structured so that a president couldn't go rogue and do whatever they want. For most mundane things, they need a simple majority in both houses. For serious rewriting of fundamental rules (amendments), you need super majorities. And a SCOTUS to safeguard.
This is so that the next Nixon, the next Trump (who might just be Trump) can't single handedly upend this country and bend it to their wills. Like Putin did.
However, the GOP has corrupted all branches, all levels of the courts, including SCOTUS. This is why they get away with all the shit that they do, while the Dems seem impotent. Because they have spent generations undermining our checks and balances while the Dems have mostly played fair, albeit with a fair amount of corporate subservience.
You rage against a machine without understanding the parameters. The Dems are shackled by law. And the key to it all was the GOP owning the SCOTUS, thanks to all you conscientious objectors that let Trump gain power and heavily stack the courts. Because you think both parties are the fucking same.
Yes, I am aware that our government is built to be disappointing.
Strangely...the R's haven't been bound by the rules of government. They cause havoc at will.
It's easier to cause havoc with bad faith appointments, misusing approved funds, etc, than to pass anything by vote.
It's easier to destroy than to build.
This exactly. Abortion is to Democrats what guns are to Republicans. It's the football issue they can constantly hold over the base as a reason why it's desperately important to elect them. But they would never ever actually solve the issue for good, because then they lose their football.
Democrats didn't codify abortion when they had the chance. Republicans made no effort on guns when they had the chance. It wasn't an accident.
They're always needs to be an 'elect us or else' issue because neither party does enough useful stuff to win hearts and minds on their own. Especially when their nominees are totally uncompelling.
The USSC would just say that it’s unconstitutional at this point, even if they codify it into law.
Hell, they’d probably declare it unconstitutional even if it was a literal constitutional amendment, simply because it wasn’t one of the original amendments laid out in the bill of rights, thus also laying out the legal precedent for challenging literally any of the constitutional amendments that weren’t in the bill of rights.