It's exhausting...
It's exhausting...
It is fairly rare for either party to control Congress and the executive for long, so I’m not sure if that’s exactly the main pitfall we’ve run into.
I think this is mostly an unforced error on the part of neoliberalism, specifically 3rd way political ideology. In the 80s and 90s 3rd way politics grew as an idea to work around congressional gridlock.
Basically, the democratic party figured they would work across the aisle with moderate Republicans on policy they could both agree on. Hoping that this would show the American population that they were the party that could get things done.
This worked in part, Bill Clinton the main architect of American 3rd way movement became very popular. However, it had two repercussions that we are still dealing with today. It gave the policy initiative to the Republican party, allowing them to be the directors of this across aisle cooperation. It also drastically shifted the democratic party to the right.
If the DNC is rating Congress members based on criteria of Third way ideology, then the members most willing to cooperate with moderate Republicans are going to fill leadership positions. Which is why the DNC leadership is currently full of center right senior citizens conditioned to bending backwards to the whims of Republican economic policy.
I think this is mostly an unforced error on the part of neoliberalism, specifically 3rd way political ideology. In the 80s and 90s 3rd way politics grew as an idea to work around congressional gridlock.
I agree with this, and would also point to the same thing happening all over the world.
In a potential future where Democrats own 100% of the senate
it’s also possible for third party candidates to make progress in elections
Once Democrats control 100% of the Senate, we can finally run a Green Party candidate in the brightest blue state who will lose to the incumbent Democrat 40/60 instead of 5/42/57.
Okay, sorry, 93% is also an acceptable number.
But like, 7% Republican votership is still…weird. And unexpected. Given that that party has contributed absolutely nothing but lies and murderers.
If a hungry man is hanging from a rope over a pit of lava, I am not starving him by keeping food on my side of the pit, I am prioritizing getting him off the rope and away from the dangerous situation first, before addressing equity issues.
Given that that party has contributed absolutely nothing but lies and murderers.
It contributes a bunch of patronage, both through the private sector via tax cuts and federal contracts and “faith based initiative” spending and via the public sector through our enormous national security state and attendant bureaucracy.
I don’t think it can be overstated how much something like the invasion of Iraq or the War on Drugs or the Bush-Era bank bailout or the GOP war on renewable energy has profited both the big corporate interests and the hundreds of thousands of scammy small business shits plugged into the public money spigot.
And that’s before you get into the social mobilization provided by the party. Religious organizations and white nationalist groups generally like the GOP because the GOP promotes, defends, and finances their own socio-economic goals. The airforce is swarming with Christian fundamentalists while the army and marines churn out a steady supply of future chud police officers to do the dirty work of suppressing minorities in big urban settings. The tech industry is flush with white nationalism in large part because it trades money and talent with the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI - themselves hot-houses of right-wing social and religious sentiments. Anti-union activists, anti-environmentalists, and anti-DEI/Civil Rights organizers all adore the GOP, because they enable continued socio-economic domination nationally.
To say the party just supplies a few lies and the occasional bloody war drastically diminishes what the party does at the national, state, and local levels. Modern white nationalism can’t exist without an ally in the Republican Party. Modern evangelical christianity can’t propagate without the endless pogroms and inquisitions conservatives inflict on schools and colleges. Modern extractive corporate interests can’t reliably generate bigger profits without the cycles of deregulation and eminent domain land seizures perpetuated by Republican state and national leaders.
None of this shit works without the GOP.
There’s also the fact that even when they have absolute control by the numbers, reality doesn’t really reflect that; The democrat party is not united, and is full of politicians who will refuse to follow the party line unless the party bends over backwards for them.
Oh, you want me to vote to stop fascism? Sure, I’ll be happy to do that, as long as you add funding for a brand new bridge in my home state.” Repeat ad nauseam until you have a horribly bloated bill that nobody actually wants to vote for.
Oh, you want me to vote to stop fascism?
The real joke of the Democratic Party is running Coal Baron Joe Manchin to replace former KKK member Robert Byrd, on the grounds that only these two people can keep the US Senate free of fascism.
Meanwhile, you’ve got guys like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley glad-handing J6ers minutes before they storm the capital, and Biden’s AG just kinda shrugs and says “Nothin’ we can do! There’s not a single law on the books that makes conspiring to overthrow the federal government illegal.”
“Nothin’ we can do! There’s not a single law on the books that makes conspiring to overthrow the federal government illegal.”
Funny thing is as soon as you or I plan that and they smell any hint of socialism/leftism in our language suddenly they’ll have 35287253381 laws that they’ll throw all of at us for a combined prison sentence that’s longer than the eventual heat death of the universe.
Or they’ll just send a few cops around back to suicide us.
Political parties have been central to the organization and operations of the U.S. House of Representatives. As this chart demonstrates, the efforts of the founding generation to create a national government free of political parties proved unworkable. Parties demonstrated their worth in the House very quickly in organizing its work and in bridging the separation of powers. Within a decade House parties absorbed the various state and local factions. The chart below emphasizes the traditional two-party structure of the United States, with third-party affiliations in the Other column. Additionally, the numbers of Delegates and Resident Commissioners are reflected in the “Del./Res.” Column for reference. This chart does not address the party affiliation of these Members as they do not hold voting privileges on the House Floor. The figures presented are the House party divisions as of the initial election results for a particular Congress. This means that subsequent changes in House membership due to deaths, resignations, contested or special elections, or changes in a Member’s party affiliation are not included. The determination of party membership relies upon a number of authoritative sources that include The Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House Clerk’s Election Statistics, Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to U.S. Elections, Michael Dubin’s United States Congressional Elections, and Kenneth Martis’s Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress.
Democrats have had control of house, senate, white house exactly 4 months of the last 44 years.
Democrats: “We only have 60 votes in the Senate! That’s not enough to pass anything!”
Republicans: “The Senate minority will filibuster the debt ceiling bill unless you extend the Bush tax cuts, double border spending, and add birth control pills to the Schedule I drug registry”
Not really. I don’t understand where you’re going.
Are you saying Democrats should threaten to break the government? Republicans would call that bet, because breaking the government is a good thing to them.
That’s the most naive thing I’ve heard in a long time, I’m not quite sure where to start.
If they’re in power and let the government, they get blamed for it.
Demonstrably not true, Republicans love this tactic because people tend to AT BEST blame both sides. Voters are incredibly misinformed.
Let the government fail. If it’s in a position where one political entity gets to hold it hostage in perpetuity, it’s functionally unsalvageable and broken by design
I don’t know how you could get to this conclusion. Let the government fall, because by attempting to break it, Republicans have automatically made it just as bad as if it was already broken? That’s an incredibly dumb statement.