Mitch McConnell is openly conspiring with Trump on Impeachment

[Suddenly]

I always regarded your "White People^TM" as those who, in another time, would likely have fought for, or at least supported, the Confederacy.

There are a few of them right here on this forum.

A lot of them would be aghast at supporting the confederacy because they don't have a racist bone in their bodies. They support the rights of marginalized groups but wish those groups would wait until protests were well timed and demands put off until things calm down and create a more convenient season for change because the absence of tension and peace is more important than justice.

Etc.

 

[BobTheCoward]

Furthermore, the tyranny of the majority would be a very real problem. 55% of Americans supported Trump's Muslim ban. Does that mean that it was the most moral of all the stances on the issue?

That might make sense if the alternative was the absence of the position. But a vote no on your scenario isn't the absence of action but a vote affirming a different policy, the current one. So your effort to prevent the tyranny of the majority is actual minority rule. less than half are getting their policy preference.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

A lot of them would be aghast at supporting the confederacy because they don't have a racist bone in their bodies. They support the rights of marginalized groups but wish those groups would wait until protests were well timed and demands put off until things calm down and create a more convenient season for change because the absence of tension and peace is more important than justice.

Etc.

When do you think things will calm down in America, so that it's okay for people to protest?

 

[Belz...]

It had been a Senate rule -- not a law -- that 60 votes were required to end a filibuster to block a vote. The Republicans changed that to a simple majority, so the Republicans by themselves can approve a nominee without a single Democratic vote.

Sounds weird to have a system where a simple majority can change a rule that requires 60% for a decision.

 

[Belz...]

What world are you living in?

A world where history is written by all sorts of people. We wouldn't have the history we have if it were written by the victors.

You're just wrong, here. It's a platitude, nothing more.

Democracy is the ONLY moral system of government.

While I agree it's the best, the above is a ridiculous statement. We only think it's the best because it fits our moral values.

 

[Suddenly]

When do you think things will calm down in America, so that it's okay for people to protest?

Me? I don't think it is up to me to set the timetable.

But I wasn't talking about me. I was talking about the White People (TM) that understand the need for protest as long as it doesn't cause them any inconvenience because it isn't their fault so why should they have to deal with any of it?

 

[theprestige]

Sounds weird to have a system where a simple majority can change a rule that requires 60% for a decision.

Not that weird. It arises organically from the fact that the Senate makes its own rules by simple majority consensus. They've never bothered to make a rule that rules that require a supermajority also require a supermajority to change them. Probably because it's not actually that big of a deal.

 

[rockysmith76]

In the case of Impeachment, it IS a trial. And the "jury" and the "court" are supposed to be neutral and put the good of the nation first.

Sadly politics don't work that way. It would lovely if the did, but Partisanship will always get in the way. O'Connell in particular is quite an obstructionist, imo

 

[rockysmith76]

It's hard to say exactly when it started, but we're living in the era of the imperial presidency. It's inconceivable that Republicans would ever impeach one of their own, and I really doubt that Democrats would at this point either. It's hard to imagine either party getting a super-majority in the Senate, so the impeachment power is essentially neutralized.

NEITHER party would, it's one of the flaws of the Two Party system.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

Me? I don't think it is up to me to set the timetable.

But I wasn't talking about me. I was talking about the White People (TM) that understand the need for protest as long as it doesn't cause them any inconvenience because it isn't their fault so why should they have to deal with any of it?

Ah, I'm with you. In which case, yes, I agree - telling people to wait until it's all calmed down before they can protest is silly, because it implies that there will be a time when everything has calmed down.

 

[varwoche]

It had been a Senate rule -- not a law -- that 60 votes were required to end a filibuster to block a vote. The Republicans changed that to a simple majority, so the Republicans by themselves can approve a nominee without a single Democratic vote.

In fairness, this came not long after the Dems had changed the filibuster rule for lower court appointments.

 

[ponderingturtle]

This is a shocking development for all those that believed that the Republican leader of the majority Republican house is not going to be impartial when bringing impeachment hearings against the republican president.

Shocking, I tells ya.

On the plus side now extorting allies is acceptable behavior for an american president. So there is that.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

McConnell is deliberately undermining the present and all future Impeachments ...

This is what gets me most about the current GOP politics: they talk and act as if there was no tomorrow.

 

[uke2se]

McConnell is deliberately undermining the present and all future Impeachments ...

This is what gets me most about the current GOP politics: they talk and act as if there was no tomorrow.

I think leading Republicans like McConnell have come to the conclusion that presidence and tradition doesn't really matter. What matters is simply "can you do it"? If you have the power to do something, you can do it and you don't have to worry about other people doing it later on, because if they can do it, they will anyway. That's the philosophy at play. It's the ultimate power game. It's also the problem that you face when you base your goverment on the honor system.

 

[johnny karate]

McConnell is deliberately undermining the present and all future Impeachments ...

This is what gets me most about the current GOP politics: they talk and act as if there was no tomorrow.

For the current GOP, there is no tomorrow.

Their coalition of old white people is a shrinking demographic, and will eventually be in the minority.

That's why they need to grab as much power and do as much damage as they can now. See: Court-packing with unqualified ideologues.

 

[theprestige]

I think leading Republicans like McConnell have come to the conclusion that presidence and tradition doesn't really matter.

It's been a longstanding source of frustration to me that the the ostensibly conservative party doesn't actually care much about conservative principles.

 

[JoeMorgue]

This is what gets me most about the current GOP politics: they talk and act as if there was no tomorrow.

Because for them there isn't.

There's a fatalistic edge to all of this. Black people aren't going back in the fields, women aren't going back in the kitchen, gays aren't going back in the closet AND the farmlands and rust belt and factory jobs aren't coming back AND the nuclear American family isn't coming back.

Everything they stand for; good and bad; directly and indirectly, hell stuff that actually once existed and stuff they just convinced themselves once did... they know it's gone and they know it's not coming back.

These are people with nothing to lose.

 

[ChristianProgressive]

A lot of them would be aghast at supporting the confederacy because they don't have a racist bone in their bodies. They support the rights of marginalized groups but wish those groups would wait until protests were well timed and demands put off until things calm down and create a more convenient season for change because the absence of tension and peace is more important than justice.

Etc.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

 

[ChristianProgressive]

It's been a longstanding source of frustration to me that the the ostensibly conservative party doesn't actually care much about conservative principles.

It's been a longstanding source of frustration to me that people still believe that conservatives have principles in the first place.

 

[Suddenly]

It's been a longstanding source of frustration to me that the the ostensibly conservative party doesn't actually care much about conservative principles.

The only conservative principle has been and always will be the maintaining of power for the in group at the expense of the out groups. Which is what they are doing.

I just usually isn't this cartoonishly obvious.