The massive GOP betrayal of our democracy requires a forceful Democratic response

[scarletwoman]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/13/massive-gop-betrayal-our-democracy-requires-forceful-democratic-response/
(I tried to find if this had already been posted - and even though it's a couple days old, I think it's a very good read that deserves more eyes.)

Opinion by Greg Sargent
Feb. 13, 2021

Now that the vast majority of Senate Republicans voted to acquit former president Donald Trump of inciting violent insurrection, as we all knew they would, Democrats should immediately respond as follows:

1. Pass H.R.1 and S.1 with all deliberate speed.

2. Be prepared to nuke the legislative filibuster if and when Republicans obstruct it in the Senate.

3. Get the package into law as quickly as possible.

Those are the House and Senate bills that would expand voting rights, make voting easier in numerous ways and place limits on counter-majoritarian tactics such as voter suppression and gerrymandering, which Republicans are cheerfully escalating in numerous states.

Here’s what the moment requires, above all: Democrats must accept the full implications of the GOP’s ongoing and intensifying radicalization. And they must be prepared to act upon them.

-snip-

Trump’s acquittal only confirms what many observers had long pointed out: In some fundamental sense, much of the GOP is no longer functioning as an actor in a democracy. Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann called this way back in 2012:

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

-snip-

We’re now looking at a GOP that is simply not part of the conversation about how to address two of our country’s biggest crises of the modern era. And, even as the party will opt for this path, Republicans are in a position to recapture the House in two years largely via extreme gerrymanders, as they themselves have boasted.

(Much more at link!)

[elleng]

1. 'much of the GOP is no longer functioning as an actor in a democracy. . .

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.'

[scarletwoman]

2. I read that 2012 Ornstein/Mann piece when it first came out and never forgot it.

[MustLoveBeagles]

3. Bookmarked for later

[scarletwoman]

4. Thanks!

[BComplex]

5. Joe Manchin, D. W. Virginia REFUSES TO VOTE AGAINST THE FILLIBUSTER.

So unless we all do a full-court press on him, you can take that one off the list until we vote in more democrats in 2022.

[scarletwoman]

6. Since they're bringing back earmarks, it might be possible to move him.

No sense in giving up yet, imo.

[Hortensis]

7. Well, we are doing the big democracy reform package as soon as possible.

The house and senate bills, more than just two, have to be finalized, passed back and forth, reconciled and then passed and sent to Biden. But the house version was H.R. 1 when it was passed first thing after the opening of congress in January 2020 because it was top priority.

[scarletwoman]

8. Do you know if the Senate has passed S1 yet?

[Hortensis]

9. No, but I'd expect not yet and haven't looked for it. :)

[scarletwoman]

10. Thanks, I'll keep an eye out, too.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

11. The Radical Republican Reich considers democracy an inconvenient obstacle to their rule.

Their sociopathic billionaire owners are not done, yet.

[scarletwoman]

12. "Their sociopathic billionaire owners are not done, yet." For sure.

We have to mount the biggest resistance movement ever done in the U.S. - and I wonder if we have a chance to prevail.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. We have until the 2022 elections to show people it is NOT "both sides".

We also have to somehow break through the disinformation bubble. Murdoch, for example, seems hell-bent on turning out propaganda to rival that of North Korea.

[scarletwoman]

14. It's scary. It's like our country is overrun with orcs.