If two or three Republicans were offered powerful chairmanships of important committees?

[kentuck]

How many would leave the Republican Party to vote with the Democrats?

They would not have to change to the Democratic Party. They could become Independents.

Would any Republican consider such an offer? I suppose this is probably already being discussed in some circles in the Senate?

Can you think of any Senators that might accept such a deal from the Democrats?

It would be earth-shaking if it happened.

[drray23]

1. I am confused.

How can they be offer chairmanships of commitees by the democrats ? We are the minority party, we do not have any chairmanship to control or distribute.

[kentuck]

2. But if they got 3 Senators to change...

they would be the majority.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Offering such chairmanships

over the Democrats who have already been in the Democratic Party all along? That wouldn't fly.

[kentuck]

4. Those Democrats would not have the Chairmanships anyway...

unless they are in the majority. They would be "ranking" members.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Do you really think that existing Democrats

would be happy to give up what would otherwise be their chairmanships to a turncoat Republican? I don't think so. I don't believe party politics works that way.

Yes, sometimes politicians change parties, but usually because they honestly feel they belong with the other party, or sometimes in the hope of winning an election that way.

What's more likely to happen, what we can hope for, is that enough Republicans will be sufficiently horrified by what Trump tries to do that they'll vote with Democrats. But I'm not counting on it. You can rest assured that they will ram through every single Trump cabinet nominee, and then they'll ram through some awful person to the Supreme Court. Things will get a whole lot worse long before they get better.

[kentuck]

7. They would not have the chairmanship to give up.

You don't get to be the chair unless you are in the majority. I don't understand your point.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. But if three Republicans can be persuaded to jump ship,

they would normally go to the bottom of the seniority, wouldn't they?

So to then give them chairmanships would be jumping them ahead of the Dems who would otherwise be in line for those positions. I simply don't think that this could happen.

[kentuck]

10. That's right!

It happened for a short while when Bush Jr was elected. One Republican switched to Independent and caucused with the Democrats, giving them the majority.

I doubt that any Republicans would switch unless they were rewarded?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. But was that former Republican

given a juicy chairmanship to get him to switch?

And if one side is going to try to bribe Senators to switch parties, then the other may well do the same.

I think there is pretty much zero chance of your scenario happening. I doubt the Dems would dangle chairmanships as an incentive to begin with.

[kentuck]

12. No, they don't have to be offered a prize.

It depends on how bad you would like the majority??

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. I just can't figure out why you think it could possibly happen.

It's not as though the two parties have done this sort of thing in the past, offering some bribe to switch. At least I've never been aware of it.

Republicans are going to happily rule the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. We are all screwed.

[roamer65]

6. It's called a coalition government.

It can be done...just as it is in the UK or Canada.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. Except those countries have a parliamentary system,

which can result in coalition governments. That's not the way it works here.