Remember, Repubs denied a hearing for Obama's SC nominee

[wt1531]

With more than 1 year left in President Obama's term. Just so that they could save and give the seat to Trump's nominee. If Dems win the Senate, not a single nominee of Trump's should get a hearing for courts appeallate level and up until 2020. This should be a non negotiable position as a balance for what the Republicans did to steal a Supreme Court seat from Obama.

[maxsolomon]

1. And Obama should have had Garland sworn in

when the Senate declined to give Advice & Consent. It means they didn't care to perform their duties.

[Demsrule86]

3. It would never work.

[maxsolomon]

4. You think Trump would give a fuck if a Dem Senate tried that?

Obama believed in Comity, Regular Order, Bipartisanship, all the horseshit that is now dead and buried under the new regime.

Power doesn't ask for permission or advice, as we will all see over the next decade.

[Demsrule86]

8. This has nothing to do with power...the GOP had already run to court about a different

recess appointment...they merely would have run to court...he wasn't getting in.

[Demsrule86]

2. We need to get the Senate back and then no more judges for the other side...they can fuck themselves

[maxsolomon]

6. Great idea.

Think it will happen in 2018?

[Orsino]

5. Not just so they could save the seat for a Republican.

If Clinton were president today, McConnell would be saying, "There's no need for a ninth Justice."

[bluestarone]

7. boy

that's the truth

[Demsrule86]

10. But consider McConnell can only do this if the pugs are in the majority.

[Demsrule86]

9. Right but if we owned the Senate and the House, we could have told Drumpy and McConnell

"there is no need for a ninth justice "...and incompetent liar Gorsuch would not be a judge. There will never be another judge confirmed unless the president's party also holds the Senate. The GOP caused this with Merrick Garland. I don't think it is good for the country but, there is no choice. We sure can't allow the GOP to confirm their judges when we hold the presidency but they then refuse to confirm our judges when we hold the presidency...and we can never trust them on this issue...no matter what promises they make...liars going to lie.

[davekriss]

11. I said back then, long before the election, that the fix was in

That's the only reason McConnell would act so brazenly over the SCOTUS seat. He knew that he and his party did not have to worry about the election, it was already in the bag. Or so I believed/believe.

Same with the tax bill now: Why would Republican leadership push forward a tax bill that robs from the vast many to give to a privileged few, UNLESS they also think 2018 is in the bag?

Except for McCain tripping them up, they would have already repealed the ACA and stripped 26 million of us of health insurance and thus access to health care (mainly just to make $500 billion available for the coming tax cuts). They didn't care then that only 16% or so approved of their bill, it didn't matter if they believed 2018 was in the bag.

Fascism. Crony Capitalism. Neo-feudalism. Rise of the worldwide Oligarchs! These powerful things are loose today, prepared to run over us.

It's not hopeless, we can still resist, but our democracy is in the fight for its life! And it will become more difficult to share information that allows us to connect the dots after net neutrality bites the dust on December 14. Funny timing, that!

[mythology]

12. There's a simpler explanation

We are a two party country that is deeply and relatively equally divided (in terms of who actually votes). More or less, no matter how badly Republicans screw up or how well we do, they will not be out of power for long as there are only two choices. Look at how badly Republicans screwed things up from 2000 to 2006, the positive changes we did from 2006 to 2010, and we still got dubbed in 2010.

[davekriss]

13. The reason we got dubbed in 2010

In my opinion it was due to the very poor and closely watched optics leading up to passage of the ACA. What was his name, Senator Max Bachman, lording over negotiations, holding the line for insurance companies - very visible. I said after that one that 2010 was going to be a bloodbath. It was.

Remember, almost every major media organization is owned by 1 of 5 mega-corporations. The owners of said corporations would hardly let stand any populist-supportive messaging. The negotiations and passage of the ACA were portrayed as a betrayal of American citizens. It was not, of course, but you and I don’t own any media empires that can reach 70% of the citizenry in any major market.