How do you reach across the aisle when your adversaries are;

[SamKnause]

Shills for corporations

Shills for Wall Street

Shills for the NRA

Shills for coal, oil, and natural gas industries

Trying to implement a theocracy

Suppressing voting rights

Shrinking the rights of women

Attacking undocumented immigrants

Guilty of starting illegal wars

Enriching the wealthy

Wiping out unions

Supporting racism and fascism

Ignoring or don't believe in climate change

Opposed to health care for all ???



They are the enemy.

They are evil.

They are liars.



The Trump cult and republican party needs to be destroyed.

They are the greatest threat this country has ever faced.

[onecaliberal]

1. IMO we don't reach across the isle. They have absolutely NOTHING this country needs.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. Wrong forum?

[SamKnause]

4. I wasn't quite sure.

I thought someone might bring up some of the Democratic candidates

that are currently running for president.

[Cirque du So-What]

7. I have an opinion about who I consider most likely to 'reach across'

but elaborating on my position would likely release the hounds of hell.

[SamKnause]

13. That is scarily too easy to do on this site.

I parse every word I type.

Nerves are on edge and tempers flare easily here.

Hope you are having a pleasant day.

[pnwmom]

20. Biden just talked about how great he'd be at working across the aisle,

and how he was sent to do it for Obama.

He didn't mention that when he tried to do it for Obamacare, he wasn't able to get a single R vote.

[More_Cowbell]

24. I'm not sure why he's saying that people who wouldn't work with Obama will work with him

Maybe he feels like it's something he has to say. I haven't heard him support it with facts yet.

[Clash City Rocker]

30. Biden is older, white, and more ensconced in DC than Obama was

Plus Trump has had a bad influence on some Republicans’ reputations. Joe may be right.

[certainot]

25. the way to end this 'across the isle' bullshit is for liberals to put a RUSH tattoo on

republican's foreheads. point out at every occasion that trump paid sam nunberg to listen to 1000s of hours of talk radio in 2014 to help design their campaign and coordinate with russian trolling

point out at every occasion most everything they and trump are doing was fed through limbaugh and came out his ass. point out that stephen miller and mick mulvaney have both admitted to being 'dittoheads' with miller saying one of the most formative books in his youth was a book by limbaugh! and mulvaney admitted he was a proud rush baby - his politics formed on limbaugh ignorance and lies

when dems and media play into this bullshit about 'what the people want' and that they have to account for republican constituency elements they need to be reminded most of those people are living in a alternate reality with an alternate set of 'facts' and most of it came out of team limbaugh's ass

right now media's talking about miller influencing trump immigration policy as if it has nothing to do with 20 years of using rw radio to attack immigrants, and dems for helping illegal immigrants to vote by the millions - basically all to sell voter suppression legislation and coordinated by state because they have those radio stations

and until democrats stop ignoring talk radio conservative democrats and those who want to avoid conflict and accusations of not 'working across the isle' are going to keep being enabled and intimidated and influenced by constituencies that are primary, secondary, and tertiary recipients of a propaganda operation that is increasingly being influenced by fascists and russians and basically comes out of the blowholes of a few hundred professional liars on 1500 coordinated radio stations

[Skya Rhen]

32. Yet Biden got McCain to vote against repealing Obamacare. But that doesn't count. SMH...

[pnwmom]

33. Assuming Biden's influence was the critical piece, that was significant. But McCain isn't in

the Congress anymore. Who else has Biden successfully influenced in the current Congress?

[Skya Rhen]

34. It proves Joe's capabilities during a desperate time that we were in - the threatened repeal of ACA.

I am grateful for this and will not pretend as though it wasn't a BFD. IMO, this vote mattered more than any other vote that took place under Trump.

[pnwmom]

38. But McCain isn't around anymore. So who in the current Congress can Biden work with? n/t

[Skya Rhen]

39. The same two humane Republicans that voted along with McCain to save the ACA - Collins & Murkowski.

[Amimnoch]

42. And the ACA was the only bill passed in President Obama's 8 years?

It was his signature campaign legislation. No surprise at all that Republicans would have been pure obstruction on it. Not entirely unlike our universal opposition to Trumps stupid ass wall.

EVERY bill that did pass after 2011 was done with bipartisan support as we no longer had the majority in both chambers of Congress after that point.

Even before 2011, the Dodd Frank Wall Street reform bill managed to squeak by with 3 Republican senate votes.

It was carefully crafted to allow Republicans to do so without a spotlight being shone upon them, but the repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t tell in 2010 had Senator Collins and 8 other Republicans crossing over to support.

Unless we do manage to take back the Senate in 2020 (Possible, but not at all the most likely outcome given the map) anyone who takes a hard stance against working with Republicans will get NOTHING done. Result will place the 2020 Senate map (one that actually favors us at this time) in jeopardy, and very possibly end up making our candidate a 1 term president like hopefully we will make Cheetolini.

[UniteFightBack]

3. I'll tell you how. You reach out your hand to extend for a shake. Then you grip and twist said

hand into submission.

[Thekaspervote]

14. This!!

[RainCaster]

5. Reach out to bitch slap them

[Garrett78]

6. I'm still waiting for someone to name just 5 "really good Republicans" in the US Congress.

Are we talking about Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski? Check out their respective voting records and then get back to me.

Are we talking about various members of the US House? Name them and then I'll look up their respective voting records.

These are mythical creatures and what Biden said is nothing more than a tactic to win votes. It's not based in reality.

[Skya Rhen]

36. Read earlier posts from last night. The challenge made was to name just one good Republican.

Two were named and then the goal post was predictably moved.

The challenge was met (in fact, exceeded) and the game is over - touchdown...

[Baitball Blogger]

8. It's easier to do for some, more than others.

Sadly, it usually means that some of the Dem objectives may become a casualty.

[pnwmom]

26. We scrapped the public option to please the Rs and get a few votes.

We might as well have kept the public option, because we didn't get any anyway.

[emulatorloo]

29. Lieberman killed the public option. He refused to vote for it.

Then it was dead in the water.

[loyalsister]

43. Exactly

Participation in loosening regulations which has lowered wages and reduced union influences, welfare "reforms" which provided a population of desperate workers who have be exploited by corporations that continue to rake in billions on their backs. Bankruptcy reforms that left people without options for financial recovery after the 2008 scammers were exposed and went unpunished.

Neverending wars....

All brought to us by the bipartisan cooperation and bargaining that provided a libertarian environment for corporations to do as much damage as they like.

The justification for taking steps towards them as they continue to move right has reached a limit for me. Enough with pretending they will negotiate in good faith.

[ucrdem]

9. How do you win open primaries and battleground swing states?

Not by shaking your superiority stick.


p.s. SC, NH, MI and WI all have open primaries.

[theaocp]

46. You're saying Dems should court Republicans in these states to vote in the primary?

I thought Dems had a serious fucking problem with Republicans picking our candidates?

[Ponietz]

10. 'Reach Out and Touch a Repuke' will depress Democratic and Independent voter turnout

“The Democratic leadership — the way they’ve chosen to navigate the Trump impeachment stuff, and certainly the way they talk about their House victories and how to maintain their House majority, it tells me that they’re still living in a understanding of the data that is outdated. If you don't understand how you won, and what the concurrent political data environment is telling you, that is concerning. So I do see a lot of evidence that Democrats don't get this. I'm not sure why.

I do know there is an increasing voice within Democratic politics that is leaning toward seeing the environment through my lens, and we saw that play out in 2018, in the campaign strategies of Beto O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams. What they were able to do in terms of their contests in both those deep red states was absolutely remarkable, and it speaks to the efficacy of a turnout-based approach, a strategic approach.”

[link:https://www.salon.com/2019/08/17/this-political-scientist-completely-nailed-the-2018-blue-wave-heres-her-2020-forecast/|

[Thekaspervote]

15. This same article talked about how President Obama went too far with the ACA bringing 2010

[Ponietz]

16. Please reread it

It was facetious and exactly not what Bitecofer was saying:

“What I'm saying is no, the Democratic base collapsed, basically, from what it looked like in 2006, which was the last midterm when they had been out of power [and won]. It just literally collapsed among Democrats and because of that, it looks like the electorate has this giant recoil effect, driven primarily by these independent voters who are rejecting the party in power. But what we’re really looking at in much of these elections are the surge and decline of certain voters entering and leaving the electorate.”

[pnwmom]

21. That's not what it said. n/t

[bigtree]

11. individual members are one thing. Pols can be persuaded on small things

...but it's the republican leadership which is blocking most, if not all bipartisan efforts.

There's no influential number of republicans willing to divert from Trump and McConnell's shutout of practically all Democratic initiatives.

[alfredo]

17. They need a drubbing so bad that they have rebuild

their party from the ground up, with new leaders, new attitudes, and a love for our constitution and ALL people.

[bucolic_frolic]

18. Moreover

they consider themselves at WAR with liberalism.

We need to defend our ideology and stop trying to compromise.

[lastlib]

19. How do you reach across the aisle to these people? Blunt heavy instruments.

Start with dimensional lumber and work up. If they could be reasoned with, they wouldn't be "these people". You can only knock them unconscious and hope it imparts sense to them. It's a feeble hope, not to be relied upon.

[Ferrets are Cool]

22. The party as it is presently constituted needs to be deconstructed and

rebuilt with the ideals of average people as it's core. Of course, that will never happen.

[Harker]

23. Screw us when they're in the majority...

squawk about bi-partisanship when they're in the minority.

Blather, rinse, repeat.

[Iggo]

27. Carry something that extends your reach.

A club.

A bat.

Like that.

[Desert grandma]

28. How do you reach across the aisle?

By taking the majority in the House and Senate, and not repeating the mistakes we made last time. A "take it or leave it" approach would work. Since they removed the filibuster, we should pass as much as we can, whether they are with us or not. Start by voting sanctions against Russia. There is lots of bi-partisanship on that issue. Then we can say "See we can work with the other side." On issues we KNOW they will oppose, let them oppose and pass it anyway. Like they do now.

[thegoose]

31. Absolutely no point

Pukes are from hell and need to be eliminated from Washington.

[dalton99a]

35. Republicans love to reach across the aisle

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017

[Fiendish Thingy]

37. Why squander power that is hard earned and fought for?

?1557885442

[Skittles]

40. and yet we are constantly told there are good republicans

THERE USED TO BE, but NOT ANYMORE

[Bettie]

41. I'd add

that they refuse to even negotiate, their attitude is "You get nothing".

Even if we give them everything they want and a little more, they will not cooperate with a single thing our side ever suggests.

If we don't take the Senate and win the White House, I suspect that the new president won't even get a cabinet appointed, much less judges, or any legislation moved. Moscow Mitch won't allow that.

[honest.abe]

44. I agree "they" are the enemy, evil and liars.. however..

Many voters hate how polarized this country is and want someone to fix it. Dont forget Obama ran on uniting the country. Remember the "There are no red states or blue states, just the United States" speech. Voters loved that even though it didn't quite work out as planned.

I think Biden can rekindle the voters interest in reuniting the country. If anyone can do it he can with his decades of experience in Washington and his personable collaborative manner.

[Skid Rogue]

45. If we win the Presidency,

but we fail to take both the House and Senate, we'll have to hold our nose and try, or do what we can by executive order. I hate it, but that's how our government works.

[Gothmog]

47. IF a Democrat wins in 2020, that Democrat will have to repair all of the damage done by trump

If a Democrat wins in 2020 (that is NOT a given), that Democrat will have to rebuild our country. trump has done a tremendous amount of damage to the institutions. The State department has been gutted and other organizations decimated. That work will require working with republicans. Tom Perez and Eric Holder had to rebuild the voting rights and civil rights sections of the DOJ after 8 years of Bush. trump has probably done far more damage to these institutions in just one term. Rebuilding our institutions after trump will not be easy and will take the cooperation of both Democrats and many Republicans.

It is not assured that any Democrat can win in 2020. Most POTUS are re-elected unless there is a recession. If a Democrat wins in 2020, that Democrat will have a very hard job of undoing the damage done by trump and that work will require working with republicans as well as Democrats. Again, I live in Texas which is still a red state but may change. That means that I have to live with and work with republicans in the real world. I think that there are many good republicans and we will need these republicans to rebuild our government IF trump is defeated.

This polling is interesting

Link to tweet