Political Roundtable Part XXIX

[montestewart]

Was it Kojack or Baretta that said don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time?

It was Baretta. And he did the crime. And he didn't do the time.

Kojak said, "Who loves ya baby." Also, "Rights? You got rights? You got nothin'!"

[verbal8]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Tactical genius Mitch McConnell everybody

It worked real well with the least popular tax cut ever - e.g. Trump Tax Scam.

I become less certain who will win the Trump/Mitch rivalry for the GOP the more I think about it. They both are incredibly unpopular.

[Pointgod]

Why would Trump supporters want a new party? Trump owns the Republican party now, and this is likely to continue as long as he stays involved. As we just saw in the impeachment vote, very few, unless they were retiring, were willing to take on Trump.

The anti-Trumpers are in an impossible situation. They know starting a new party themselves has no chance of success. For the most part they are as conservative as the Trumpers, so wouldn't attract independents. Their only distinction from the Trump wing of the party, is that they don't like Trump, and the over the top rhetoric. I's ironic they don't like the rhetoric because they've benefited from dog-whistle politics, and haven't condemned it in the past. They want it both ways - attract the racists, etc., but have denyabilty so they can appeal to independents.

Well if the anti-Trumpers are trying to prove that Trumpism can’t win long term then it’s actually in their best interests for the Republican Party to split. The remember the point is long term that they can see how Trumpism is destructive long term, better to lose in the short term than get destroyed long term (which will happen if Democrats can get their act together). Just imagine you’re a normal Republican politician or political consultant, do you really want be dealing with **** QAnon crazies the rest of your career?

Similar to a bigger danger to the country from a "smarter Trump" the danger to the GOP from a "smarter Trump" starting a third party is a lot more. I can't see a Trump founded party lasting more than a four year cycle.

If someone like Josh Hawley got going by building a faction with grass roots within the party over a couple cycles, by the time the party split the rest of the GOP might not be a viable party.

One thing Trump might be able to maintain is a regional deep South party - although GA would likely be out and FL would be included. Given the type of candidates a Trumpist party would produce it would likely lose some elections to Dems, but a big portion of the GOP is probably enough to be viable. They would at least generally caucus with the GOP. The GOP might also see an advantage in being able to moderate and be more competitive in the areas they are getting shutout like the Northeast.

If Trump set up his own party it would only be to continue to grift from his idiot supporters. Remember everything Trump touches dies. Just ask the Republican Party how they managed to lose all 3 branches of Congress in 4 years.

These guys are the biggest idiots on earth. They could have permanently gotten rid of Trump through impeachment but they were too cowardly and pathetic. Trump is no longer President, he’s off Twitter. He’s not a king maker, tell me how many primaries he influenced before he became President.... ZERO. Other than call into Fox News what the hell could have done if he was impeached? Republican voters would have forgotten in a year and it’s not like they’re going vote for Democrats. Just pure stupidity all around.

[Pointgod]

Read on Twitter

[FAH1223]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and For the People Act gotta be at the top of the priority list.

The problem? The legislative filibuster in the Senate requiring 60 votes. Manchin and Sinema are out there saying there's no way they will repeal it.

So, how do the Dems pass these critical pieces of legislation before the 2022 primary season starts???

[Wizardspride]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

[Pointgod]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

It’s time.

[Ruzious]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Millions of pages? It must suck to be his tax preparer - who more than likely hasn't been paid.

[pancakes3]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

It’s time.

my body is ready

[pancakes3]

Well if the anti-Trumpers are trying to prove that Trumpism can’t win long term then it’s actually in their best interests for the Republican Party to split. The remember the point is long term that they can see how Trumpism is destructive long term, better to lose in the short term than get destroyed long term (which will happen if Democrats can get their act together). Just imagine you’re a normal Republican politician or political consultant, do you really want be dealing with **** QAnon crazies the rest of your career?

Similar to a bigger danger to the country from a "smarter Trump" the danger to the GOP from a "smarter Trump" starting a third party is a lot more. I can't see a Trump founded party lasting more than a four year cycle.

If someone like Josh Hawley got going by building a faction with grass roots within the party over a couple cycles, by the time the party split the rest of the GOP might not be a viable party.

One thing Trump might be able to maintain is a regional deep South party - although GA would likely be out and FL would be included. Given the type of candidates a Trumpist party would produce it would likely lose some elections to Dems, but a big portion of the GOP is probably enough to be viable. They would at least generally caucus with the GOP. The GOP might also see an advantage in being able to moderate and be more competitive in the areas they are getting shutout like the Northeast.

If Trump set up his own party it would only be to continue to grift from his idiot supporters. Remember everything Trump touches dies. Just ask the Republican Party how they managed to lose all 3 branches of Congress in 4 years.

These guys are the biggest idiots on earth. They could have permanently gotten rid of Trump through impeachment but they were too cowardly and pathetic. Trump is no longer President, he’s off Twitter. He’s not a king maker, tell me how many primaries he influenced before he became President.... ZERO. Other than call into Fox News what the hell could have done if he was impeached? Republican voters would have forgotten in a year and it’s not like they’re going vote for Democrats. Just pure stupidity all around.

Yeah but then you read articles like this, and see how the GOP continues to carry on with Trumpian business as usual and it's like... I think Trump spoke his own importance to the party into existence.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/540534-conservatives-go-after-cheney-for-trump-cpac-remarks

[Wizardspride]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

[Wizardspride]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

[Wizardspride]

Read on Twitter

?s=19

[Ruzious]

When Dems hear comments like this from Republicans https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/don-jr-slammed-republicans-who-lose-gracefully-and-said-that-trump-showed-you-can-actually-push-back/ar-BB1e2vzd?li=BB141NW3 over and over again, isn't that reason for Dems to try to squash Repubs like bugs? Why even try to work with them when they seem to take pride in acting irresponsibly? Accepting the Trump family as their leaders is not ok, and it's never again going to be ok.

[dobrojim]

So the obvious question is can Manchin and Sinema be convinced to
support repeal of filibuster? One thing that has not been given much
coverage is what filibuster reforms might look like. Norm Ornstein
has written about this. You could go back to the days when filibustering
required physical stamina. My own preference would be to have a sliding
scale of votes needed to break the filibuster starting at sixty but diminishing
over a period of weeks until it reaches a simple majority.

The efforts to suppress voting are unspeakably disgusting. The main hope
there being that the harder they try to suppress, the more determined
the intended targets of that suppression must be.

[Wizardspride]

Read on Twitter

?s=19


Harris spent the bulk of her career as a prosecutor, rising to become California’s attorney general. While she served on the Intelligence Committee during her four years in the U.S. Senate, foreign affairs was not a major policy focus either during her time in Washington or her presidential campaign.

Biden wants Harris to catch up and has urged her to engage with foreign leaders directly and develop her own rapport with key U.S. partners. Another, more strategic reason for the encouragement: as the heir apparent to the Democratic Party—especially if Biden, who is 78 years old, doesn’t run for re-election—Harris needs to bulk up her foreign policy expertise, and fast.

[pancakes3]

seems like kind of a non-story bc many politicians need to be caught up to speed. we just came off 4 years of trump. and experience doesn't translate to doing a good job. tillerson and pompeo both had substantive experience dealing with foreign nationals and... lol.

[dobrojim]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/the-republican-party-is-now-in-its-end-stages/618132/?fbclid=IwAR0kGynVaHE2jXTnoWBpPy2d59Ggame530VK-FZtrR4c-qtWQj0SlpR6Hvs

Wishful thinking or an inevitability?

[Zonkerbl]

Two amusing tweets flashed by my timeline today, one about how cool it was that Biden was dropping bombs in Syria instead of Trump and how much better it was because there wasn't any partisan bluster, just quietly went about the business of committing war crimes without authority from Congress, yay

Other one about how nice the cages are that they keep the kids in.

Biden is whatever, better than Trump anyway, but I gotta say - Twitter is full of really stupid people

[Zonkerbl]

Neera Tanden was a stretch but wow it's hilarious seeing GOP senators blubbering and crying about how mean her tweets are, knuckle up buttercup!