Be kinde to folk. This changeth the whole habitat.
- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 18
A president talking openly about how Republicans need to seize the operations of elections……
And not a damned Republican stands against this madness.
In their defense…… there is so much madness emanating from this administration, it’s difficult to know where to begin taking a stand against it.
But this is a good place to start.
No. of Recommendations: 8
In their defense…… there is so much madness emanating from this administration, it’s difficult to know where to begin taking a stand against it.
That’s no defense. The madness is not in one issue or another. There is one over riding issue which is the madness of the king himself. As long as they don’t treat him like the madman that he is, America will continue being flushed down the drain.
No. of Recommendations: 16
In their defense…… there is so much madness emanating from this administration, it’s difficult to know where to begin taking a stand against it.
As I mentioned in another thread, Donald Trump's superpower is in commanding attention, in a political environment where commanding attention is valuable.
One of his tools is saying outlandish things. Sometimes crazy things, sometimes terrible things, sometimes proposing things that are completely illegal. He does this all the time. Constantly, continuously, repeatedly.
If elected officials - from either party - spent the time to refute/push back on every single thing he says like this, they'd never have any time to do much else. And the thing is, most of this stuff never actually translates into real policy. Oh, sure, it's bad that he even talks about violating the anti-Impoundment Act or subjecting shoplifters to police beatings, but most of this stuff just slips out of his mouth and ends there.
So GOP officials mostly ignore what he says until it becomes an actual thing (even then they won't do much, because their voters mostly don't want their officials to challenge the President). Democratic officials use it to fundraise and activate the base, but not much else until it becomes an actual thing - because they've started to learn that this is a little bit of rope-a-dope.
It's time to stop expecting that anything different will happen. Trump's modus operandi is to keep himself the center of the news cycle by constantly making provocations. It is to his advantage to have his opponents spending their energy chasing a thousand insane tweets rather than focusing on the stuff his administration is actually doing. It is to his advantage to have his supporters think that he's a whirlwind of energy that's fundamentally changing the course of American government, rather than a President who is bad at Presidenting, and thus has accomplished relatively little that will survive his term in office (or notice that he's not doing much on their core issues, like abortion).
No. of Recommendations: 0
They are selfish ass-hats. Republicans yes, but politicians in general.
IF we were serious about "Democracy"! - we'd stand up and say "Any Republican who truly stands up to this stuff.f...we Democrats, will vote for you. And we won't run a candidate against you just this once".
Boom, Trump --not beaten. But - contained.
But that's not gonna happen.
"Democracy!!!" is worth posting about and protesting about.
But the Anti-Trumpers ---aren't willing to be peacefully ruthless and creative.
No. of Recommendations: 9
So GOP officials mostly ignore what he says until it becomes an actual thing (even then they won't do much, because their voters mostly don't want their officials to challenge the President). And replying to my own post - I was wrong. Thune thought it was worth addressing, and he came out and said "no chance" -
“I’m supportive of only citizens voting and showing ID at polling places. I think that makes sense. … But I’m not in favor of federalizing elections, no. I think that’s a constitutional issue,” Thune told reporters.
“I’m a big believer in decentralized and distributed power. And I think it’s harder to hack 50 election systems than it is to hack one. In my view, at least, that’s always a system that has worked pretty well,” he said of the benefits of empowering states to run federal elections.https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5720386-thune-...
No. of Recommendations: 1
Good for Thune. May his voice be multiplied.
No. of Recommendations: 1
And replying to my own post - I was wrong. Thune thought it was worth addressing, and he came out and said "no chance"I see an opening for the regime:
Article I, Section 4, Clause 1:
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.The Constitution originally specified that Senators be elected by the state legislatures. That has since been changed.
Some discussion of that part:
By providing Congress power to preempt state election procedures, the Framers sought to prevent states from thwarting the Federal Government’s operation by using state law to manipulate or preclude elections for the House of Representatives.9 For example, during the Constitutional Convention Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania expressed concern that "the States might make false returns and then make no provision for new elections,"10 while Alexander Hamilton observed in the Federalist Papers that "Nothing can be more evident than that an exclusive power of regulating elections for the national government, in the hands of the State legislatures, would leave the existence of the Union entirely at their mercy."11 Despite the Elections Clause providing Congress power to preempt state law governing elections, Congress did not exercise this power until 1842 when it passed a law requiring that Representatives be elected on a district basis.12 Congress subsequently added contiguity, compactness, and substantial equality of population to districting requirementshttps://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/art...Seems that, if Trump the Magnificent and Perfect, could ram a bill through Congress, he could, indeed impose any voting regulations he wants, and take vote counting away from states. I assume that Trump the God has the best legal advice money can buy, so he already knows this.
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 5
It's time to stop expecting that anything different will happen.
That’s true and your analysis is spot on. That said, this particular imbroglio (there are plenty of others) puts the lie to the “states’ rights” component of the Conservative mantra, and he is proposing taking a clearly articulated Constitutional prerogative and handing it to the Federal government.
Of course there is a long list of this sort of thing, from advocating for a national abortion ban to sending Federal police into (Democratic) states that are in ill favor, to using the national security apparatus for distinctly local problems and more.
There will come a time to remember, but then it won’t matter as all those Conservatives will conveniently forget about these intrusions in favor of some imagined issue once a Democrat is in office (assuming there are elections again, of course.)
No. of Recommendations: 4
Can you possibly stick to one point and actually try to clarify what it is? And then try to support it with evidence--not just regurgitate propaganda?
