Biden Thread

[Montmorency]

Why does the Trump thread get a capital 'T'? Outrageous bias.

An unusual much will rest in the laps of a handful of individuals, really: Biden and Manchin, Pelosi and Schumer. The party consensus is almost in place to make the first two years considerably more productive than Obama's (with large Congressional majorities). So now we're waiting not exactly on Great Man Theory, but to the Great Veto Points.

I am heartened that the Democratic caucus has finally shifted a little left, when even Joe Manchin is volunteering that we need more direct transfers and trillions in stimulus above the proposed programs.

No idea why Biden is making immigration reform (in Congress) a Day-1 priority, but it could be a prologue to packing every item on the near agenda from minimum wage - NO MORE TIPPED MINIMUM?!?! - to coronavirus relief into an enormous reconciliation omnibus, so we'll have to see what that looks like.

(Another suggestion I've heard is that Dems introduce arbitrary exemptions to the legislative filibuster before whatever the bills du jour will be, but I'm not sure whether Dems would be more or less likely to back such a gimmick than outright abolition anyway. )


"Trump talked out of pardoning kids and Republican lawmakers"

For once I'm genuinely surprised by Trump's behavior. Fire away, fellas.

Aww, he also has our most famous king as the image background for his twitter account.

It's a trend.

The Left calls you “fascist” because the Left fears fascism. Sadly, the monstrous fascist dictators were the most historically successful at stopping communism. I wish it wasn’t so. And I worry about what that means for our future.

Know what the Left doesn’t fear? Conservatism. They hate it because it’s the opposite of Leftism. But they don’t fear it because they know Conservatism cannot defeat Leftism.

Again, I wish it wasn’t so.

Conservatism is the opposite of Leftism. But it cannot defeat Leftism. Because there is not laissez-faire way to defeat communism. It must be aggressively purged or it festers and spreads like any other infection.

From a certain point of view, democracies have a perfect record in "stopping Communism," whereas fascism fell through in a big way in allowing almost all of Eastern and Central Europe to come under its authority.

I agree on this, the 'old guard' republicans like McConnell are clearly ready to dump Trump but the ground swell is of the Tea Party>Trump>post Trump movement what will likely elect even more extreme people in the midterms next year.

The McConnell wing doesn't want to dump Trump because they're better than Trump, it's because the McConnell wing wants itself to preside over Republican domination. Their only use for Trump is was insofar as he can hold a pen.

The only way out of it I can imagine is if the Dems make a concerted effort to prove the Trump-clan fears wrong.

I feel strongly about this. We can leave aside that "Trump-clan fears" are so often evidently not with regard to liberal policy outcomes per se, but to the essentialized nature of the liberal coalition (i.e. who, not what). Even an agnostic on that element of the conflict should be able to see it's time, for once, for conservatives to bring something to the table, to take the first step as Biden said, to prove their own seriousness. Trying to appeal to right-wing shibboleths was one of the worst things Dems did (or were forced to do, by some tellings) in living memory. (The only worse is their former status as the party of formal racism, really.) It's part of how we got to where we are, those bad old days when liberals crouched and cringed at the slur "liberal" and did their best to distance themselves from it as a historical concept or an ethos - and it's bad policy in its own right. In any other country the appropriate stance would self-evidently be for the governing party to continue to advocate to the general electorate over the common policy ground that truly exists, which is pretty much what Dems do (if arguably not as efficiently or intensively as they could). Yet what's obvious in every other country can't be allowed for here, in one of those odd bits of inverted exceptionalism where America is apparently such a depraved and degenerate society that some people - specifically the Right - can't be held to normal-people standards. But if a given individual don't wan't to compromise over common ground, which does exist, because they prefer fascism to compromise (compromise is not equivalent to 'conservatives receiving everything they are due'), they can learn that we don't negotiate with terrorists. Appeasement is OVER.

The grassroots fascism, for there to be so many fascists besieging us is, naturally, a national emergency that calls for action. Someone else put it well (to paraphrase): The goal cannot, in terms of ethics or feasibility, be to persuade fascists to be liberals; it must be to make them into anything but fascists.

One means to that end is to show fascism losing over and over...

Perhaps biding their time but its so hard to tell, especially with a Justice Department that is now vowing to crack down on those groups. Now that their leader is gone and cowed (the Proud Boys called Trump "a total failure"). I guess we will see.

These kinds of domestic plots are, in the end, easy to infiltrate and break up by an agitated FBI. We do pay for our national security, we may as well enjoy some benefits for the price.

Something good enough immediately is better than something perfect in the indefinite future.

To be clear, the proposal here is to limit mucking about with conservative games and just move left immediately. Ironic.

Tangentially, I did not know that the Blair government authorized a commission to determine minimum wage increases. Any comments?

[Hooahguy]

Why does the Trump thread get a capital 'T'? Outrageous bias.

I fixed the main title but you gotta go into the advanced reply section to edit the reply within the message itself. Odd settings, I didn't make them.

I am heartened that the Democratic caucus has finally shifted a little left, when even Joe Manchin is volunteering that we need more direct transfers and trillions in stimulus above the proposed programs.

Same. I've heard that this also might be Manchin's final term before retirement so he might be willing to bend more towards the left than in the past.

No idea why Biden is making immigration reform (in Congress) a Day-1 priority, but it could be a prologue to packing every item on the near agenda from minimum wage - NO MORE TIPPED MINIMUM?!?! - to coronavirus relief into an enormous reconciliation omnibus, so we'll have to see what that looks like.

As the article I posted earlier stated, it would be an early and relatively easy win that is also very popular. Hopefully anyways. From what I can tell its not the sole thing on the agenda right now but I certainly don't blame them for wanting to move fast.

"Trump talked out of pardoning kids and Republican lawmakers"

For once I'm genuinely surprised by Trump's behavior. Fire away, fellas.

I'm not surprised at all. The article you linked to stated that doing such pardons would make him more vulnerable legally. And ultimately, he only cares about himself.

The McConnell wing doesn't want to dump Trump because they're better than Trump, it's because the McConnell wing wants itself to preside over Republican domination. Their only use for Trump is was insofar as he can hold a pen.

For now it seems like McConnell is going to lose that battle, with some Senate Republicans already threatening his leadership if he votes to convict Trump. If he really does want to maintain control, he will have to whip some votes to convict or be relegated to a backseat position now that he's criticized Trump a bunch, drawing the ire of the Trump gang. He put himself in this bind and he has only himself to blame. Act boldly or go home.

[a completely inoffensive name]

McConnell sees his future in the party leadership is over and is looking to burn down the party rather than be a mocked backbencher. I wouldn't be surprised if he is deliberately agitating Dems to kill the filibuster and voting to convict Trump to ensure Dems get a fair shot at their agenda and hamper Trumpists from taking advantage of the strategic positioning McConnell has long fought to maintain.