POTUS/General Election Thread 2020 + Aftermath

[ReluctantSamurai]

positive indicators as to the Dems' willingness and ability to respond appropriately remind us of what's needful and give us confidence that the party will fight on our behalf. The Dems shouldn't try to shut down the government over this, but once in power the only way forward is structural reform.

There's an immense gulf between what is needed, and what will be possible. This is where Biden falls flat on his ass as a president. He still believes in the "old school" way of bi-partisan action, and ideologically, that's the way you'd like to see a democratic government work. However, the word "compromise" is as foreign to today's Capital Hill politics as a White Rhino, which is to say non-existent. If Biden gets elected as president, he will face a Republican party that will be actively trying to limit the policies he can enable, and working diligently to recapture the White House in 2024, rather than enact legislation that benefits the American people. If the Dems somehow manage to gain the Senate this fall, reacquaint yourself with the term filibuster.

As a recent indicator, Biden's appeal to GOP senators on delaying the SCOTUS appointment: “Please, follow your conscience,” [...] “Don’t go there. Uphold your constitutional duty, your conscience; let the people speak.” The result? Basically an 'eff you, we are in a position of power, right now, and there's nothing you can do about it.' This article says it much better than me:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...anship/616431/

“The thing that will fundamentally change with Donald Trump out of the White House, not a joke, is you will see an epiphany occur among many of my Republican friends,” he said in May 2019. This prediction echoed something he said back in 2012, just before his ticket with President Barack Obama won reelection: “We need leaders that can control their party, and I think you’re gonna see the fever break.”

The return to this theme is evidence of Biden’s sincere, long-standing belief in bipartisanship. It is also evidence that his theory, though it may be popular with voters, reflects a failure to grapple with the challenge of contemporary power politics. The second Obama term did not see any fevers break. In the most blatant example of the new power politics, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stonewalled Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. It worked, and Trump appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch to fill the open seat.

Now another Supreme Court seat has opened shortly before an election. McConnell promptly promised to fill the seat, tacitly admitting what had been clear to most people all along: The Garland blockade was always about power politics, not precedent or procedure. Biden continues to act, however, as though appeals to propriety can work. Granted, he is not the president—at least not yet, though he believes he will be soon. Still, his appeal to GOP senators has provided a good test run for how his aisle-reaching might go, and it’s not encouraging.

This is how Republicans think:

Trump was able to pull off the hundreds-of-judges feat by turning the process almost entirely over to conservative legal activists and to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who created many of the vacancies in the first place by blocking Barack Obama appointees.

Trump told Woodward those vacancies were “golden nuggets” and it is quite clear what Trump bought with them: the faithful support of evangelical Christian and conservative Republican voters for whom restrictions on abortion and immigration, the elimination of environmental regulations and the ability to restrict access to voting are top political objectives.

“You know what Mitch’s biggest thing is in the whole world? His judges,” Trump told Woodward. “He will absolutely ask me, please let’s get the judge approved instead of 10 ambassadors.”

Until the Dems understand that the GOP are street brawlers who don't fight fair, and adjust their thinking to deal with that, their stay in the White House, should Biden gain it, will be brief.