askchapo

The democrats motto is: We reasonably tried. Okay, maybe we just pretended to. In any case - we then entirely gave up because that's what we do. Vote.

If you're ever arguing with a lib it's good to ask them to pretend the GOP doesn't exist. That way you can block the ever-present misdirections ("But Trump!..." and "But the republicans...") and force them to talk only about the dems.

My favorite example is the expanded child tax credit. It was insanely successful. The change in US poverty rate...

What an insane - in a good way - chart. But the dems designed it to end after a very short time. ~9 months? Check out the date of the following tweet.

[21 Mar 2022]

The expanded Child Tax Credit has been dead for almost 3 months now due to Manchin/GOP opposition and as far as I can tell there's no reason to believe that changes. ~4 million kids thrust back into poverty; child poverty rate up ~41% -- totally disappeared from DC discourse

Nitter

Of course as the 2024 election gets closer - the chutzpah of the dems will blossom as it always does that time of year. Some libs will bring it up as an example why we must vote because the GOP is the problem because they block dem plans that the dems would never do anyway if the GOP didn't exist.

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Another example is that the California dems never do anything with their supermajority so m4a can't even pass in super blue California.

The parliamentarian

I mean the Roe v. Wade thing is easy - Democrats had a simple majority in Congress, which wasn't enough to vote past a filibuster. A filibuster is not legal, it's procedural - it's a result of Senate rules, not any laws. It only takes a simple majority to change the rules, meaning that if Democrats had wanted to get rid of the filibuster to do things like codify Roe v. Wade, they could've. But instead they chose not to. And when they say "but that was because of MANCHIN and SINEMA" you say "Right, and what party were they a part of?"

points to California

Dems are in charge there with enough of a majority that the Repubs should not be able to cause much trouble... and yet...

Some arrows in their quiver of tactics have already been described; another is to sabotage their own leverage by splitting a bill, ensuring that parts of it don’t pass. Two years ago they did it with the infrastructure bill, and last year with the crushed rail strike.

Now the third of these promises [being accountable to working class and oppressed people] has been utterly shattered, as all but one of the “Squad” members crossed the picket line and voted with a majority of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to break the rail workers’ strike — cutting off those workers’ right to legally withdraw their labor. In doing so they took a clear side with the billionaire railroad bosses against rail workers who have suffered intolerable conditions over decades.

[…]

The “Squad” and Congressional Progressive Caucus, including Rep. Pramila Jayapal, attempted to give themselves left cover by voting for a second bill that included the rail workers’ key demand for paid sick leave alongside the primary legislation to kill the strike.

This sleight of hand should fool no one, however, as it was widely recognized that the sick leave bill would face a sudden death in the Senate (which it did the following day), and all that would be left would be a broken strike.

What was the line from a few years ago?

It feels as if the Democrats have resigned themselves to being mere witnesses to horror.

Something like that? I Forget who said it.

Re: Roe v. Wade, Dems could have

1. Codified national abortion rights any time they have had the legislative and executive, which has happened several times, including a 60:40 majority Senate under Obama and the slim majorities under Biden.
2. Actually fought for their SC picks, including lame duck Obama giving up a seat to McConnell and Dems not making RBG retire despite being sick and frail.

They could also, right now, pack the court if they wanted to. There's plenty of precedent. They'd rather save it for campaigning on, it's a nice wedge issue that uses people's suffering.