I remember the constant “But… but… SCOTUS!” when people complained about how cartoonishly horrible Trump was during the campaign. And, hey, that gamble paid off. We got a really good SCOTUS pick.
But apparently that’s about it from a Trump administration and a Republican controlled House and Senate. It really seems like the Republicans were caught completely off guard by Trump winning and had no plans beyond being an opposition party. I mean, this health care stuff, people have been talking about that for a while. Like years. They probably should have had some sort of plan ready. But nope. I’m a little more hopeful they can come up with something on taxes… but not that hopeful.
So, so useless. It’s why I just can’t get in these partisan fights anymore. What’s the point? Is there any chance of anything being accomplished?
But on the plus side for the Republicans, attack ads will be hard. “We have to stop these radical, extremists Republicans from… not doing anything in particular.”
So what’s the path forward here? What’s the rallying cry for 2018? Neither the Democrats or the Republicans have a particularly good case to make about anything. Best slogan I can come up for them is “Embrace irrelevancy.” I kinda like that. If the government were more irrelevant and we just paid it less attention, that’s a good thing. And, frankly, I’d kinda like to talk about something other than Trump one day.
The problem is the GOP has been split up into too many different wings…you have the Establishments, the T-Party, the Christian Right, the Traditionalists, the Neo Cons, the Moderate Wing, the Libertarian Wing, the Reagan Coalition, etc. The party isn’t like the Dem Party, which is basically just one big Cult-like group.
I usually try to temper these thoughts by reminding myself that the differences between the various leftists look smaller to me because I’m farther away from them.
However, I strongly suspect that the differences between the leftist factions can mostly be papered over by saying “Don’t worry, there will be enough money for all of you”, whereas the differences between rightist factions are more procedural.
“I’m thinking we should do something about taxes.”
“Anything in mind?”
“Eh, I’ve got two ideas I’m kicking around, but I’m not really sure about either of them. You have any suggestions?”
“… Down?”
“Well, than sounds right, but…”
“… Up?”
“That feels right.”
I’ve accepted that the odds that Congress will do anything I would like to see are minuscule. I’ve stopped watching the news, pretty much altogether. I used to think the Republican party was a congenial home for classical liberals, but the primaries taught me that people who think as I do are a tiny fraction of the party. Other than Ben Sasse and a few others, Republican members of Congress are a pretty worthless lot. And the Democrats are barking mad.
It’s not because they had no plan. The problem is they had a dozen plans and minimal effort towards coordinating those plans to make sure everybody was cool with them because they don’t know who is going to be sitting in their chairs the next time the vote rolls around. That’s the annoying thing about Democrats. They’ll just pass anything without reading it because the party leader says so. Republicans have to read what’s in the bill first and then like it.
What’s the rallying cry for 2018?
“SPOON!!!!”
Tick!? Is that you?
Political parties are hierarchic by nature. They require a leader. Trump was, is and will remain an outsider. Simply becoming President did not make him the leader of the party. You can see the result. The Democrats retain a cohesion by a solidly shared stupidity. Republicans don’t and require a leader to give them their stupidity.
which alternative would you prefer?
You can blame me, I didn’t vote hard enough against Lamar Alexander. What’s your excuse?
First and foremost, let us not minimize the importance of SCOTUS picks.
Secondly, the inability of a party to do something/anything, is generally a feature not a bug. Republicans, whom we generally applaud for not doing things, are in the unfortunate position of being unable to undo what should not have been done in the first place.
Thirdly, before heaping unalloyed opprobrium on Republicans, contemplate how content you would be with Democrats having unfettered ability to do more things that should not be done.
BTW: The rallying cry for 2018 is obvious:
“A Tuna In Every Bowl!”
Or…”What this country needs is a good five cent can of tuna.” as a national slogan to attract the cat vote?
The Slogan for the next election is going to be “Yeah, but at least we’re not Trump.”
The buttons and signs and hashtag will still be #nottrump
Not sure it if going to confuse anyone when all of the politicians regardless of party affiliation will be using that slogan.
SCOTUS? Strawman alert!
How about, “Let’s keep Hillary from being POTUS”?
Trump has been doing a bunch that you apparently have missed, like cutting regulations and screwing with DC.
But he Tweeted!!!!!!
The rallying cry for 2018 should be, “Get Rid Of Every Incumbent In the Nation! Get Rid Of The Dog Catcher for Dogpatch Kentucky!”
Or…we could pine for President Hillary Clinton.
Maybe I’m just a naive dreamer, but one day it would be nice to aim higher than “not Hillary.”
“Ahh! My leg was ripped off!”
“Hey, would you rather be shot in the face.”
“You’re right. I’m complaining too much.”
Maybe I’m just a naive dreamer, but one day it would be nice to aim higher than “not Hillary.”
You’re preaching to the choir on that, but we didn’t have another choice. We had Trump or Hillary.
If you’d told me even 2 years ago I’d support Trump I would have called you a liar.
Heck, before Walker left the race and Cruz imploded I’d have called you names.
He’s a huckster.
Complaining about Trump is more than a year late.
“Ahh! My leg was ripped off!!”
Yeah, I know, that was a year ago.
Right now I’d say Trump is doing what he was elected to do.
He can’t do what the GOP Congress claimed for years they wanted to do and are now refusing to do.
I posted on this subject last week and I’ll say it again. So far Trump has done the two things I voted for him to do 1.To keep the Clintons out ot the White House. 2.To keep the Supreme Court from having one more Libtard like Ginsberg or Sotomayor assigned to it. As I said last week…so far so good. We have a conservative on the SC and more slotted for the appellate courts. Would I like him to stop tweeting, clean up his act, straighten up and fly right, and stop fighting a war he can never win with the media…yes I would! But for now I’ll take what I can get.
See, I’m for his war on the media. And I think he’s winning.
We,ve wanted someone to fight back for a long time.
That was a big complaint about Bush, he didn’t fight back.
You can’t be very decorous when you’re fighting people who lie about you every day.
Oh I understand the media will lie about him on a daily basis and no matter what he says they will twist the truth. I got that, but I just wish he wouldn’t give the media the ammo they use against him by saying or tweeting things that can be used against him.
Oh I understand the media will lie about him on a daily basis and no matter what he says they will try to twist the truth. I got that. I just wish he wouldn’t give the media more ammo to use against him by saying or tweeting things that assists them in trying to destroy him.