The Partisan Divide on Issues

[David Horn]

(01-02-2020, 06:23 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(12-29-2019, 01:39 PM)Anthony Wrote: ... if the Republicans try to abolish the filibuster in the Senate there will be a Second Civil War - and the left won't care who they have to collaborate with, just like the Irish collaborated with the Germans in 1916, the Slovaks collaborated with the Germans in 1939, the Balts, Ukrainians, Croats, Bosnians, and Kosovars collaborated with the Germans in 1941, and the Sicilians collaborated with the Americans in 1943.  The enemy of their enemy will be their friend.

Where were you when the Democrats changed the rules and bypassed the filibuster? I thought it was pretty dumb (a very short sighted thing to do) at the time.

Good question, though a bit cynical. The GOP has a near lock on the Senate, due entirely to their dominance of lower-population states. Once Ted Kennedy died, the Obama landslide was over, and hyper-partisan Mitch McConnell stopped everything in its tracks -- not to belay bad legislation, but to stop anything the Dems could call a win. But while the Dems had control in that period, they had too few votes to pass anything if the filibuster continued. That was especially true for court appointments, so Harry Reid made the move. It may not have been totally wise, but the alternative was even worse, from the Dem perspective.

With comity dead in the political sphere, the fights will get even more brutal and demographics will win in the end. This looks pretty bad for the Republicans long term, but they may do well for the next decade or so. If Trump is reelected, cut that to a few years.