All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[JCAll]

I'm sorry, have you met the American Republican Party? The first three bills before the next Congress will be (likely in this order): 1) New abortion restrictions. If not an all out ban. My guess is they'll wait for Ginsburg to retire or die off so they have a solid 6-3 Supreme Court before they go for the full ban, but you never know. 2) Banning gay marriage. If not outright recriminalizing homosexuality altogether. Probably settle for getting rid of the married gays, it offends their tender sensibilities. 3) Banning transgender folk from using anything but their birth sex for purposes of gender identity, in a legal sense. Be prepared for lots of discussions about which bathroom everyone is forced to use, and fun new penalties if you don't play along.

For all their talk about the economy or the debt, social issues are always the first thing on the conservative docket in the last twenty years. Always. Trump isn't going to change that, he fed on it.

No, #1 will always be Obamacare. Looks like the 35th try will be the one that succeeds.

[rogersmcfeely]

Chuck Schumer's gonna have to filibuster the f*** out of the Senate for the next two years. 2018 mid-terms, you're likely to see the Berners and a lot of angry Democrats out in a blue wave year. It will still be hard to flip the Senate, as more Democratic seats are up for re-election that year. The House is still gerrymandered to all hell, so it would be unlikely to turn.

What I'm getting at is... Republicans might have just taken their last gasp of air electorally. The demographics were there, and the push back on this election, especially if Hillary still wins the popular vote could be what actually does bury them. All they got was a reprieve on losing control of the Supreme Court for the next 50 years.

I like the optimism, but how confident do you feel that things will progress as you describe? It's hard to feel much confidence in anything, no matter how sound it appears, considering the results we just saw last night.

[Jabare]

But how so? The Clintons, the Obamas, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Democratic members of Congress were all speaking the same language and working together well. If there were cracks in that, they weren't visible.

They came together at the 11th hour.

Bernie was part of a movement that was more than himself he took it on but the older voters of that movement did not gravitate to Hillary more of the younger voters did.

Also people underestimated how compromised Hillary was and how effectively the GOP campaigned against her. People brushed stuff off that didn't bother them or that they personally thought was false or misconstrued. They didn't take the extra step to do enough for all the people eating this up. Democrats didn't fight back enough. The party needs to change stop being complacent stop being polite

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

I believed that the silent majority was real too, but I thought it was on the Democratic/Progressive side, not Trump's.

I think it's important to remember that this isn't a classic republican victory, it was a bipartisan insurgency. The old parties on both side have been rebuked, the GOP (in name only) just happened to be the ones reaping the benefits.

did he brought justice to the brave four americans that died while asking for backup but didn't get it? did he let Clinton get prosecuted? no he gave her a slap on the wrist. he had done nothing for me for eight years only thing he did was putting two of his thumbs up his ass.

A: Your conspiracy fantasies are surprising and original. B: You didn't receive a tangential benefit, so he was a bad president. Okay. Gotcha.

[Jabare]

did he brought justice to the brave four americans that died while asking for backup but didn't get it? did he let Clinton get prosecuted? no he gave her a slap on the wrist. he had done nothing for me for eight years only thing he did was putting two of his thumbs up his ass.

That's not a thing

[numberthirty]

Also people underestimated how compromised Hillary was and how effectively the GOP campaigned against her. People brushed stuff off that didn't bother them or that they personally thought was false or misconstrued. They didn't take the extra step to do enough for all the people eating this up. Democrats didn't fight back enough. The party needs to change stop being complacent stop being polite

They got burned by a pretty perfect storm of: a Dem candidate who was arrogant enough to lose just enough support to trip her up/A most likely bunk populist message at the right time/The GOP finally getting what it has wanted/Kellyanne seemingly being craftier than folks gave her credit for.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

They got burned by a pretty perfect storm of: a Dem candidate who was arrogant enough to lose just enough support to trip her up/A most likely bunk populist message at the right time/The GOP finally getting what it has wanted/Kellyanne seemingly being craftier than folks gave her credit for.

Probably didn't hurt that they kept the hairpiece off Twitter for a whole week. If he continues to be good, Melania might let him have his phone back for thirty minutes before bed time.

[Paradox]

AndrewBatman82 misinterprets:

exactly that means he wasn't a leader

No, I'm pretty sure Jabare's telling you the thing you're complaining about didn't actually happen.

[rogersmcfeely]

I think it's important to remember that this isn't a classic republican victory, it was a bipartisan insurgency. The old parties on both side have been rebuked, the GOP (in name only) just happened to be the ones reaping the benefits.

Yeah. When I was much younger, I was OK with Ronald Reagan's generation of Republicans. That group was deeply flawed too in many ways, but I'd take most of them in a heartbeat over the present incarnation of Republican. Howard Baker, James Baker, George Schultz, etc., were all pretty respectable, though I didn't care for the likes of William Bennett, who had more in common with the current Republicans.

[Schrecken]

Hey if the peso keeps going any lower, who is going to pay for the wall? I lost track of how tall he said it was going to be.

[numberthirty]

Probably didn't hurt that they kept the hairpiece off Twitter for a whole week. If he continues to be good, Melania might let him have his phone back for thirty minutes before bed time.

Didn't hurt.

One other thing that some folks have tried to shrug of as a "Media Creation" is the potential loss of younger minority voters. It seems like most folks may have thought that a movement that has seemingly worked outside of politics to a large degree would just show up and vote.

Seems like that may not have happened.

[JCAll]

oh im happy your the one who needs to accept the election results. i am over it long ago and now i can release on how i feel about the man like everyone else can

Yes, you won, now you can saw whatever mean thing you want.
That's how it works, right?

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

Didn't hurt.

One other thing that some folks have tried to shrug of as a "Media Creation" is the potential loss of younger minority voters. It seems like most folks may have thought that a movement that has seemingly worked outside of politics to a large degree would just show up and vote.

Seems like that may not have happened.

"Media creation" is exactly right. This is a dream come true for liberal media: Now they'll have something to rail against for years. Like mana from heaven, it is. It's way easier to be against a cartoonish super-villain, than it is to actually try to affect positive change.

[rogersmcfeely]

They came together at the 11th hour.

Bernie was part of a movement that was more than himself he took it on but the older voters of that movement did not gravitate to Hillary more of the younger voters did.

Also people underestimated how compromised Hillary was and how effectively the GOP campaigned against her. People brushed stuff off that didn't bother them or that they personally thought was false or misconstrued. They didn't take the extra step to do enough for all the people eating this up. Democrats didn't fight back enough. The party needs to change stop being complacent stop being polite

I agree completely as far as being complacent. The Democrats absolutely must be more assertive and relentless, but at the same time, I can't agree with the idea of not being polite. One of the important premises of the Democratic/Hillary campaign was that it was a sane, civilized, adult response to Trump and his shenanigans. OK, that failed to win the day, but I think it would be a mistake to try to win the next election by mimicking that approach. Even if the Democrats were to succeed with that tactic, it wouldn't seem to be much of a win if they had to become what they loathed to achieve it. Winning is important, but it can't come at the expense of throwing aside your values.

[numberthirty]

"Media creation" is exactly right. This is a dream come true for liberal media: Now they'll have something to rail against for years. Like mana from heaven, it is. It's way easier to be against a cartoonish super-villain, than it is to actually try to affect positive change.

Not exactly what I meant.

Talking about the idea that younger black voters might be a tough get this time out. Some folks seemed to think that any real loss when it came to them was something the media was just cooking up as opposed to an actual issue.