Senate The Concept of "Bipartisanship" and Alternatives

In six months he went from Captain Centrist Compromise to a separatist.

omg just like Padme

JCC: Free Exchange of Ideas or Indoctrination for the Left?

Emperor Ferus, this isn't an attack on you in any way. It's just an observation I find amusing. It's interesting to watch someone change over time. Several others here have made similar changes.

 

Events happened I guess?

 

just unite all the city governments

 

If Peter Daou could go from being right of Hillary Clinton to left of Bernie Sanders, anyone can.

 

You know, that sounds so utterly bleak, and yet is so obviously true. This seems to me our greatest problem: there is no agreed upon national narrative as of now, or to the extent that there is, it is increasingly a narrative of the kind that are typically associated with world-historical revolutions. How something like that would unfold in the Information Age terrifies me. In former times of violent societal upheaval, you didn't have people you're not sure you trust anymore texting you asking you for your address.

This problem is manifesting itself even now. What are we to even call the ominous developments coming from the White House in the past few days? Even calling it an attempted coup is itself a kind of declaration of belligerency. But then, what if it just plain is a coup attempt? This is very, very uncharted territory, and I'm scared as hell.

 

I don't think what Trump is doing right now is a serious coup attempt, or even a serious legal battle to win the election, but just a big face-saving campaign to milk as much cash from evangelical donors before the music stops. Media is playing along because they love the Trump Show as much as anyone, but if the danger was real we'd see a lot more panic among the Dem establishment.

 

Glitter makes this into the President thread 2.0 with one fell swoop.

 

Eh...............

 

I'm a bit disappointed you guys are discussing the split up of Czechoslovakia and haven't bothered to tag me...

Anyway, as it's been pointed out, the situation is completely different. Czechs and Slovaks have always been two separate nations, each with their own language and culture. And whilst the separation was thankfully peaceful (unlike the violent split up of Yugoslavia), it was a project concocted by nationalist politicians - mainly on the Slovak side. Admittedly, there were issues with the post-Communist arrangement of the republic (everything was quite Prago-centric and Slovaks didn't have as much representation as we probably should have had), but that could have been resolved without having to resort to a breakup. Bottom line is, there was no widespread popular support on either side of the border for a split up. There was no referendum (and for good reason, as it wouldn't have been successful). On the Slovak side, the very vocal nationalist minority was whipped up into a frenzy, which prompted the Czech side into a "Fine, let them go if they want it so much" mood.

I maintain that the split up of Czechoslovakia was a stupid thing to do, as we would have been better off together, and as a bigger country we probably would've had a stronger position within the EU. But hey ho. I still consider myself very much Czechoslovak.

 

I stand by what I said at the beginning of this thread.

On a Federal level, bipartisanship is dead. We already see that Mitch is plotting to force Biden to curtail his cabinet choices. And we already see that the progressive left is readying for war if that happens. And I'm with them. The guy who not only drove this country into a ditch TWICE but then allowed the coked up mind addled twit-in-chief to then drive it further into the ditch and somehow off a cliff where it burst into flames does not get to have a say in how Biden cleans up HIS mess. He can sit down and shut up. And that goes for everyone in the Senate who suddenly want to care about either the budget or the deficit. And so help me if they try to force another government shutdown stunt, I hope this time someone pursues treason charges in the justice department. While they play their political games, 250,000 americans have died with another 250,000 expected by Biden's inauguration. Enough. There is no both sides here. One side refuses to acknowledge reality and is willfully allowing Trump to sabotage the country on his way out the door in the middle of one of the worst crises this country has ever faced.

 

Like a true revolutionary, Kropotkin was nobility, Countess Markievicz was a countess, Engels the heir to a textile fortune, Budyonny and many like him left the Imperial army to join the Bolshevik. Chairman Daou is a communist archetypical legend

 

Ultimately, congressmen are at the mercy of their voters (cum exceptas). If they fear their voters (as they should) then the problem lies with either converting (or disempowering) said voters to a rational state.

If we take "rational" as a relative term rather than an absolute one and assume it means generally being inclined to logic, empiricism and a willingness to accept that the limits of one's vision are NOT the limits of the world, then bipartisanship starts with closing the mental gap between those who are "rational" and those who manifestly are not having been either brainwashed or who are just plain selfish beyond all hope even in the face of a global pandemic.

For those who aren't motivated by selfishness, you would have to make them worldly, observant, inquisitive and secure enough in their own egos to admit they may be wrong about what they already know.

Fox and the alt-right have spent decades making sure people are NONE of these things. Their job is to make their legions feel certainty no matter how irrationally based and then to point that certainty at their enemies.

Even If all influences like Fox were to disappear tomorrow it would still take at least a couple of generations before you could convert the population to largely reflect rationality while those who are brainwashed today are essentially largely write offs who've suffered permanent kool-aid damage. Dying of old age (or covid ignorance) is going to be their only contribution to bipartisanship. There's almost no hope of converting them in their lifetimes and trying to do so is largely a waste of time and effort that would be better spent elsewhere.

Since conversion isn't on the table, disempowerment of the obstructing elements is the only option if you want a functional government.