Category: Politics

From Morning Consult, “The high-stakes standoff between Democrats and Republicans in Washington on a potential national debt default could have ruinous consequences for the financial system. It’s also likely to tick a lot of voters off. This time, at least, a plurality of voters would hold both parties in Washington equally responsible for a default on the national debt, according to a new Morning Consult/Politico poll. Beyond that 39 percent share who’d blame both parties, more voters would assign blame to Democrats (31 percent) than Republicans (20 percent). That’s largely on par with results from the same question last week, although the share that would blame Republicans ticked up 4 percentage points from 16 percent.” I am not prognosticating the final outcome of this debt ceiling mess. My guess would be if America did default it is because we stumbled into it during negotiations or in the middle of the legislative process. May I remind the reader that the deadline is an estimate! America could run out of money a bit sooner and it could be later. No one knows for certain!

If this were any other matter, then I would be applauding Democrats for finally standing up to RepubliKKKlans and for taking a strong position at last. I would cheer them on for finally playing hardball, but this is the wrong game. Nonetheless, where Democrats succeed in strength they seem to fail in cognition. Of course, they can never be both simultaneously. It’s usually thoughtfulness at the expense of strength, but not this time.

Here is the problem: Dumbass Democrats are underestimating RepubliKKKlans’ nihilism and overestimating voters’ intelligence. What else is new in America? Schumer — that frustrating f***tard — repeatedly stands on the Senate floor lecturing McConnell and RepubliKKKlans in an attempt to shame them. I swear to f***ing God! If I have to listen to Schumer cry “shame! shame! shame!” on RepubliKKKlans one more f***ing time for anything, then I’m going to reach through my laptop and strangle the idiot. OMG. RepubliKKKlans cannot be shamed! Ever! You can’t guilt them! Ever! Yet, dumbass Democrats keep trying to score some political points by calling them shameful, irresponsible, reckless, and hypocrites. Hello, Democratic morons. These are all attributes RepubliKKKlans embrace and enjoy. Such pejoratives are completely lost on them. Thus, Democrats underestimate RepubliKKKlans’ ability to have a conscience. They also underestimate RepubliKKKlans’ indifference to destroy the economy; they want the economy to tank under Biden and Democrats. The worse and the longer the economic disaster the more RepubliKKKlans believe it will help them win in 2022 and 2024. And they would be right to believe that because, as the Morning Consult articles evinces, voters will blame Democrats more than RepubliKKKlans, which brings me to my next point.

American voters are f***ing morons and dumbass Democrats keep overestimating voters’ capacity to reason and understand the maneuvers of the government under which they live. The optics for the average voter is pretty simplistic: Democrats control the White House, the House (barely), and the Senate (even more barely); ergo, they control everything — from the functioning of state governments to the American economy to the price of gas to local weather — which, of course, is not even close to reality, but since when have voters ever let reality inform their political judgment? Never! Recall, traitor trump was elected (and captured 10 million more votes in 2020) based on a personality built on a sham; his entire presidency was a con, so people vote for the unreal all the f***ing time. This is the truth that Democrats are trying to explain to voters, which is like trying to explain Shakespeare to monkeys: RepubliKKKlans would rather actively block Democrats from raising the debt ceiling than simply get out of the way for Democrats to vote. The key is the use of unanimous consent in regular order in the Senate — this entire issue is a Senate problem. These are rather fundamental concepts that moronic voters should understand about their government but would prefer not, for whatever reasons. Regular order simply means that the Senate will abide by the usual rules to debate and pass legislation. Unanimous consent is a process of “inverse” voting. I say inverse because in my mind is it. Normally, people would vote to pass something, but with unanimous consent, the assumption is a vote passes, unless one person votes to oppose. In other words, one person can object and the motion dies instead of the usual majority or supermajority threshold for passage. When legislators ask for unanimous consent, they are basically asking for everyone to nod and move on. But RepubliKKKlans won’t allow that — specifically to end debate (cloture) over a bill to raise the debt ceiling. Thus, they are actively voting to stop progress and actively putting the economy in danger. RepubliKKKlans could agree to unanimous consent and not vote for the bill as they keep threatening; they could just let all Democrats vote to pass the legislation and let Democrats take the “blame,” while keeping their voting record clean, but no. RepubliKKKlans are economic terrorists and they want chaos, just like their leader, traitor trump. This all comes back full circle. Of course, this is all legislative nuance that dumbass Democrats think voters are dutifully following and discerning, which, of course, they are not.

All that being said, what Democrats should have done is take McConnell at his word from the being — months ago — instead of trying to call his bluff this close to the deadline. They should have passed debt limit legislation through the reconciliation process over the summer, especially when Biden was living out a string of disastrous foreign policy decisions. At the very least, Democrats could have claimed they single-handedly saved the economy from obstructionist RepubliKKKlans and their ruinous economic terrorism. At this point, Democrats are running a huge risk that could seal RepubliKKKlan dominance for a decade to come because I promise you there is only one thing all voters are going to remember if America defaults on its debt: It happened under Democrats’ watch. Full stop! No ambiguity. No confusion. No subtlety. Consequently, Democrats will reinforce the canard that RepubliKKKlans are better for the economy, which is another persistent myth that f***tard voters of America seem to believe unquestionably year after year and one RepubliKKKlan recession (Bush I) after another RepubliKKKlan recession (Bush II) after another RepubliKKKlan recession (traitor trump). But whatever! I give up! Welcome to stupid America! The house is on fire — right now!

Apparently, to be continued until December…

Don’t be fooled by all these subpoenas from the House select committee to investigate the 6 January 2021 terrorist attack on the Capitol. There are only two things to come from these subpoenas: Empty seats and assertions of the Fifth Amendment. In other words, silence! Do not think for a second any significant, germane witness is going to show up to testify. Not! Going! To! Happen! Sure, you might have a few low-level worthless errand-boys or errand-girls testify about acquiring some stupid permit to protest or organizing buses for travel, but people like Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, Steve Bannon, Kash Patel are never going to testify, and what will dumbass Democrats do about it? Nothing. Not a f***ing thing as usual and predictably. Traitor trump and all his henchmen will get away with it. And don’t believe all these MSM pundits and commentators falling all over themselves to insist that House Democrats could hold these witnesses in contempt of Congress or engage other maneuvers to force testimony. That is never going to happen and even if the House referred criminal contempt charges to the DOJ, then weak AG Garland will not pursue those charges because — again — dumbass Democrats are weak. When is the last time someone was charged for contempt of Congress where there were meaningful consequences — jail or fine? Nearly forty years ago. So, nothing is going to happen because this is a consequence-free country. Traitors will continue to treason. RepubliKKKlans will continue to destroy America. And dumbass Democrats will continue to do nothing, except fail to govern. The only thing this select committee is going to prove is just how weak and incompetent Democrats are to protect America’s democracy and hold traitors accountable. This is only going to embarrass dumbass Democrats. Mark my words. Can’t wait for RepubliKKKlans to return to power to wage war on the rest of us as Democrats roll out the red carpet. Welcome to stupid America. I expected nothing less from a country of morons.

Democrats are impossibly stupid, and America is f***ed as a consequence. F***! Just another day that I have to wake up hating Democrats even more than usual because every day there is yet another obvious example of a completely weak and feckless party that is still stuck on trying to govern like it’s the 1990s. F*** me! Wake the f*** up, morons!

What is the latest mortification? AlterNet says it well, “When Joe Biden ran for president, he touted his history in the Senate and as vice president of making deals across the aisle and working with Republicans. He said that he would be able to productively cooperate with the GOP if he were elected — and that the fierce partisan divisions would cool. … But about eight months into the Biden presidency, this strategy isn’t paying dividends. Arguably, it’s been dramatically weakening the Democrats’ strategic position and backfiring on them. … But this is the reward Democrats get for trying to reach a bipartisan deal on police reform. They got no deal, wasted months of effort, and they gave their opponents an opportunity to paint them with a label they’ve desperately been trying to avoid. … And this was all entirely predictable. Scott himself was never a genuine, good-faith negotiator on criminal justice.”

Of course. Of course. Of course. There was never going to be a deal on police reform, and, of course, this was all entirely predictable. This was all just a RepubliKKKlan ploy to waste more time and more energy. Of course, these “negotiations” were always intended to crash and burn at the hands of RepubliKKKlans so they could blame dumbass Democrats and re-litigate “defund the police.” Of course, dumbass Democrats fell for it lock, stock, and barrel. Worse still is that idiot Biden expected something different from RepubliKKKlans. God-f***ing-damm*t! I’m starting to get really, really disgusted with Biden and his complete obliviousness to the threat that is traitor trump and the RepubliKKKlan Party. I’m getting sick of him talking as if there is some “normal” to which we are all going to return eventually. At this point, I genuinely have no idea what is more dangerous? Traitor trump’s shadow presidency and his daily attack on America’s democracy or Biden and his inability to understand the threat that traitor trump is inflicting by remaining out of prison. Whatever! I give up. Welcome to stupid America. Why bother anymore? It’s all stupid all the m*****f***ing time.

I am literally going to copy-paste the entire Salon article because he nailed it, and I will add one more thought: There is no other enlightened path forward. The darkness he sees is the end of America’s democracy. He basically summed up everything I’ve been arguing, except without calling America stupid, which is perhaps the only other missing factor in his analysis. He is right that dumbass Democrats are trapped in no small part because of their own doing and ridiculously grand notions of expecting politics to be fair and the electorate to “come around” which was never going to happen by wishing and hoping for it — and Democrats will have deserved every bit of it! So, they are boxed in and all RepubliKKKlans need do is bide their time for permanent rule when they steal the next, final election in America. Pay particular attention to the emphasized paragraph below. Oh, well! The country is lost and irredeemable at this point. Welcome to stupid America!

We've got a fair number of repentant former Republicans roaming loose on the political landscape these days. They like to tell us that the onetime Party of Lincoln must be thoroughly defeated and destroyed before it can be rebuilt as a respectable, mainstream center-right organization. That's an encouraging team-building exercise, I guess — if we set aside everything about observable reality and play an extended game of Let's Pretend We're Grownups, like a bunch of eight-year-olds trying on Mom and Dad's Clinton-era wardrobe.

Even looking past the question of whether the reconstructed GOP 2.0 these folks imagine would be remotely viable (as to which: ha!), we still have the question of who's going to defeat the exceptionally nasty current version of the Republican Party, and how. These GOP apostates, it's worth noting, were totally OK with cutting taxes for the rich and running up massive deficits on endless, pointless, destructive overseas wars. They find themselves deeply shocked, however, by the party's swerve into overt racism, know-nothingism and borderline fascism, elements of the Republican coalition they believed could be kept in the basement indefinitely.

This call to arms by ex-Reaganites is presumably meant to fire up Democrats, who have been told repeatedly over the past 30 years or more that America's changing demographics were certain to deliver them a permanent majority coalition someday very, very soon. In this less-than-inspiring vision of utopia, benevolent intersectional liberals would govern wisely and forever, while Republicans would be consigned to regional, resentful rump-party status until and unless they gradually became a lot more like Democrats.

As you may have noticed, this keeps on not happening, and at this point the "emerging Democratic majority" is starting to sound like old-time Soviet dogma about true communism being just over the horizon. Yes, Democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections — while managing to lose two of those anyway — but for a variety of reasons I don't need to rehearse here have found it impossible to hold or build congressional majorities, or to do much of anything with them when they have them.

More important than any of that, although absolutely related, is how Democrats have responded to the obvious Republican assault on democracy over the last couple of years, in the manner of a truckload of Brookings Institution scholars stuck in cold molasses, determined to consider all sides of the question fairly and not to let anyone accuse them of acting hastily. I'm not suggesting that Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer haven't expressed genuine alarm or said more or less the right things, because they have. But as you have perhaps observed, they haven't leveraged those words into action: They haven't ditched the filibuster or expanded the Supreme Court or passed any of the bills in front of them that are meant to fortify the right to vote, for the love of Jesus Christ.

This isn't a nice thing to say about a bunch of mostly sane and approximately reasonable people, but here's the truth: If you set out to design a left-center political party that was fated to surrender, little by little, to authoritarianism — because of circumstances beyond its control, because of internal indecision and ideological fuzziness, because it faced an entrenched and deranged opposition party, because of whatever — you could hardly do better than the current version of the Democratic Party. (Emphasis added.)

This raises the question of whether the Republicans are the only party that needs to be badly defeated in order to recover a sense of purpose. Don't get me wrong here: It would be far preferable if the Democrats could work out how to win power and then use it effectively. I'm not advocating voting against them out of some contrarian or puritanical impulse, and I'm not even dragging out the old Bernie vs. Hillary generational and ideological conflict for another go-round. (Of course that remains an important source of friction, but it's genuinely not the central issue right now.)

If the current mishmash that is the Democratic Party simply isn't up to the task, if it's imprisoned by its donors and trapped in an old political paradigm while facing the birth of a new one, if it can't summon up the energy or determination to act decisively on behalf of supposedly shared principles, then what the hell is the point? Maybe they're the party that needs to be torn down and rebuilt, especially since the other one is an entirely lost cause.

Consider 2021 — yeah, I know you don't want to, but we don't have much choice. After the election of Joe Biden and the improbable reverse parlay of winning both Senate seats in Georgia — almost entirely thanks to the chaos-agent intervention of Donald J. Trump — liberals and progressives and normies of all descriptions exhaled audibly. We were back to "normal"! The nightmare had passed! Maybe the long-awaited Democratic majority had arrived at last, if only in ass-backward and highly precarious fashion … except nope, nobody believed that for more than a few minutes, considering that the day after the special elections in Georgia was the sixth of January.

I'm not saying that Mitch McConnell wanted to lose the Senate majority (I bet he had some choice words about Trump in private), but no one has ever accused Mitch of not knowing how to play the angles. He quickly understood how to turn the ambiguous results of 2020 to his advantage, and they were undeniably ambiguous: Democrats breezed into that election expecting big wins across the board, but instead lost most of their House majority and fell short in several prominent Senate races, failing to gain seats in Maine, Montana and North Carolina.

While regular people celebrated a victory and the supposed end of the Trump era, Democratic leaders and insiders looked ahead to the 2022 midterms and began to whimper uncontrollably. McConnell could smell the fear, to put it bluntly, and rubbed his hands with Montgomery Burns-like glee. With a 50-50 Senate and Biden's entire legislative agenda hamstrung by the filibuster and the nonsensical or corrupt Ringwraith fantasies of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, he had the Democrats trapped. They knew it and he knew it.

In a display of ruthlessness and cynicism that's impressive even by his standards, McConnell will force all 50 Democratic senators to vote on a budget and on raising the federal debt ceiling, which in quasi-normal times (and even under Trump) was done by bipartisan agreement. This will either force them to crumple and capitulate to whatever it is he wants (short version: more goodies for rich folks) or will create an invented wedge issue Mitch believes he can use to win back both houses of Congress next year. Republicans will pretend to run on fiscal responsibility but will actually run on a bunch of culture-war bullshit and promises to rig all future elections and unquestioned loyalty to a decrepit and defeated leader they all privately think is nuts. I'm sure looking forward to that, aren't you?

If Democrats lose conclusively to those people, then they deserve it. That's a dark path, perhaps darker than any of us wants to contemplate. But I think there's no avoiding this date with destiny, for the Democrats or the Trumpers or our entire so-called democratic experiment. If you see another one, light the way.