Republicans under Obama were really good at being the minority. They needled weaknesses and failures. They proposed solutions that weren't viable but sounded good. We gave them a chance.
Then, Trump swept into the White House riding on a majority in the House and Senate. He said he wanted to fix immigration. He said he wanted to rein in profligate government spending. He had a willing Congress and a receptive electorate.
The results? Absolutely awful on both counts. The Congress did not propose or pass a single bill regarding immigration. Surges of immigrants gathered at the border with nowhere to go. After all that righteous hand wringing during Obama's tenure, the Republican Congress then passed budgets that doubled deficits from the Obama administration. Tripled farm subsidies. Expanded the nanny state.
They were not ready. Are they ready this time?
@wildgrass saidIt is no longer in the interest of Republicans to actually govern responsibly and fix problems. They feed off problems, and let them grow until the system buckles, and then they feed off the chaos and panic which the buckling causes, and so on. Fear and fury are their fuel.
Republicans under Obama were really good at being the minority. They needled weaknesses and failures. They proposed solutions that weren't viable but sounded good. We gave them a chance.
Then, Trump swept into the White House riding on a majority in the House and Senate. He said he wanted to fix immigration. He said he wanted to rein in profligate government spending. He ...[text shortened]... Tripled farm subsidies. Expanded the nanny state.
They were not ready. Are they ready this time?
@wildgrass saidNo. Obstructionism and demagoguery is all they know now.
Republicans under Obama were really good at being the minority. They needled weaknesses and failures. They proposed solutions that weren't viable but sounded good. We gave them a chance.
Then, Trump swept into the White House riding on a majority in the House and Senate. He said he wanted to fix immigration. He said he wanted to rein in profligate government spending. He ...[text shortened]... Tripled farm subsidies. Expanded the nanny state.
They were not ready. Are they ready this time?
@soothfast saidThat strategy becomes unusable once they are given power right?
It is no longer in the interest of Republicans to actually govern responsibly and fix problems. They feed off problems, and let them grow until the system buckles, and then they feed off the chaos and panic which the buckling causes, and so on. Fear and fury are their fuel.
Fix the open border? They'd have to write down a new law and pass it through Congress. If they don't even try, won't the voters notice?
@wildgrass saidNo, it still works. It's not that Republicans do nothing when in power, it's that they do stupid or cruel things that play to its base and do nothing to fix problems justly and lastingly.
That strategy becomes unusable once they are given power right?
Fix the open border? They'd have to write down a new law and pass it through Congress. If they don't even try, won't the voters notice?
Throwing kids in cages and setting up filthy concentration camps at the border, for example, is not really a solution to a problem, it's theater for the madding crowd. Red meat for Bubba Red-Cap.
@wildgrass saidI don't see many MAGA maggots ditching Trump because he neither got the Big Beautiful Wall built nor got Mexico to pay for it. Excuses for Dear Leader sell by the gross at every dollar store.
If they don't even try, won't the voters notice?