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The Seinfeld Republican Party
If you were counting on the Republican Party to retake the House next year (overcoming extreme and unapologetic gerrymandering by Democrats in every Democrat-controlled state and phony “nonpartisan” redistricting commissions stacked with Democrat operatives) and retake the Senate despite competitive seats in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Arizona being decided by the same junk-mail ballot processes as 2020) and maybe you were counting on that GOP Congress to turn things around after President Brandon’s first two spectacularly dreadful years… Well, don’t.
Mitch McConnell has told colleagues and donors Senate Republicans won’t release a legislative agenda before next year’s midterms, according to people who’ve attended private meetings with the minority leader.
They aren’t going to secure the borders. They aren’t going to repeal and replace Obamacare. And they most definitely are not going to control spending or repeal any of Biden’s spending. McConnell says his strategy is for Senate Republicans to promise nothing, and let the House Republicans do the heavy work of setting the agenda. We saw how this worked out under Obama. The Republican Senate only passed House legislation when they knew Obama would veto it. Such will likely by the fate of the “Parents Bill of Rights” House Republicans are touting. Meanwhile, they cut budget deals that gave Obama everything he asked for and more.
Like Seinfeld, the Republicans are a party about nothing. Republicans have finally wised up that the only way to avoid accountability for breaking promises and betraying voters is to not make any promises in the first place.
Published in Politics
McConnell is a train wreck.
Both parties seek to manipulate redistricting. Dems are doing in Illinois, while Republicans have done it in Texas and North Carolina. It is what it is.
In Maryland, we had four of the eight members of the House after the 1994 elections. We are now down to one out of eight.
Cocaine Mitch is all talk and no action.
That is the cue for RINO fools — but I repeat myself — to talk about “The Long Game”.
EDIT: The Donald will have a platform to share your take on the GOPe.
https://ricochet.com/999970/pit-22-pit-haters-ball/comment-page-1250/#comment-5958124
As the linked article suggests, McConnell is attempting to build as large a Republican majority as he can, and is acting in the manner that he thinks will secure that. I’m inclined to trust his political calculus more than my own. We need a solid majority going into 2024.
Apparently he believes that having an agenda after midterm elections is also a mistake. Having an agenda – any agenda beyond getting elected and continuing to fundraise – is a mistake. He is useless.
All hat no cattle.
Fair warning … I’m stealing that line and will be using without attribution.
I didn’t trust my memory so I did a quick duckduckgo search and came up with a lot of stories like this one: Election 2016: Republicans retain House and Senate – BBC News
It confirmed that The Turtle had a majority in 2016, but lacked the balls and/or integrity to do anything with it. OK; he got some judges confirmed.
The funniest line in the story to which I linked is: “Republican dominance over Congress in principle enables Mr Trump to turn his policy plans into law. But how easily this will happen is unclear given that key party leaders had refused to back him.“
Soon to be zero Republicans, but as someone who votes for Democrats, that surely cannot bother you.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/582192-maryland-democrats-target-lone-republican-in-redistricting-scheme
Newt built the 1994 takeover on the Contract With America.
These guys aren’t even trying.
Well, I guess that’s better than making promises you never intend to keep. More honest, anyway.
Based on history, the only thing likely to come out of said majority is fewer left-wing policies will be enacted compared to having a Democrat majority. I’m not holding my breath for any conservative policies to be passed, regardless of the size of the GOP majority.
Note that I said fewer left-wing policies, not no left-wing policies.
But I still have to give McConnell props for judges under Trump. That’s not nothing — it’s really something. Too bad about legislation, though.
I used to trust the calculus majors more than I trusted myself. Never again after 2012 (at the latest). Majority is only desirable as a means to an end. I don’t believe that McConnell shares the ends I have in mind. Russia hoax may have been launched by a full Democrat majority, but it was maintained and advanced under a Republican majority. His version of the big tent is not Reagan’s version or mine; McConnell’s version is the peace that Reagan said we could have right now – peace through surrender. Maybe I’m wrong this time and Lucy won’t move the football, but I doubt it and it would be up to people like McConnell to prove it. One way he can prove it would be to enact Trump’s popular agenda even if its without Trump.
Way to ignore the rest of the post.
We know why: You support the loser strategy of doing nothing.
Anything works for you, even voting for a man who nominates actual communists.
Actual communist.
I don’t trust people who let me down repeatedly.
Mitch falls into that category.
Here is where we differ, Hank. You seem to think it is all a ball game. The rest of us think it is life and death.
That’s the real divide. Some people don’t care about policy, as long as their team wins.
If you actually care about policy, the Republican Party will only disappoint and infuriate you.
Let us hope the war is settled by next May. Battle lines are being drawn. (Think I heard that in a song decades ago.)
GOP civil war heats up: Dan Crenshaw calls out GOP “grifters” and “performance artists” in Congress (msn.com)
Good.
I am all for purging the old guard. They are the problem when GOP gets power.
McConnell is never going to be a part of your revolution; he figures out what he thinks he can accomplish with the members he has and he sets about doing just that. It’s about as exciting as watching grass grow, but he quietly got a slew of GOP judges through the Senate during the Trump Administration. The reason he continues to be elected as leader is because he is a technician.
That may not be exciting for you, but his challenge is managing a team of independent actors. That 6-year term gives Senators a lot of room for independence, and doesn’t lend itself to lining up behind a proposed legislative agenda like you can do in the House. And the failure to repeal Obamacare wasn’t the product of McConnell’s work but a paper-thin majority and Johnny McMaverick McCain giving a shiv to his colleagues as his parting gift to the GOP on account of his snit-fit with Trump.
I don’t buy the premise that a Senate or House GOP Majority in 2023 will be self-sabotaged in overturning what Biden has already obtained. As long as Joe Biden is the President and can veto legislation, his spending is not going to be overturned, Obamacare is going nowhere, and his loopy infrastructure projects are moving forward. As long as the filibuster exists, absent a 60-vote majority, any initiatives of the GOP are going to be bottled up in the Senate. (How many of you spent the last two years arguing over the sanctity of the filibuster? Just wait, it’s going to tie you up next.) McConnell isn’t going to throw a bunch of Hail Mary passes; it’s not his style.
This reminds me of all the heat, sound and fury after the GOP regained the Senate in 2014 and Obama just vetoed anything that escaped the filibuster that he didn’t like. Frankly, I don’t want another series of pointless government shut downs. I’ve had 8 years of Ted Cruz and others blowing emotionally satisfying smoke but really not getting much of anything done, so I’m willing to give the Turtle a wait-and-see.
I wouldn’t get too worked up over this. I think I might employ the same strategy if I was in McConnell’s shoes. Putting out a Republican agenda just takes the public focus off the enormous blunders happening under the Democrat-controlled government. It is well known that negative feelings towards the opposition drives greater voter turnout than positive feelings towards your own party. . That’s what happened to Trump last year.
It might be best to just sit back and not interfere with the circular firing squad. They are imploding without any help from us. The Democrats seem to be promoting the Republican agenda all by themselves.
Gosh Bryan, would you please cut out the personal attacks?
Mitch, there is one thing worse than there not being an agenda. If there is an agenda and nobody told you about it … that would be worse.
https://ricochet.com/999970/pit-22-pit-haters-ball/comment-page-1252/#comment-5958658
It also gives a lot of room for excuses. Independence is fine, but it’s not unlimited. Parties ostensibly mean something in terms of shared policy goals. When a party consistently fails to advance the ostensible goals (even when given political wins) then the constituents can be forgiven for developing the impression that the senators simply aren’t that into the plan.
I for one would love another series of government shutdowns. It’s better than never ending debt (until it does end, suddenly and violently).
See, if nothing is going to get done then the least I can get is emotionally satisfying and clarifying smoke. The problem isn’t the smoke, it’s the lack of result even when we get limited power. It’s the leading off by giving away the loaf instead of negotiating and ending up with half a loaf.
Me, too. I see nothing wrong with shutting the government down to stop spending.
How much longer do you plan to wait? It’s not like we haven’t seen this movie before.
This is a real-time example of the two-faced nature of the Republican Party.
Consider the looming Debt Ceiling. Here is Senate Minority Whip and McConnell tool John Thune…
It seems that McConnell and Schumer have worked a deal. McConnell will deliver the required 10 Republican votes to pass a rule change that will allow the Democrats to raise the Debt Ceiling on their own. So they are de facto voting to raise the debt ceiling but doing it in such a way that they won’t technically be seen to be voting to raise the debt ceiling. In exchange for 10 votes and this subterfuge McConnell gets….what? Certainly nothing resembling advancing a conservative agenda. He’s expert at this back channel chicanery that gives Democrats whatever they want while deflecting attention from himself.
They truly are despicable.