That’s not their purpose, they just need to look the part.
They are comfortable in the ‘my hands are tied’ position.
They can propose bills they know will not make it.
When they have a supermajority, like they had not long ago, they are in trouble.
They have no choice but to stop proposing bills and find reasons to say they are ‘sabotaged’.
They played this game for centuries, still works.
When they have a supermajority, like they had not long ago, they are in trouble.
The last true supermajority I’m aware of only lasted 72 days, back in 2009. It’s when the Fair Pay act was signed, Affordable Care Act, and a few different attempts to reform Wall Street. They were certainly not as life-changing as I’d like, but I’m admittedly pretty far to the Left of the average US voter.
The even stronger supermajority before that was in 1965, and that got the creation of Medicare & Medicaid, the Voting Rights Act, Freedom of Info Act, etc.
The Dems are a weak centrist party, and the leadership is center-right at best, but even so - those two times where they had a supermajority in the Senate gave us some good to at least quasi-good stuff. I’m totally on board for bashing the Democrats, but it’s hard to convey the amount of damage the truly undemocratic Senate has done over the decades, and I think we can’t avoid the reality that there was a lot that got done in that brief period when the Republicans couldn’t stop them. The ability to block legislation in the Senate is just incredible. Things just can’t get passed, unless it’s something the Republicans will agree to - so it’s far easier for shitty stuff to get passed. Unfortunately, there are enough right wing democrats that will go along with the shitty stuff the Republicans propose, in no small part because their constituents actually like it. We’re losing the propaganda war, because those with capital have far more power to wield.
So there’s a lot of problems to fix - deeply undemocratic institutions like the Senate and the Electoral College, the entirety of the GOP, weakass right-wing Democrats, and the voters themselves. Unfortunately, yeah…the interests of Capital have intervened and made sure to cripple Education and control the media landscape, so to get back to my main point, since I’m losing the thread here - I’m agreed that the Democrats are shit, but we can’t ignore reality that when they’ve had actual full control of the Federal government, things were at least going in a decent direction.
They in this case being libs in liberal democracies, not democrats specifically.
One way to resolve the contradiction between the capitalist class, which the state represents, and the masses, whom the state requires to maintain power is for the masses to believe their representatives want what’s best for them, but are powerless to implement it due to foreigners or nature or some other group, or are trying and it will happen some indeterminate time in the future.
What’s this today?
Been in the fediverse for barely 2 weeks only to be dissapointed by the same manufactured consent from its users (minus the bots).
All of a sudden I see anti-capitalist posts and based comments.
The ‘libs’ in Europe would be the shamelessly named socialist parties.
Invariably being horrible and keeping the status quo with only difference that they now and then throw a bone to the beloved working class and have their larping day on the 1st of may, sing the internationale like they mean it.
You’re on .world. It leans right-wing, essentially trying to be reddit 2 and having de-federated from the explicitly Marxist-Leninist lemmygrad.ml and Communist/Anarchist hexbear.net
I know it’s tough, but consider making another account on an instance that is defederated with as few instances as possible. Then you can pick and choose which instance you yourself don’t want to see anymore.
You can block instances, communities, and users in your settings menu.
You’re already on one, though if you want even broader lemm.ee works. I, however, instead recommend checking out instances and their local feeds directly by picking from here, sorted by most active, then scrolling by local.
That’s not their purpose, they just need to look the part. They are comfortable in the ‘my hands are tied’ position. They can propose bills they know will not make it. When they have a supermajority, like they had not long ago, they are in trouble. They have no choice but to stop proposing bills and find reasons to say they are ‘sabotaged’. They played this game for centuries, still works.
The last true supermajority I’m aware of only lasted 72 days, back in 2009. It’s when the Fair Pay act was signed, Affordable Care Act, and a few different attempts to reform Wall Street. They were certainly not as life-changing as I’d like, but I’m admittedly pretty far to the Left of the average US voter.
The even stronger supermajority before that was in 1965, and that got the creation of Medicare & Medicaid, the Voting Rights Act, Freedom of Info Act, etc.
The Dems are a weak centrist party, and the leadership is center-right at best, but even so - those two times where they had a supermajority in the Senate gave us some good to at least quasi-good stuff. I’m totally on board for bashing the Democrats, but it’s hard to convey the amount of damage the truly undemocratic Senate has done over the decades, and I think we can’t avoid the reality that there was a lot that got done in that brief period when the Republicans couldn’t stop them. The ability to block legislation in the Senate is just incredible. Things just can’t get passed, unless it’s something the Republicans will agree to - so it’s far easier for shitty stuff to get passed. Unfortunately, there are enough right wing democrats that will go along with the shitty stuff the Republicans propose, in no small part because their constituents actually like it. We’re losing the propaganda war, because those with capital have far more power to wield.
So there’s a lot of problems to fix - deeply undemocratic institutions like the Senate and the Electoral College, the entirety of the GOP, weakass right-wing Democrats, and the voters themselves. Unfortunately, yeah…the interests of Capital have intervened and made sure to cripple Education and control the media landscape, so to get back to my main point, since I’m losing the thread here - I’m agreed that the Democrats are shit, but we can’t ignore reality that when they’ve had actual full control of the Federal government, things were at least going in a decent direction.
they actively work to ensure don’t make it. Manchin, Sinema and others like them are greatly valued by Dems for their role as scapegoats.
They in this case being libs in liberal democracies, not democrats specifically.
One way to resolve the contradiction between the capitalist class, which the state represents, and the masses, whom the state requires to maintain power is for the masses to believe their representatives want what’s best for them, but are powerless to implement it due to foreigners or nature or some other group, or are trying and it will happen some indeterminate time in the future.
What’s this today? Been in the fediverse for barely 2 weeks only to be dissapointed by the same manufactured consent from its users (minus the bots).
All of a sudden I see anti-capitalist posts and based comments.
The ‘libs’ in Europe would be the shamelessly named socialist parties.
Invariably being horrible and keeping the status quo with only difference that they now and then throw a bone to the beloved working class and have their larping day on the 1st of may, sing the internationale like they mean it.
You’re on .world. It leans right-wing, essentially trying to be reddit 2 and having de-federated from the explicitly Marxist-Leninist lemmygrad.ml and Communist/Anarchist hexbear.net
I know about these 2 also just learned they defederated (and what that means).
Any more tips?
.world defederated from them, meaning .world accounts cannot see their content. They still have very active posting, just not in your view.
I know it’s tough, but consider making another account on an instance that is defederated with as few instances as possible. Then you can pick and choose which instance you yourself don’t want to see anymore.
You can block instances, communities, and users in your settings menu.
Any recommendations for such an instance? Or recommendations on where to find such information?
You’re already on one, though if you want even broader lemm.ee works. I, however, instead recommend checking out instances and their local feeds directly by picking from here, sorted by most active, then scrolling by local.