trump defender (btw, trump opposes DC statehood as well)... maybe daines thinks there should be a 3/5's solution?
Make no mistake. If this guy isn't thrown in jail he's not going to go away. He's a narcissist of the highest level, needs that constant supply.
It very much is a return to what things were prior to 2016. It won't be perfect and I don't expect to be agreeing with Biden constantly and do expect him to say embarrassing stuff every now and then. There will still be partisan differences and problems like black people being killed by LE. Biden's gaffes will be about misremembering things they won't be self-aggrandizing or denial of facts. I don't expect Biden to be putting his family into prominent positions in the WH and I don't expect him to be making policy changes that enrich him and his family. Biden isn't likely to insult traditional allies while cozying up to rivals. While I might not agree with military decisions I expect him to at least listen to experts and not seemingly make decisions off the cuff or favoring the Saudis and Russians.
Honestly if Biden wins he's F'ed. The alt-right kiddos are going throw a tantrum because they cant stay up past their bedtime and eat candy for breakfast anymore. It's going to be four years of attempted scandal and surly insurrection. I expect nothing to get done at all. But you're going to have to rip that bandaid off sooner or later. If not now it will happen to the next guy. Maybe it'll be cathartic for everyone and after that we can get back to some civility.
That is certainly possible but it's also possible if Biden wins a landslide and the Dems take the Senate the Republican party might do some soul searching. They might decide that being a party of old, white, regressive culture might not be a winning a strategy to an electorate that is increasingly not looking like that. It's possible party discipline breaks down and the party fractures into a Trump wing and a Mitt Romney wing.
Only way agent orange can win is to cheat...it's pretty sad what those traitorous Republicans are doing to our country. Senate strips provision from intelligence bill requiring campaigns to report foreign election help The Senate will incorporate the annual intelligence policy legislation into the National Defense Authorization Act -- but only after stripping language from the intelligence bill that would have required presidential campaigns to report offers of foreign election help. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that Senate Republicans forced the removal of the election reporting provision as a condition to include the intelligence bill on the must-pass defense policy legislation. Earlier this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee approved an amendment on an 8-7 vote from Warner and GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, which added a provision to the Intelligence Authorization Act requiring campaigns to notify federal authorities about offers of foreign election help. That bill, however, was unlikely to get Senate floor time on its own, which is why it's being included in the National Defense Authorization Act. The effort to strip the foreign election help provision from the intelligence bill was not a surprise, as acting Senate Intelligence Chairman Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, predicted earlier this month it would be removed before the bill was on the floor, because of an objection from the Senate Rules Committee. Warner bemoaned what he called a "back-room deal" to strip out the provision. "If my Republican colleagues want to strip this legislation out of the NDAA behind closed doors, then I'm going to offer it up as an amendment to force an up-or-down vote and put every member of this body on the record," Warner said on the Senate floor. The amendment approved by the Intelligence Committee was an adopted version of Warner's FIRE Act, which he introduced last year. It would require all presidential campaign officials report to the FBI any contacts with foreign nationals trying either to make campaign donations or coordinate with a campaign. Warner tried to bring up his bill on the Senate floor several times over the past year, but Republicans objected each time. When Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, blocked the bill in June 2019, calling it a "blatant political stunt." President Donald Trump applauded her efforts on Twitter. It's not clear if Warner's amendment will get a vote. The Senate is debating the defense authorization legislation on the floor this week. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/30/politics/senate-removes-ban-foreign-election-help/index.html
Would like this to happen but I think the entrenched Senators will double down and be the party of obstruction to ensure they get reelected and we know there is a 35% that will vote for that. The only way they do a soul searching will be if we can keep up the same voter enthusiasm into 2020 and really put a dent into the Senate. Remember how McConnell got the leadership position in the 1st place. Sad to say more than likely history repeats itself and the pendulum swings back.
How do you do soul searching as an old white ******* to replace almost your entire membership of old white assholes? That's nihilistic. Serious question. EDIT: Obviously if you go off of the Illuminati paradigm, the race doesn't matter to the overlords, so I can see a pivot to a more racially diverse, more moderate group of politicians being bankrolled by the Koch brothers, etc, to fulfill their goals.
I love @rocketsjudoka's optimism, but I kind of feel like if this POTUS hasn't caused someone in the GOP to do serious soul-searching in the last four years, nothing else will either.
To answer you and B-Bob the Republican party will need to seriously reform itself. No matter what happens this election demographically the party base is shrinking. Many Republicans have known this for decades and people like GW Bush, John McCain and Marco Rubio have tried to reach out to broaden the base by attracting Hispanics and immigrants to the party. The several groups like the Lincoln Project that have turned against the party are likely the tip of the spear of a reckoning that will happen in the party once Trump leaves.
Just projecting out I don't think the current Republican Party can survive if it just remains a Trumpist party. By 2050 when whites will be a minority it will be very difficult to sustain a national party based on nationalism populism and xenophobia. Texas, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina will go blue possibly as soon as this cycle. Even places like Iowa and Nebraska are getting more diverse. While Trump could still win this election the longterm prospects look dim. Within a decade or so Republicans could be pushed back to a largely rural party still able to control rural states with small populations like WY and the Dakotas along with a AL and MS. Not long after that they become like the short lived Dixiecrats as bordering on irrelevance. I think there are many in the GOP who know this but are currently marginalized or like Lindsey Graham just interested in short term power. Once Trump is gone I'm betting we'll see those people try to reclaim the party.
People (including myself) said that in 2008 and 2012 too. Each time they lost, the GOP just seemed to double down on the same strategy. Their larger problem is they don't really have many other core beliefs. Obama flipped the GOP's views on things like health care mandates. Trumpism has flipped the party's views on everything from free trade to legal immigration (they used to like it for economic reasons) to national security (Romney called Russia our biggest enemy) to deficit spending and bailouts.
True the pattern was already happening in 2008 and the GOP hasn't won the majority of the total vote, both presidential and Congressional, since 2010. This isn't a fast process but it is happening. Just look at polling in Texas in recent years along with demographics. I'm on record and still believe it is possible for Trump to win this cycle. He still has a strong base but none of that is based upon winning a majority of the popular vote. I fully expect him to lose the popular vote significantly more this year than he did in 2016. Demographic distribution isn't even and that states like WI and MI are still overwhelmingly white with large rural populations gives him a good chance of winning the EC. In 10 years that's not going to be so true. I also agree that Republicans have lost core principles. What they've replaced philosophical principles with are narrow cultural and nationalist principles. That just puts them even more at odds with where demographics are going.
I agree that demographics are changing. But looking at Texas, has the GOP really adapted or tried in any way to change? They seem to have just doubled down on stupid, even after nearly losing Cruz's race in 2018. Even weirder given that Texas isn't quite hardcore Trump country, unlike the rest of the deep south. Trump won Texas by smaller margins than McCain and Romney.
Texas and AZ are leading the change of demographics. Az is already purple and likely both will be full fledged blue states like NV and NM are now. Republicans might not change and that will be to their detriment. I get the feeling that there are enough out there who don't want to see the party fall into irrelevance in the next few decades. This is why I think there will be reckoning in the party. I think things like the Lincoln Project show it's already started.
