The Constitution has been pretty well subverted in that matter. It actually made small parties pretty easy because the representation ratio was small enough that Jeb the farmhand could get elected by drinking with enough people in different taverns. That’s been exploded by the refusal to add any new seats to Congress since the 1940’s. So now nobody is getting elected without millions in personal or PAC money. The easiest way to access that money is the DNC and RNC.

The idea that Senators and Representatives would act autonomously in the interests of their constituents was disproven almost immediately. Parties formed in Washington’s lifetime.

If a less capitalist party magically appeared with the capital to compete it would sweep the democrats and republicans out of office. The economic grind for no apparent gain is consistently one of the top issues in elections. It just turns out that 100 million dollars of ads can absolutely convince people that this year the politicians will actually help them.

Are memories really that short? If you keep giving them help while they spit on you every chance they get then you’re just helping them. They blocked Obama and then had their candidates straight up lie to congress. There is a very strong case for not giving them the time of day much less a hearing in the Senate.

I’ve got to say it. This is a case the Biden DOJ could have brought too. And Obama. The Democrats have got to stop playing games. They should have immediately changed it up when Obama was denied justice picks.

You see, they forgot to define “Term”. Just because there’s an election doesn’t mean it’s a term. It really means you get a second chance if you’re voted out, but not a third. Unless…

-SCOTUS 2028, Probably

Or we abolish the senate and expand the house to the several thousand representatives it should actually be. Term limits on legislators in a small legislature just makes the party even more powerful because nobody will have name recognition except the party. It also highly encourages working with lobbyists who promise to get you a cushy landing spot after your term. For what most people have an issue with, an age cap with a good retirement would work.

Does anyone else remember all the election map cases the Democrats won on the election year? After years of delay by Republicans? And we were always told it’s too late for this year? And there’s another bullshit map right before the next election? And it’s too late again?

I remember.

More people need to get this. Obama and Biden conducted airstrikes with the exact same expectations and the exact same “unlawful combatant” policy allowing us to ignore the Geneva conventions.

I guarantee anyone reading this that the guy calling these strikes has done the same thing his entire career. If they want to change that policy then go for it. But don’t expect anyone to be prosecuted over doing it before that.

Suuure. Temporary. Just like when IT strung that wire across the ceiling…

The US Marshals are actually organized under the DOJ. Meaning they’ll just fire any Marshal that obeys that order.

It has to be used the right way too. If you just hold a sign and go home then nothing changes. That’s the consensus building and demands phase. When you have critical mass and demands aren’t met you burn down police stations and setup autonomous zones. The problem with both of those wasn’t that they happened it was that the people fell for the media’s demonization of them.

I keep telling people this. To add, armed conflicts have a nasty habit of hardening a country. Getting rights back after it’s over is a pain, even if the “good guys” win. If you can manage change by overwhelming numbers in the street then it’s far better.

Your treating this as if the same people are voting different ways. It’s usually much more along the lines of voters staying home one election and voting in another.

Edit - autocorrect got naughty!

They were doing appointments according to C-Span.

That’s what the original filibuster is.

These dumbfucks have no empathy. They will tell you empathy is weakness. In reality empathy is a social defense mechanism. If we all have empathy for each other it limits the harm we do. What they’re missing is not having it isn’t some kind of advantage, historically we are the most savage to those without empathy. It causes the mob to turn their empathy off and give in to their worst impulses. They think they’ll be the first ones in history to avoid that fate. They won’t.

We actually have munitions that don’t blow up too. We could literally have killed just him. This isn’t 20 years ago anymore.

You beat me to it.

Nah even if they tried SCOTUS would figure out some way to suddenly narrow it’s ruling. And being a good Democrat they’d comply.

Money. They wouldn’t be able to fundraise the money they need to get messages out to people. Then there’s the depressingly large number of Americans who vote by party in a system meant for voting by individual. They would lose funding and then get smashed in the elections because nobody knew the party was even there.