The Sewer That Is The GOP: With All The White Supremacists, Conspiracy Nutters, And Other Malicious Whacko Subgroups, How Does It Get Fixed?

[Larry]

9 minutes ago, tshile said:

voting rights at a minimum should have been done 3 months ago. 

 

Your plan for how to get voting rights though with 50 votes?  Pretty sure it's been ruled that it can't be done through reconciliation.  

 

(Now, me?  I think they should write a proposal, and bring it to the floor, and make everybody vote on it.  Load it with things that tons of voters support, like forbidding gerrymandering, forbidding state legislatures, or bodies appointed by them, from overturning elections.  

 

Re=pass the Voting Rights Act, but make it apply to the whole country, not just selected parts.  

 

And watch the R's unanimously vote against it.  

[The Evil Genius]

To me, this is the problem.

 

 

[tshile]

22 minutes ago, Larry said:

I think "the problem with the Dems" is people saying that the problem is the Dems.  

That was kind of where I was trying to go with that. Whether I ended up there or not…

18 minutes ago, Larry said:

Your plan for how to get voting rights though with 50 votes?  Pretty sure it's been ruled that it can't be done through reconciliation. 

Removal of the filibuster 

 

(not a fan but when the stakes are high I’m willing to reassess things)

Edited September 20, 2021 by tshile

[China]

Arizona taxpayers forced to pay for voting machines ruined by GOP 'audit'

 

Republicans in the Arizona state Senate are officially off the hook for the $2.8 million needed to replace hundreds of voting machines ruined during the GOP-led, scandal-ridden "audit" of the 2020 election results in the state, the Arizona Republic reported.

 

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted in August to force GOP state senators — who had signed an agreement saying that they would be responsible for any costs incurred from their "forensic audit" of the state's 2020 election — to pay the millions for the machines.

 

The county had determined that the machines were no longer usable after audit workers compromised the tabulators and left them vulnerable to security risks.

 

Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel informed the GOP senators in August:

 

Quote

The County incurred costs as a result of its election equipment being compromised while in the control of the Senate. Specifically, and as explained more fully below, the Senate allowed unqualified persons to handle, examine, and manipulate the County’s election equipment in ways that compromised it and rendered it unfit to be used in future elections. As a result, the County has had to replace the subpoenaed election equipment at a cost to the County of $2,833,220.00. These costs are directly recoverable from the Senate pursuant to the Covenant of Indemnification.

 

However, the Arizona Republic reported that Maricopa County reached a deal on Friday that would let the GOP lawmakers off the hook for the millions in damages. As part of the deal, Maricopa County will pay the costs of replacing the voting machines from its taxpayer-funded budget — despite the Senate's indemnification agreement that promised taxpayers wouldn't foot the bill for any costs stemming from the audit effort.

 

In return for dropping the costs, Arizona's Republican attorney general backed off his own threat to withhold $700 million in annual state funding to the county — or nearly half of its operating budget — because Maricopa County had not complied with one of numerous subpoena demands. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

37 minutes ago, The Evil Genius said:

To me, this is the problem.

 

 

 

While I will agree that the GOP gets a big boost due to district lines, I'll also say that you can't possibly claim that the system in the Senate was designed or manipulated to benefit them.  I'm opposed to the notion of changing things.  

 

[goskins10]

1 hour ago, Larry said:

 

While I will agree that the GOP gets a big boost due to district lines, I'll also say that you can't possibly claim that the system in the Senate was designed or manipulated to benefit them.  I'm opposed to the notion of changing things.  

 

 

I actually agree with you. No need to change the Senate. But we do need to get rid of gerrymandering for House seats. This for me is the biggest issue. If you had honest district lines it's likely the House would never go republican which is why they fight against it. The only way they win a majority is to cheat. 

[LadySkinsFan]

We need to get rid of the filibuster in the Senate. It's unConstitutinal. The way the Consitiution is written, each house is 50% + 1, except in certain defined circumstances.

[goskins10]

30 minutes ago, LadySkinsFan said:

We need to get rid of the filibuster in the Senate. It's unconstitutional. The way the Constitution is written, each house is 50% + 1, except in certain defined circumstances.

 

Agreed - what I meant by not changing the voting and structure. Buti yes, totally agree with getting rid of the filibuster. It has hand cuffed the Senate honestly for both parties. 

Edited September 21, 2021 by goskins10

[Larry]

40 minutes ago, LadySkinsFan said:

We need to get rid of the filibuster in the Senate. It's unConstitutinal.

 

The Constitution specifically states that each house of the legislature establishes it's own rules.  

 

And I don't want to get rid of the filibuster.  I think maybe reforming it might be a good idea.  But not certain how to do it.  

 

[Momma There Goes That Man]

4 hours ago, Larry said:

 

While I will agree that the GOP gets a big boost due to district lines, I'll also say that you can't possibly claim that the system in the Senate was designed or manipulated to benefit them.  I'm opposed to the notion of changing things.  

 

it was designed to give extra power to white slaveowners in rural states and was never reformed to be more fairly representative of the actual makeup of the country which, hundreds of years later, is why it now heavily favors the GOP to the point that our democracy and country has essentially been crippled for the 35 years. It needs to be fixed badly. 

[balki1867]

11 minutes ago, Momma There Goes That Man said:

it was designed to give extra power to white slaveowners in rural states and was never reformed to be more fairly representative of the actual makeup of the country which, hundreds of years later, is why it now heavily favors the GOP to the point that our democracy and country has essentially been crippled for the 35 years. It needs to be fixed badly. 

 

+1, Worth a read: The forgotten history of how Abraham Lincoln helped rig the Senate for Republicans – ThinkProgress

[NoCalMike]

Local election systems are a much bigger problem, as others have pointed out.  Democrats are getting more votes as a party yet struggle to win elections regardless.   The GOP figured out a long time ago that if you aren't interested in policies the people actually want, you have to remove the people from the equation. 

[The Evil Genius]

As an aside, I do not think that 580k people in Wyoming should have the same representational power in the Senate as 39million people in California. But that's for another thread. 

[@DCGoldPants]

20 hours ago, Zguy28 said:

Something must be wrong, because I've been gone from this forum for a few months, and when I came back it was still full of threads about how terrible Republicans are and virtually nothing about anything positive the Democrats are doing.

 

Granted, GOP continues to provide stupidity.

 

Just want to see them sweep the leg. Too much to ask?

[mistertim]

1 hour ago, @SkinsGoldPants said:

 

Just want to see them sweep the leg. Too much to ask?

 

[PCS]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dan T.]

Make the filibuster an actual filibuster.  Make them - both D and R - stay on the Hill and at the podium and argue their case.  Make it an effort.  It's become so easy that they are filibustering everything as an obstructionist tactic, when it was intended only as a kind of fire alarm for what one side viewed as an egregious miscarriage. 

 

Now it's a no-effort maneuver.  Declare a filibuster and catch a plane to your home office.  No muss, no fuss, no legislation.  Make 89-year-old Mitch McConnell and 106-year-old Chuck Grassley stand up there and argue for 72 hours straight - as it was originally intended - about why voting rights should be limited,  or a Supreme Court justice shouldn't be confirmed, or a highway shouldn't be named after Barack Obama, or whatever else they want to obstruct.  I suspect they would soon be much more selective in how they use  the tactic.

[88Comrade2000]

18 minutes ago, Dan T. said:

Make the filibuster an actual filibuster.  Make them - both D and R - stay on the Hill and at the podium and argue their case.  Make it an effort.  It's become so easy that they are filibustering everything as an obstructionist tactic, when it was intended only as a kind of fire alarm for what one side viewed as an egregious miscarriage. 

 

Now it's a no-effort maneuver.  Declare a filibuster and catch a plane to your home office.  No muss, no fuss, no legislation.  Make 89-year-old Mitch McConnell and 106-year-old Chuck Grassley stand up there and argue for 72 hours straight - as it was originally intended - about why voting rights should be limited,  or a Supreme Court justice shouldn't be confirmed, or a highway shouldn't be named after Barack Obama, or whatever else they want to obstruct.  I suspect they would soon be much more selective in how they use  the tactic.

Joe and Karen won’t stand for it.

[mistertim]

What in the everloving **** is "woke infrastructure"?

[Jabbyrwock]

2 minutes ago, mistertim said:

What in the everloving **** is "woke infrastructure"?

 

[dfitzo53]

19 hours ago, The Evil Genius said:

To me, this is the problem.

I don't necessarily disagree, but that's *exactly* the way the Senate was designed to work.

[tshile]

1 hour ago, Dan T. said:

Make the filibuster an actual filibuster.  Make them - both D and R - stay on the Hill and at the podium and argue their case.  Make it an effort.  It's become so easy that they are filibustering everything as an obstructionist tactic, when it was intended only as a kind of fire alarm for what one side viewed as an egregious miscarriage. 

Additionally it’s allowed people safe haven. 
 

they get one person from a safe seat to do it. 
 

and all the people in not safe districts get to go along for the ride with some form of: I like some of the things, I don’t like some things, I’m not really going to comment further until we get a vote, btw I really wish we would have a vote

 

make those mother****ers vote. Yay or nay. Or, make them participate in filibustering the vote.  Make them accountable to their constituents. 
 

right now they just talk out both sides of their mouth, with no vote either way. 
 

it’s a charade to protect seats as much as stopping legislation. 

Edited September 21, 2021 by tshile

[Forehead]

57 minutes ago, mistertim said:

What in the everloving **** is "woke infrastructure"?

 

What, you've never had the bridge you drive over each day lecture you about the rights of transgender frogs?  I can't be the only one.

[mistertim]

43 minutes ago, Forehead said:

 

What, you've never had the bridge you drive over each day lecture you about the rights of transgender frogs?  I can't be the only one.

 

 

I have no clue why, but for some reason that reminded me of the racist sunflower from Family Guy

 

 

 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

A look back to 2016...the woman at 0:52 said a ****load more than she realized.