US Politics

Baffling it's taken him so long to realise what his party is, but handy all the same if people actually do start abandoning the GOP.
 
Cheesy said:
Baffling it's taken him so long to realise what his party is, but handy all the same if people actually do start abandoning the GOP.
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From his appearances on Bill Maher's show are anything, think he has realised it since Trump's ascendancy. Just not many have had the balls to say they should vote Democrat if they have any decency.
 
Eboue said:
Its because hes a huckster who is looking for attention. He pushed for Sarah Palin and he helped Swiftboat Kerry. No quarter for republican ghouls.
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That's because he was involved in the campaigns and was using the tricks all sides use to win. That was his job.
 
KirkDuyt said:
What I don’t understand about American politics; why are a so many of ‘em so old? I mean, no disrespect for old people, but leading means looking to the future and looking to the future is a lot easier if you’re actually alive when said future arrives.
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Because the system makes it easy for incumbents to remain as long as they want to keep running. Parties don't support challengers and voters are too uninformed to go for alternatives. The pols themselves generally have well-established fundraising networks to deter potential challenges.

Things are changing though.
 
Grinner said:
Because the system makes it easy for incumbents to remain as long as they want to keep running. Parties don't support challengers and voters are too uninformed to go for alternatives. The pols themselves generally have well-established fundraising networks to deter potential challenges.

Things are changing though.
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Yep. @KirkDuyt research “incumbent advantage”.

The monetary difference is staggering.
https://www.opensecrets.org/overview/incumbs.php

Not to mention, incumbents get to use the franking privilege to sent mail free of postage.
 
I'm not a fan of term limits though. There is a lot to be said for experience. But when they are in their 80's it's getting a bit much.
 
Apparently executive order in works to stop family separation. This has been how Trump government works, take an issue and do outrageously scummy things. When people protest, stop the outrageously scummy thing and just continue with the scummy things so everyone thinks they have done something good.
 
I'm definitely for congressional term limits. 2 terms in the Senate and 6 terms in the house seems perfectly fair. No more 80 year old career squatters.
 
fishfingers15 said:
Apparently executive order in works to stop family separation. This has been how Trump government works, take an issue and do outrageously scummy things. When people protest, stop the outrageously scummy thing and just continue with the scummy things so everyone thinks they have done something good.
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And sell it as a moment of true leadership and vision. You can bet they'll point to the obstructin' Democrats who refused to negotiate on his stupid wall.
 
Grinner said:
I'm not a fan of term limits though. There is a lot to be said for experience. But when they are in their 80's it's getting a bit much.
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Indeed.

The military has a mandatory retirement age. Congress could probably do with one.

That said, it would require Congressmen passing a law that would limit their own power, so...
 
Raoul said:
I'm definitely for congressional term limits. 2 terms in the Senate and 6 terms in the house seems perfectly fair. No more 80 year old career squatters.
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If general officers and civil servants can be forced out in their 60s, it should apply to politicians as well. I'd prefer a max retirement age of 70 for all political offices, including presidency.
 
Term limits is a difficult one. Naturally the current system seems to have a lot of stagnation in the US wherein public officials end up serving for far too long and don't have to worry about ever being voted out, but at the same time I'm not sure term limits are the problem there; to me you should be able to fix the root problems which result in these politicians remaining in power while being able to do feck all, which (probably) traces back to education in regards to voters and finances in how such politicians are funded, and can outspend rivals with little traction.

Simply getting rid of term limits can result in a situation where genuinely good congresspeople end up in office for a fairly limited period of time, even if they're capable of going on longer. Few other sectors, public or private, would simply discard a capable and competent official after that period of time if they were able to go on and wanted to.
 
Worth noting that Crowley is the Democrat caucus chairman and a ranking member of the leadership team.



 
Eboue said:
It's not a conservative state. It's just not a state fooled by neoliberal elitist bullshit. Sanders is popular too.
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It hasn't voted Dem for President in over two decades, so its safe to say its pretty conservative.
 
Just going to put out there that using West Virginia as any kind of measuring stick of well...anything is pretty silly. Hardly representative of much outside of its own very, very odd borders.
 
Beachryan said:
Just going to put out there that using West Virginia as any kind of measuring stick of well...anything is pretty silly. Hardly representative of much outside of its own very, very odd borders.
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Agreed. They seem to have their own internal brand of politics there. I suspect Trump's popularity there at the moment is down to people actually still believing he is going to bring coal jobs back at levels they were in decades past, even though that's obviously not going to happen.
 
Raoul said:
It hasn't voted Dem for President in over two decades, so its safe to say its pretty conservative.
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Clinton won it twice, Dukakis won it by promising two tanks in every garage, Carter won it twice.

Democrats held both state houses for 84 years ending in 2014. Democrats held both Senate seats from 1959 to 2014. Democrats running bullshit neoliberal candidates and abandoning the working class in favor of corporate east coast elitism is a self fulfilling prophecy. Let's not act like west virginia doesnt have a long history of union support and democratic politics. The democratic party left west virginia, not the other way around.
 
Eboue said:
Clinton won it twice, Dukakis won it by promising two tanks in every garage, Carter won it twice.

Democrats held both state houses for 84 years ending in 2014. Democrats held both Senate seats from 1959 to 2014. Democrats running bullshit neoliberal candidates and abandoning the working class in favor of corporate east coast elitism is a self fulfilling prophecy. Let's not act like west virginia doesnt have a long history of union support and democratic politics. The democratic party left west virginia, not the other way around.
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True, but those were decades ago. In today's climate of hyper-polarized tribalism WV has drifted significantly to the right. The Trump poll I posted wasn't just among Republicans, it was across all voters irrespective of party. He has been consistently underwater in nationwide polls but is an astonishing 42% above water in WV. That simply doesn't happen if a state has a strong progressive foundation. The only two states that are more in Trump's corner than WV are Bama and Wyoming.
 
oneniltothearsenal said:
Pelosi somehow manages to represent everything that is wrong with both the progressive and centre-right wings of the Dem party
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Agreed. She's become the poster child for the lingering Dem establishment and I suspect she will face a massive intraparty fight irrespective of how the Dems fare in November.
 
Raoul said:
I'm definitely for congressional term limits. 2 terms in the Senate and 6 terms in the house seems perfectly fair. No more 80 year old career squatters.
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That is undemocratic though. It's nice to have term limits for the US prsident and perhaps state governors, but there shouldn't be any limits in the legislature. Instead primaries should be encouraged (maybe an independent election commission could be asked to conduct the polls and count the votes). Some MPs in the UK have done wonderful work and have been legislators for years. They wouldn't be able to do so if there were term limits.

But definitely the speaker of the house and senate majority leader should have term limits. Pelosi is more toxic than Hillary and Trump in large parts of the country. People like Julian Castro, Tulsi Gabbard or Evan Bayh should become the leaders in congress. Provided Bayh gets into congress in the first place. Heard he's planning on standing for a senate seat.
 
Nikhil said:
That is undemocratic though. It's nice to have term limits for the US prsident and perhaps state governors, but there shouldn't be any limits in the legislature. Instead primaries should be encouraged (maybe an independent election commission could be asked to conduct the polls and count the votes). Some MPs in the UK have done wonderful work and have been legislators for years. They wouldn't be able to do so if there were term limits.

But definitely the speaker of the house and senate majority leader should have term limits. Pelosi is more toxic than Hillary and Trump in large parts of the country. People like Julian Castro, Tulsi Gabbard or Evan Bayh should become the leaders in congress. Provided Bayh gets into congress in the first place. Heard he's planning on standing for a senate seat.
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Its no more undemocratic than having age limits on the minimum age for the Presidency or having a two term limit on it. There are more than enough people in a 330m country to take over Senate and House jobs after the previous incumbents serve for several cycles. Being a politician should (imo) not be a life time job, it should be something people from other career fields do for a limited period of time after which they move on so a newer generation has a chance to take over.
 
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Lobbyists helped gut California’s net neutrality bill
AT&T, Comcast and other companies targeted committee members.

Federal net neutrality protections have ended, thanks to Ajit Pai's leadership at the FCC, but some states haven't been content with the demise of the regulations that promote a free internet. California in particular has led the charge to introduce its own net neutrality bill. While it enjoyed wide support from the state's population, the bill itself is now toothless. It's been "eviscerated," according to Fast Company's sources, thanks to State Senator Miguel Santiago, who received large campaign donations from AT&T.

Santiago effectively declawed the bill, which was first introduced by Democratic Senator Scott Wiener, by introducing amendments that negated most of the protections. The wording in the bill that prohibited treating internet traffic differently based on content type was removed altogether, as was the prohibition against internet "fast lanes."

Lobbyists for AT&T, Comcast and other companies targeted Santiago and other members of the Communications and Conveyance Committee. Their donations and influence apparently overrode the wide public support this bill enjoys. Yesterday, the author of the bill, Scott Wiener, withdrew it because the changes had weakened it to such a degree. The committee ignored his wishes and passed the bill regardless.
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