When people say the Schumer must have known, and that the Senate only do what he says is ok - I wonder what Senate have I been watching for 30 years where Senators are often petulant Lords. Fetterman has been attacking the shutdown for 3 weeks.

If you had made a point about the binary nature of our political system, I would've thought there was a point somewhere.

But this is some pessimistic doomer shit that even I find tedious.

*Because it removes agency from them and makes them out to be a blameless force of nature.* That's the entire point. Treating them as something other than sentient beings actively being evil just says "Unless Dems acquit themselves perfectly, then the GOP wins by default b/c they're acts of god"

I don't think it's you. Something in the water today seems to be making folks extra oppositional and contrarian.

I swear I remember outlets like the NYT crowing about how Dean Phillips was going to show Biden up so much because of how weak and bad Biden was.

They tried to *will* a competitive primary into existence and folks were still too behind Biden to make it something other than a laugher.

Yep, I've said it before, and said it before, and it never gets any less true than the last time it had to be said...

I think part of the problem is that for all of the “even if it’s a fight you know you’ll lose I want to see you fight,” joining a fight implies in many (most?) minds the possibility of victory, and failure that was inevitable at the outset starts to look less noble than incompetent.

Yes. Exactly. All this suffering is the fault of REPUBLICANS! Not Democrats.

Also, I'd like to give a hearty fuck you to everyone who made it possible for Republicans to have this much power.

Even if you think those eight are wrong here -- I do! -- it is not "The Democrats" who did this, it is seven individual Democrats and one independent, not even a quarter of the Senate Democratic Caucus. If you're blaming all Democrats for that then you really just hate Democrats.

Then buddy, I dunno what the hell you're talking about losing rights under Dem leadership, especially now. Because, if you haven't noticed, Dems don't control any branch of gov't or house of Congress right now, meaning any loss of rights is through Act of GOP, not Dems or act of god.

Let me guess: you blame Dems for losing Roe v Wade because it happened during Biden's term, despite the ruling happening under a 6-3 arch conservative SCOTUS.

I guess my main point is this: is Schumer the problem, or the symptom? Because folks are putting a lot of faith in the idea that airlocking Schumer necessarily improves things as if he's the end all be all of the problem.

Yeah, one of the things I keep coming back to is what would that new kind of leadership even be? Since a lot of folks seem to be defining it purely by rhetoric i.e. "fight more and tell the GOP 'fuck you'" which is all fine and dandy. But what would they do to prevent defectors like the other night?

A not-insubstantial number of people seem to be just *convinced* that The Democrats have a magic wand that they simply choose not to use at their disposal.

I just don't think people understand just how much their decision to smear the Democratic nominees in 2024 have negatively impacted Dems' ability to get *anything* positive done for the next 3 years.

People are gassing themselves up with absolute nonsense.

Same, but also keep in mind that they could impeach but not convict!

And the last time they failed to convict, everyone went around blaming Dems for Not Wanting It Enough and it being Worse Than Nothing!

The trap must still be avoided!

People perceive the Republicans as having been extremely powerful in the minority because the Republicans were good at making them feel sad and they confused that for power.

It's really that simple.

Lawrence’s discussion last night was brilliant because he actually knows how the Senate works. Just do yourself a favor and don’t read the comments.

www.msnbc.com/the-last-wor...