"But the Democrats made us do it. It's all their fault." - Every Republican that has been on the news.
Fuckin singles cunts can't even handle their own party and want to handle the country.
This is the real kicker here. It's all just theatre to keep attention on themselves while they gridlock the House from doing any meaningful work. Then they'll use it as an excuse to say Dems can't get anything done.
Remember when Obama chastised his Republican Congress for failing to pass the yearly roads bill? Because they didn't want him to get a "win" by signing it? Boy howdy! Glad those crazy times are past us!
That's what happens when you vote for trolls. They can't actually lead anything.
Sounds like a party that isn't unified.
We need more choices.
This 2-party nonsense is bad for America.
The system isn't going to change itself though
The house is only 50.8% republican.
When the senate is 50/50 they come to compromise favoring the party who has the white house/vp/tie breaking vote.
When the house is effectively 50/50 they apparently shut the government down for weeks on end.
The country voted 49/47 for Democrats so we will all held hostage while the minority figures out who their leader is? Even if their new leader was so great bills would have to pass the Senate (where the minority generally thinks they are too extreme) and the white house where again the opposition controls that part of the government.
Maybe the founders weren't all knowing after all.
Any system is vulnerable to bad actors. The checks and balances in this case are not voting for idiots, but
The point isn't that they were morons, the point is that times change. Mistakes are made.
The founders sadly never could predict that one party would become Unamerican and 40% of the populace have their brain rotten away by lead.
Considering the time they lived in, a strange oversight.
iirc Geoerge Washington already said the system is fucked and the effective limit to two parties will make it fail eventually.
Its almost like theres a new party forming or something
Wow that would be something, breaking up of the GOP. Dems could rule with stable majority for next 20 years - except they would surely fuck it up somehow.
Probably the best point in time to change the constitution to remove first past the post rules wherever possible if that's the case
I don't know that I would get too excited about a small, but growing, fascist movement forming its own party. Seems we've seen that one before, didn't seem to work out great.
New Whig party!
Exactly. The violent crazies, the tight asses and the adults.
They can't decide how corrupt and evil they want to be
They are a party made of people looking for a quick money scheme. They just can't agree who's the head grifter
Wannabe pyramid scheme
Because 12 of them will only elect a maga one.
And I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm glad that they're holding out. The less they're touching legislation like a bunch of conniving molesters by abusing their majority, the better.
That's their goal. Paralyze congress, prevent funding bills and critical legislation from even being voted on, and then go to their voters and blame their failures on the "non-cooperative" democrats.
The voters who would believe Democrats are the ones who are obstructing government, and the voters who would ever vote for anyone who isn't a Republican, have no overlap.
Are you telling me people in the same party, of a 2 party system, can have some differing opinions? crazy thought.
Here's the thing. The job of a Congress member is to create compromise and work for all the people. If they can't work the most basic part of the job, what good are they?
It came through. You are a master of the interwebs!
So in 250+ years this has never happened, but you're totally cool with it because it jives with some misconception you have about what's really going on? The real reason this is happening is that the Republicans, through gerrymandering and collective cowardice, have allowed themselves to be taken over by a crazed nihilistic extremist minority. It's not about different opinions.
Doubly so when you realize "fall in line" has been their mantra for the past 30 years and the straw that broke that camels back was checks notes bipartisanship...
Hey, there's 2 parties, so 2 opinions. Plenty! If we had more options, we would all suffer from decision paralysis, right!? Right?
Only a majority vote is required to expel a member. The Dems would probably help too.
Get started 😂
Tell them they're not getting paid until they have elected a speaker. Watch how quickly they'll sort themselves out.
Not very quickly. How many of them are multimillionaires? Go ahead, guess. Here's a hint.
More than half of those in Congress are millionaires, data from lawmakers’ most recent personal financial disclosures shows. The median net worth of members of Congress who filed disclosures last year is just over $1 million.Â
They won't care if they miss a year's worth of paychecks if they can hurt poor people by doing so.
This is why withholding their salary is not a good idea, it only affects those who aren't already well off.
Redirect the money to planned parenthood, watch how fast they act.
the oil companies won't stop paying them, why punish the ones who dont get that money
I think they make most of their money trading with their classified information.
Does Congress still get paid during a government shutdown that they themselves cause? I wouldn't be surprised, they seem to make a lot of rules that make themselves the exemption.
Yes. It partially makes sense because you could screw the new congresspeople who aren't corrupt with hidden income sources into not being able to afford their living situation, which could become a really bad point of leverage for awful people. I believe their staff goes without pay though.
Good thing the Republicans have a long history of bi-partisan cooperation in the interest of a smoothly functioning government, and thus have built up a reserve of good will they can call upon to help resolve this dilemma, right?
This .meme just encourages partisanship. Parties having locked unity seems worse for democracy than dissent.
when we talk policies this argument has some merit, but we are talking fundamental proceedings to enable the parliament to be able to work at all.
if a party cannot get this straight and its members to compromise for that,then this harms democracy much more. It paralyzes and ultimately delegitimizesdemocracy as a form of government,which is precisely what the MAGA hats want.
Oh. Yeah, great point.
I disagree. I think the whole situation will force Republicans to work with Democrats because now that there's 3 "parties," there will have to be more compromises.
Only there are no three parties, but two. Any republican who deviates from that will soon find no more support from his party for the next election cycle.
Doesn't matter they have their districts gerrymandered. You'd have to primary them.
Republicans are very good at primarying their own
That's pretty much what's happened. Cheney, Kinziger, etc. I'm not sure what the overlap of R's sitting in districts Biden won by a lot, but I'm guessing there aren't many.
I mean, this is of course the Republican parties own doing. They've been poking at the rabid dog that is their base for decades and accelerated further with the tea party, birther nonsense, catastrophizing a tan suit, etc, on top of their usual cries to cut education and social programs. Now they can't control the monster they have created, which is honestly at least a little satisfying, except, you know, the whole sane people still being also trapped with the monster also part.
That’s how it’s supposed to work, elected officials represent their constituents not their party
That's not how Republicans work though, tow the party line is sort of their mantra
That’s irrelevant to saying not doing that isn’t something to criticize
It is something to criticize, especially so if it's a value the Republican party admits to not caring about. It also makes the current tension all the more interesting, it's unusual for there to not be unity
Uh, no, this is not in fact how it's supposed to work. Not even close. This is why it's never happened before.
How is it supposed to work?
How it's always worked in the past?
I dunno, do you have a better idea?
You said representatives aren't supposed to represent their constituents - who are they supposed to represent?
Reality is that they frequently tend only represent their constituents enough to remain in power while focusing on representing their donors, but they should be representing their constituents - that's literally how the model is designed and defined.
"But the Democrats made us do it. It's all their fault." - Every Republican that has been on the news.
Fuckin singles cunts can't even handle their own party and want to handle the country.
This is the real kicker here. It's all just theatre to keep attention on themselves while they gridlock the House from doing any meaningful work. Then they'll use it as an excuse to say Dems can't get anything done.
Remember when Obama chastised his Republican Congress for failing to pass the yearly roads bill? Because they didn't want him to get a "win" by signing it? Boy howdy! Glad those crazy times are past us!
That's what happens when you vote for trolls. They can't actually lead anything.
Sounds like a party that isn't unified.
We need more choices.
This 2-party nonsense is bad for America.
The system isn't going to change itself though
The house is only 50.8% republican.
When the senate is 50/50 they come to compromise favoring the party who has the white house/vp/tie breaking vote.
When the house is effectively 50/50 they apparently shut the government down for weeks on end.
The country voted 49/47 for Democrats so we will all held hostage while the minority figures out who their leader is? Even if their new leader was so great bills would have to pass the Senate (where the minority generally thinks they are too extreme) and the white house where again the opposition controls that part of the government.
Maybe the founders weren't all knowing after all.
Any system is vulnerable to bad actors. The checks and balances in this case are not voting for idiots, but
The point isn't that they were morons, the point is that times change. Mistakes are made.
The founders sadly never could predict that one party would become Unamerican and 40% of the populace have their brain rotten away by lead.
Considering the time they lived in, a strange oversight.
iirc Geoerge Washington already said the system is fucked and the effective limit to two parties will make it fail eventually.
Its almost like theres a new party forming or something
Wow that would be something, breaking up of the GOP. Dems could rule with stable majority for next 20 years - except they would surely fuck it up somehow.
Probably the best point in time to change the constitution to remove first past the post rules wherever possible if that's the case
I don't know that I would get too excited about a small, but growing, fascist movement forming its own party. Seems we've seen that one before, didn't seem to work out great.
New Whig party!
Exactly. The violent crazies, the tight asses and the adults.
They can't decide how corrupt and evil they want to be
They are a party made of people looking for a quick money scheme. They just can't agree who's the head grifter
Wannabe pyramid scheme
Because 12 of them will only elect a maga one.
And I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm glad that they're holding out. The less they're touching legislation like a bunch of conniving molesters by abusing their majority, the better.
That's their goal. Paralyze congress, prevent funding bills and critical legislation from even being voted on, and then go to their voters and blame their failures on the "non-cooperative" democrats.
The voters who would believe Democrats are the ones who are obstructing government, and the voters who would ever vote for anyone who isn't a Republican, have no overlap.
Are you telling me people in the same party, of a 2 party system, can have some differing opinions? crazy thought.
Here's the thing. The job of a Congress member is to create compromise and work for all the people. If they can't work the most basic part of the job, what good are they?
Hmm, not sure if that's working. https://media.tenor.com/3x63SNMKPogAAAAd/oh-wait-youre-serious.gif
It came through. You are a master of the interwebs!
So in 250+ years this has never happened, but you're totally cool with it because it jives with some misconception you have about what's really going on? The real reason this is happening is that the Republicans, through gerrymandering and collective cowardice, have allowed themselves to be taken over by a crazed nihilistic extremist minority. It's not about different opinions.
Doubly so when you realize "fall in line" has been their mantra for the past 30 years and the straw that broke that camels back was checks notes bipartisanship...
Hey, there's 2 parties, so 2 opinions. Plenty! If we had more options, we would all suffer from decision paralysis, right!? Right?
Only a majority vote is required to expel a member. The Dems would probably help too.
Get started 😂
Tell them they're not getting paid until they have elected a speaker. Watch how quickly they'll sort themselves out.
Not very quickly. How many of them are multimillionaires? Go ahead, guess. Here's a hint.
They won't care if they miss a year's worth of paychecks if they can hurt poor people by doing so.
This is why withholding their salary is not a good idea, it only affects those who aren't already well off.
Redirect the money to planned parenthood, watch how fast they act.
the oil companies won't stop paying them, why punish the ones who dont get that money
I think they make most of their money trading with their classified information.
Does Congress still get paid during a government shutdown that they themselves cause? I wouldn't be surprised, they seem to make a lot of rules that make themselves the exemption.
Yes. It partially makes sense because you could screw the new congresspeople who aren't corrupt with hidden income sources into not being able to afford their living situation, which could become a really bad point of leverage for awful people. I believe their staff goes without pay though.
Good thing the Republicans have a long history of bi-partisan cooperation in the interest of a smoothly functioning government, and thus have built up a reserve of good will they can call upon to help resolve this dilemma, right?
This .meme just encourages partisanship. Parties having locked unity seems worse for democracy than dissent.
when we talk policies this argument has some merit, but we are talking fundamental proceedings to enable the parliament to be able to work at all.
if a party cannot get this straight and its members to compromise for that,then this harms democracy much more. It paralyzes and ultimately delegitimizesdemocracy as a form of government,which is precisely what the MAGA hats want.
Oh. Yeah, great point.
I disagree. I think the whole situation will force Republicans to work with Democrats because now that there's 3 "parties," there will have to be more compromises.
Only there are no three parties, but two. Any republican who deviates from that will soon find no more support from his party for the next election cycle.
Doesn't matter they have their districts gerrymandered. You'd have to primary them.
Republicans are very good at primarying their own
That's pretty much what's happened. Cheney, Kinziger, etc. I'm not sure what the overlap of R's sitting in districts Biden won by a lot, but I'm guessing there aren't many.
I mean, this is of course the Republican parties own doing. They've been poking at the rabid dog that is their base for decades and accelerated further with the tea party, birther nonsense, catastrophizing a tan suit, etc, on top of their usual cries to cut education and social programs. Now they can't control the monster they have created, which is honestly at least a little satisfying, except, you know, the whole sane people still being also trapped with the monster also part.
That’s how it’s supposed to work, elected officials represent their constituents not their party
That's not how Republicans work though, tow the party line is sort of their mantra
That’s irrelevant to saying not doing that isn’t something to criticize
It is something to criticize, especially so if it's a value the Republican party admits to not caring about. It also makes the current tension all the more interesting, it's unusual for there to not be unity
Uh, no, this is not in fact how it's supposed to work. Not even close. This is why it's never happened before.
How is it supposed to work?
How it's always worked in the past?
I dunno, do you have a better idea?
You said representatives aren't supposed to represent their constituents - who are they supposed to represent?
Reality is that they frequently tend only represent their constituents enough to remain in power while focusing on representing their donors, but they should be representing their constituents - that's literally how the model is designed and defined.