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Post by The Captain on Dec 21, 2018 9:59:13 GMT -5
Not surprising at all. The Republicans who voted "yes" on it have to make sure they let their constituents back home know they are supporting the Trump Agenda, else they risk having some further-right yahoo come along next election cycle and claim the incumbent is soft on immigration. This is all about protecting their own interests and future employment, not doing what's right for the country. It's the biggest argument for term limits, in that these folks view this position as a career, not as public service as it should be. No one should be in Washington for 20+ years as a Representative, because their sole job then becomes to ensure their own reelection.Absolutely!!! "Politician" should be a calling; it shouldn't be seen as a career. Dependence on money poisons it all. That's one reason I was against the idea of elections at a fixed date, which we adopted here a short while ago. It turns most of an elected official's tenure into an electoral campaign (when it's not the whole of it) and distracts them from doing their actual job. Oddly enough, even if a few months more or less shouldn't make a difference (because we still held elections roughly every four years), the uncertainty resulted in our politicians not starting any campaigning before the election was called. In the USA, the problem is that the House of Reps only serve two-year terms, meaning that campaigning basically starts the moment the last election cycle ends. Now, I get the concept, as the HoR is supposed to be the chamber of the people (where the Senate is the chamber for entire states), and as such, the idea was that reps could be swapped out if the prevailing mood in a particular district changed rapidly. The problem is that this doesn't happen often, particularly in deep rural or deep urban areas, so the only real battlegrounds are in the suburban areas, which we saw last month as the shift from R to D was greatest in those districts, while the rural and urban districts voted pretty much as they always do. Once in the HoR, the reps are constantly in campaign mode, because this has become their job, rather than an act of service. They get entrenched and as long as the mood within their district remains the same, they're really in no danger of losing, so they do what they can to maintain the status quo for themselves rather than do what is best for the entire nation. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 21, 2018 10:03:15 GMT -5
The house has been lost in the midterms for 22 straight midterm elections, regardless of whether it was a Dem or Pub POTUS. This was nothing new and was totally expected by everyone who isn’t a complete homer. This was only the 4th time the house has changed hands since Kennedy, so I think you might be exaggerating a WEE bit. Yes, the last couple times were at midterms, but not every time (the GOP held it during Obama's 2nd term, and during Bush's first).. before that it was in Democratic hands for like 40 years I think this is what people mean when they say "Reality has a liberal bias." |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2018 10:33:48 GMT -5
Trump's Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned Thursday, a day after President Donald Trump's plans to withdraw troops from Syria became public. Many Americans do not feel safe when this happen ... Not good at all. Just reporting the Fact ... he'll step down in February.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 21, 2018 10:38:02 GMT -5
Trump's Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned Thursday, a day after President Donald Trump's plans to withdraw troops from Syria became public. Many Americans do not feel safe when this happen ... Not good at all. Just reporting the Fact ... he'll step down in February. His letter of resignation was quite dignified. I'm glad to see that there are still officials ready to stand up to their boss when it's necessary. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2018 11:08:01 GMT -5
Trump's Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned Thursday, a day after President Donald Trump's plans to withdraw troops from Syria became public. Many Americans do not feel safe when this happen ... Not good at all. Just reporting the Fact ... he'll step down in February. His letter of resignation was quite dignified. I'm glad to see that there are still officials ready to stand up to their boss when it's necessary. You are right on the money, it was dignified ... and Trump did not see clearly another bad image for Trump! |
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Post by impulse on Dec 21, 2018 11:31:07 GMT -5
Didn't I also read that the R's just lost the House by the widest margin ever?
And yeah, Mattis resigning and all the talk of apparently swiftly pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan is unnerving.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 21, 2018 11:41:20 GMT -5
Didn't I also read that the R's just lost the House by the widest margin ever? And yeah, Mattis resigning and all the talk of apparently swiftly pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan is unnerving. The Trump administration is in complete disarray and it is dragging the Republican Party down with it. Republican reps and senators are torn between kissing his...ring...or risk facing his wrathful tweets, or alienating the moderates (like me and my wife) who once supported the party but have fled their shameful hard tack to the right over the past few years. They are in the worst possible position, and I don't remotely see how the party is going to recover from this disastrous situation with Trump for decades to come. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Dec 21, 2018 12:51:24 GMT -5
Normally I'm against term limits. Imagine if FDR had've had to pack up and retire in January 1941 'just because'? Or imagine if you had a competent president but they have to leave 'just because', 'rules' and so the next thing you get are the parties represented by unqualified or very unpopular candidates yet you the voter have to pick one 'just because' the popular and competent person had to go, 'rules'. Meanwhile all these other rules we've learned over time we need to protect lives and health and stuff get walked all over with impunity so some billionaire can add another billion to their off-shore hidey-hole.
You've said it yourselves that the problem is campaign finance... why are term limits the best way to address that? I'm not saying that term limits might not be a good thing for the House down there though, but I have seen over time how the broadest or simplest answers can often just create new problems when they are over applied to everything (like this wall and one-note immigration/immigrants are bad stuff). If term limits stopped there and didn't then get applied to the Senate or presidents I might go along with it as there really is a problem often times (and yet wasn't that just 'corrected' in the mid-terms, so...) If people can't vote out obvious crooks and stuffed shirts (and some of them do deliver the pork for their home counties, like Newt) then they must actually want them. I'm also against one size fits all mandatory retirement ages. Why throw out experience and competence 'just because'? We want and need the best, who limits systems in order to get them? That's like that Kurt Vonnegut 'Harrison Bergeron' story and reduces people to equivalent units that are interchangeable... no thanks, that's a path to inhumanity every time. You must be too far left for me there. A little bit of medicine good but we always seem to get to some revolutionary would be genius point where some fool things a lot of medicine will cure all cancers and things start swinging from extreme to extreme. I'd be very careful with stuff like term limits and proportional representation schemes. Good conservatism means to me that if it has been proven over time to work, or shown that there is a definite need for a change, then you go with that.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 21, 2018 13:27:45 GMT -5
Didn't I also read that the R's just lost the House by the widest margin ever? And yeah, Mattis resigning and all the talk of apparently swiftly pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan is unnerving. The Trump administration is in complete disarray and it is dragging the Republican Party down with it. Republican reps and senators are torn between kissing his...ring... His annulus, then? |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 21, 2018 13:31:54 GMT -5
Didn't I also read that the R's just lost the House by the widest margin ever? And yeah, Mattis resigning and all the talk of apparently swiftly pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan is unnerving. The house was 60-65% dems in the 60s and 70s, so unless you mean it was the biggest change in one election, probably not. I'm of two minds about term limits... on the one hand, constant campaigning is terrible. But on the other, if you're not trying to get re-elected, you're not answerable to the people who elected you. |
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Post by impulse on Dec 21, 2018 13:49:35 GMT -5
Didn't I also read that the R's just lost the House by the widest margin ever? And yeah, Mattis resigning and all the talk of apparently swiftly pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan is unnerving. The house was 60-65% dems in the 60s and 70s, so unless you mean it was the biggest change in one election, probably not. I'm of two minds about term limits... on the one hand, constant campaigning is terrible. But on the other, if you're not trying to get re-elected, you're not answerable to the people who elected you. I specifically mean the biggest swing in one go, yes, not the overall makeup over the course of decades. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 21, 2018 17:06:18 GMT -5
Didn't I also read that the R's just lost the House by the widest margin ever? And yeah, Mattis resigning and all the talk of apparently swiftly pulling out of Syria and Afghanistan is unnerving. The house was 60-65% dems in the 60s and 70s, so unless you mean it was the biggest change in one election, probably not. I'm of two minds about term limits... on the one hand, constant campaigning is terrible. But on the other, if you're not trying to get re-elected, you're not answerable to the people who elected you. See I see it the other way, if you're not worried about needing to appeal to a subset of the population I think you'd be more likely to appeal to the good of the many. In my perfect world instead of electing officials they'd be selected randomly like jury duty. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 21, 2018 20:55:41 GMT -5
And just like that ladies and gentlemen, Mitch McConnell has left the building.
I wonder how long this latest shut down will last?
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 22, 2018 10:36:31 GMT -5
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 22, 2018 17:47:27 GMT -5
So no official meetings tomorrow, a partial on Monday and then nothing until Thursday...and that will only happen if something substantial occurs on Monday. Personally I think the President and all the Senators and Representatives shouldn't be able to leave DC until an agreement is reached but I suppose I don't make the rules.
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