That hearing was disgusting. I honestly don’t even know what to say.
Snafu and fubar come to mind.
Dr. Ford’s testimony was strong, but both the Democrats and the Republican Prosecutor didn’t really do a whole lot. On the one hand, allowing her to tell her story is good, but the Democrats aggrandized a bit instead of actually asking questions, and the Republican Senator’s questions were pretty pathetic and she attempted several times to play off shitty conspiracy theories.
Kavanaugh’s testimony was a literal shitshow. The Democrats asked a few good questions but still did some aggrandizing, and what the fuck the Republicans were saying escaped me UNTIL I put the pieces together.
The Republicans were sending a message. That message was “The Democrats are the bad guys everybody, look at how bad they are.” They avoided really actually discussing the incident altogether and made this about the Democrats. This is because what they are trying to do is rile their base ahead of midterms to send a message to possible no-votes that voting yes on Kavanaugh won’t risk their seats, because the GOP base will be riled up about “Democrat mismanagement” and the Democrat base will be disappointed in how little got done and see the Democrats as failing to accomplish anything.
It’s obviously not a great strategy, but it’s really pathetic and infuriating.
I won’t even discuss Kavanaugh’s testimony in detail, as the man committed perjury at least one more time and was a raving lunatic.
If he’s put on the court, our days as a democracy are numbered. The only recourse is impeachment if the Democrats take back the senate.
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I’ve heard suggestions of packing the court as well, once Democrats can get power back, if impeachment doesn’t happen. I don’t know about the feasibility of that, but at this point it’s probably a good idea anyway.
If we take the house and senate, impeachment and court packing are eminently feasible.
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From what I’ve heard, the odds we take the house are really good and the odds we take the senate are bad.
Like 80% we take the house and 70% we lose the senate.
This is due primarily to the fact that mostly Democrats are up for re-election. In 2020, the balance is significantly different. It’s really just bad modulus-math luck that the Senate elections are the way they are in 2018.
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Which is nice, but by 2020 more than likely Judge Rapist will likely have been on the court for two years.
As I’ve said repeatedly, SCOTUS issues are one of my serious checkpoints on the road to leaving the US. If he gets confirmed and we don’t take the house, I’m likely out of here.
possibly anyway.
We’d need 2/3 of the Senate to actually convict in an impeachment hearing, assuming the GOP stay the course and remain traitors to the country.
I just don’t see us taking 2/3 of the Senate literally ever, but I suppose it’s worth fighting for.
Court packing, though, we could do that with a simple majority.
We’re being walked down the slippery slope and people still don’t care enough to organize a general strike or even to get out and vote. It’s widespread apathy that’s going to kill democracy in America. Pretty sure we’re done here. Now seeking recommendations for better countries that are feasible to emmigrate to if anyone has ideas.
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Part of the issue, other than general apathy, is that not enough people have been impacted in any way to make their lives worse yet. A lot of the problems are still in the “hypothetical” stage, as in, “Yes, Kavanaugh on the court would overturn or greatly restrict Roe v. Wade, but it hasn’t happened yet, so whatever.” Or, “well, yeah, they’re doing horrible things to people coming over the border and without proper immigration papers, but hey, I’m a native born citizen, what do I care?”
Human beings, by and large, are selfish creatures, no matter how much we try to convince ourselves otherwise. They’ll mostly only take action when they themselves feel threatened, not when someone else is threatened.
Also, keep in mind that a not-insignificant number of women are pro-life, so they might be overlooking Kavanaugh’s crap thinking that abortion is a bigger evil anyway. That’s part of the mindset we’re dealing with here. In fact, a lot of Trump’s base don’t care about whatever horrible crap he, his cronies, and his allies have done, because they consider it okay so long as the “greater good” in their minds is accomplished, whatever that may be. Of course, they’re hypocrites, but how can you argue with active hypocrisy? You can’t reason with these people.
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I have another element I wanna throw into the pot and it’ll likely be devisive around here. There’s definitely apathy and there’s definitely selfishness but one thing I’m also seeing that I think is a root cause of our issues is hate. Hate for the other side.
Before I say any more, let me say what I’m not saying. I’m not saying dems should compromise. I’m not saying the hate is not justified, and I’m not saying that I have any solutions.
The people today just… hate each other. I’ve seen footage from some of these rallies and protests these past two years and, well these countrypeople hate each others guts. They don’t want the politicians of their own sides to do anything but obstruct/oppress the other side (obvious exceptions for social issues on the left). All this hate.
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I hate nazis. I’ll admit to that.
I hate all fascists really.
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Hating Nazis is fine. In fact, I’m sure you’d be hard pressed to find many current GOP members in Congress who at least won’t claim to hate the stereotypical, goose-stepping, sig-heiling, swastika-wearing Nazis (note that I said in Congress, and that I said “many,” not all, and I said “claim.” Who knows what they actually are thinking).
On the left, you’ll probably also find hate for the extreme left, Stalin/Mao-type gulag and summary execution for speaking out against The Party types too. That is fine as well.
The problem is that the hate doesn’t seem to only exist for the despicable extremes. It exists for those closer to the middle, those that have honest differences of policy opinion but other than that may, in fact, honestly think they mean well even if they are wrong. We used to hear stories about how senators used to be good friends with people across the aisle, even if they vehemently disagreed with them on policy. Nowadays, it seems like all that camaraderie and respect is gone. Even if it maybe still exists as an undercurrent among career politicians, none dare show it because their electorate base doesn’t care about respecting the opposition and just wants to take them down in one way or another, everything else be damned.
Is that the extreme left or a separate authoritarian axis? 
I’m leaning pretty Communist these days.
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I won’t support anyone who compromises on basic human rights issues. I won’t even debate them. They are beneath my contempt and beyond rational interaction.
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Honestly, and I know I’ve said this before - it’s because the Civil War never ended.
We hit a point in this country where our ideologies were so fundamentally opposed that we literally murdered each other over it.
And we never reconciled the fundamental disagreement - those same people who believed it was OK to subjugate people kept believing that because we allowed it to exist.
I’m not necessarily saying we should’ve subjugated the South (well OK maybe I am saying that a bit), but I am saying that our approach allowed the divide to persist, and when you spend decades in a toxic relationship, you will only grow to hate each other.
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