The Midterms Change Nothing

The election results change nothing. It does not matter who controls the House or the Senate because those are short term issues.

The real problem is the nation is deeply divided, probably irreconcilably divided, and the nation is in a civil war over its future.

Think about the election options.

If the Republicans kept the House, the "progressives" would feel hopeless and even more enraged than they were before. The progs would abandon constructive political activity and would turn completely to disrupt and delay. They would see violence and "protests" as their only tool and would escalate the violence in the streets. In DC, hearings and meetings would be swarmed with Democrat orchestrated mobs, Republicans would be ambushed, Congress would devolve into chaos.

The system would cease to function, and eventually the average people just trying to live their lives would be hurt to the point they would revolt.

Or there will be a violent incident which triggers national outrage, and the average people just trying to live their lives would take matters into their own hands.

If the Democrats win the House as they have, they now have some hope and an avenue for political action. They will ratchet up the disrupt and delay, but the violence and mobs should not increase. The political system may cease to function, but the total pressure on the nation is lesser than if the R's kept the House (because the D's do not escalate the violence).

But this only delays the inevitable. Its a stalling tactic, a rear guard action. Its not decisive.

In both cases the fundamental problem is not resolved, in fact the fundamental problem is worsened.

Half the nation refuses to live under a "progressive" govt. The other half refuses to live under a Constitutional govt. There is no middle ground. The end result is going to be civil war, the only question is the level of violence the nation will suffer.

 

We are a Democratic country, not a Republic. And progressivism tends to get spun out of context by Trump and others, of course unless you dive deeper you're not going to see the good progressivism can do. The dangers of nationalism are more obvious than that of a progressive country. Think about how Trump campaigned in the last days up to the election, using sewer rat talk to talk about the caravan with conspiracies of bringing leprosy and small pox, then not only the cost but the amount of people we are sending down to the border doesn't sit right with people. Trump is as divisive as Dems are, with every rally and every tweet. His tweets are tailored to incite the worst people like the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooter and Cesar Sayoc. Trump himself needs to tone down his own rhetoric.

Don't expect either side to get better unless their rhetoric on both sides at the top is toned down.

 

Of course Trump is divisive. Every leader of one party will be rejected by the other because half of the nation nation refuses to live under the ideology of the other half. So its not Trump, he is a symptom.

Name a conservative the "progressives" like? "progressives" hate all of the conservative leaders and will denigrate and refuse to accept any of them.

And vice versa. Conservatives hate all of the prog leaders and refuse to accept any of them.

Its not about rhetoric or individuals, its an ideological war. Unless one side gives up its heartfelt ideology, there is no solution.

 

Its naive to believe there are a lot of options. There are only 2 options which avoid civil war.

Option 1 - one side surrenders, one side abandons its ideology and accepts life under the other side. Very unlikely but possible under certain conditions in which people are in such pain (deep economic depression for example) that they will accept anything to ease their pain - but that still often just delays the issue.

Option 2 - "progressives" abandon their dream of national control and accept a return to the original Constitutional concept of states rights with an extremely limited federal govt. States live and let live. Unlikely.

 

Interesting post, however, the language is inflammatory. “Progs,” “enraged.” “revolt,” “mobs,” “D’s violence.” “progressive government vs. constitutional government,” are not words lacking in bias. These are right out of the Trump playbook.

I’ve been around long enough and lived in red and blue states to know what mobs are and what violence is. I was in the Army during Nam. This election was a bit of a compromise among the various factions. Protests (your mobs) will pop up, that’s the American democracy for you, but everyone got a piece of the action. We restored balance.

Now we need to tone it down. Trump especially needs to tone it down. He recently said, ‘If you’re attacked you’ve got to punch back.’ This is the mind of a child. Adults know when to keep their mouths shut. Especially presidential mouths. Trump and his childish, punch back mouth has created tremendous animosity and division. In a president this is unforgivable. If Trump continues on this course, the division will increase and so will the violence. Unfortunately, Trump never takes a great opportunity to shut the f**k up.

Will he now? There is nothing in his past or as president that he will. Unless some national figure picks up the cause of unity the division will continue. If it continues long enough, America will noisily fade away.

 

That one sentence shows the irreconcilable divide. The USA is a constitutional republic, not a democracy. "progressives" want to abandon the Constitution because it prevents implementation of "progressivism", thats why progs like a so-called living constitution because ti lets them make the Constitution mean whatever they want it to mean.

Conservatives want a return to original intent.

They are mutually exclusive demands.

 

Absolutely hilarious how you folks absorb the nonsense and make it your own.

 

Of course some will see it as inflammatory - thats the nature of the problem. Each side sees the other as inciting violence. You see Trumps statement as inflammatory, but you don't admit he was responding to "progressives" statements (Maxine Waters, Hilary, etc).

Who is enraged, stages mob protests, and are violent? "progressives". At least up until now, that will change as the pressure mounts. Eventually conservatives will get so frustrated that they will become violent, and once both sides become violent the hot war starts.

And its not Trump, he is a symptom, a product of the overall problem. Any conservative president will be unacceptable to the other side. If it was not Trump but Cruz or Rand Paul, nothing would be different.

 

You have to be joking or trying to fool yourself.

The House is much closer to the people than the Senate. Representatives have local districts. They are much like city mayors in that respect, and they have two-year terms. Senators run state wide and after six years in the Senate, incumbent Senators are very difficult to defeat.

For those reasons representatives are closer to the people. This election was obviously a referendum on Trump, according to Trump. The people spoke, and they wanted to rein in Trump. In addition, the people want a closer look at Trump's tax returns and why our President is a lackey for the Russian communist dictator. They want a closer look at the emoluments clause and how much money Trump is making off his Presidency from foreign governments. The people also want to take a closer look at Trump's attempts to obstruct justice. They want to know more about the Trump Tower meeting where Trump's son, Trump's son-in-law, and Trump's campaign manager met with four representatives of the Russian government at Trump's home and how much Trump knew about the meeting. The Republican Congress have been investigating these issues for nearly two years and they are keeping the results of their investigations from the people.

That is why the Republicans lost the House. The American people have had it with this guy, and his countless lies will no longer seem so important.

 

We are a democratic republic, lower case "d." In a democratic republic the people elect representatives (Senators, members of the House, Presidents) to represent them.

 

Oh, I certainly admit that Trump was responding to "progressives" statements. A mature president, who is not a narcissist, would let it go and move on being president. I explained to you what mobs and violence look like. You must have lived a very sheltered life.

 

Wrong. The "American people" have not sided against Trump. The Democrats have 51% of the House, hardly a resounding statement. A flip of 26 seats (6% of the House) out of 435 is not a national statement either.

Drop the propaganda. Try to be rational and make intelligent statements.

 

A mature President, such as obama, the man who called people bitter clingers, the man who denigrated half the population, the man who set the nation back decades in terms of race relations?

And its not Trump, its all of them. Congress in general have all become more insulting in their rhetoric. Its a sign of the times, and its not going to change until the real conflict is resolved.

And, you know nothing of who I am, where I come from, what I have done, and that's intentional. My arguments don't have to rely on my personal credentials, they stand on their own merit. You should do the same.

 

29 seats. Trump's party lost control of the House. Trump's approval rating varies for 40 to 42%. That means 60% of Americans do not approve of him.

Those are the facts.

 

So I guess we should all gird up our loins for battle eh champ? Civil war is inevitable.... Lol....Right nowI’ shaking in my boots about the invading hordes speeding to our borders on foot. I have stocked up on canned water and MREs already so I will be ready for the civil war.

 

29 out of 435, still 6%. The entire House was up for election, and only 29 flipped. You have no arguement at all.

 

Republicans lost control of the House Tuesday night after eight years in power.

The fact that the Republicans gained more seats in the Senate in a mid-term election is an anomaly, but Trump deserves no credit. Republicans gained more seats in the Senate because of the red hot, history making economy.

Trump has done little or nothing to stimulate the economy. He has actually threatened the economy with his harsh tariffs and trade wars while failing to sign one trade deal in his nearly two years in office. Also, yesterday proved Wall Street pays very little attention to what Trump says or does. Trump fired the attorney general he appointed -- a former Senator who was very much a part of Trump's election campaign -- and appointed an attack dog to temporarily replace him. Whitaker, who has been strongly critical of the Mueller investigation, will now be in charge of the all important Mueller investigation. Wall Street didn't even blink. The stock market totally ignored what Trump said and did and the DOW added over 500 points. After all, for most of his political life, Trump was a New York Democrat.

However, the Republicans are a different story. CEO's, CFO's, and business owners like the GOP and their kind now control matters. They react accordingly. That is why our economy is red hot. The Republican Congress wrote the entire tax bill. Trump acted as cheerleader and signed it. Those people who control our corporations and Wall Street loved that tax bill and they love it when the GOP controls both houses of Congress, the Oval Office, and the Supreme Court.

Given all this, it is a wonder the Democrats won anything. Yet, they captured the House and gained seven governor seats. Since this election was a referendum on Trump, according to Trump, those GOP losses are attributed to him. Americans have wised up. They know Trump has threatened the economy, not stimulated it.

 

In terms of logistics. the Midterms changed one thing materially, the ease with which the Trump Administration can get judicial appointees approved.

 

You should have just posted "blah blah blah", because that's the true content of your propaganda.

 

Considering all we know about Trump, that statement is pretty pathetic. In addition to everything else, he has violated our Constitution.

Trump violated the Constitution when he appointed Matthew Whitaker.

The Appointments Clause of the Constitution, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 states that principal officers of the United States must be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate under its “Advice and Consent” powers.

The New York Times reports, "A principal officer must be confirmed by the Senate. And that has a very significant consequence today.

"It means that Mr. Trump’s installation of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general of the United States after forcing the resignation of Jeff Sessions is unconstitutional. It’s illegal. And it means that anything Mr. Whitaker does, or tries to do, in that position is invalid.

"But the flaw in the appointment of Mr. Whitaker, who was Mr. Sessions’s chief of staff at the Justice Department, runs much deeper. It defies one of the explicit checks and balances set out in the Constitution, a provision designed to protect us all against the centralization of government power."

Once again, Trump thinks he is an emperor. Once again, the Republican Congress filled with Trump sycophants do nothing about it even when Emperor Trump is usurping their power.

As a card-carrying Republican I say this, thank God the Democrats gained control of the House. The idea of an unchecked Trump for two more years was frightening.

I am an American first and a Republican second. More should feel that way about their party affiliation.

 

Fake News: the-midterms-change-nothing

 

My statement, that Tuesday's GOP gains in the Senate make it easier for Trump to get his judicial appointments confirmed and seated is a fact. Yammer, whine, obfuscate all you like, won't change that fact one iota.

 

You left out what "Sandy Shanks said." Here is part of what I said.

"Considering all we know about Trump, that statement is pretty pathetic. In addition to everything else, he has violated our Constitution.

"Trump violated the Constitution when he appointed Matthew Whitaker.

"The Appointments Clause of the Constitution, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 states that principal officers of the United States must be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate under its “Advice and Consent” powers."

In other words we must endure his constant lying, his narcissistic comments, his mindless tweets, his egregious foreign policy decisions, his destructive tariffs policy, his costly trade wars, and his failure to sign any trade deals during the near two years in office, so that he will have an easier time confirming conservative judges.

That is insane.