Thursday I saw this clip from Ultra-Radical Centrists on Facebook, detailing the last place we’d seen Jen Psaki, under the Obama Administration. “Time for a flash back to this classic performance of hers from 6 years ago where she told with a straight face that it was a ‘long standing policy’ for the US to not promote coups in Latin American nations.”
Simply doing a standard press briefing on January 20 seems to have pacified the Washington press corps, but that’s just because we’ve moved from a pack of surly liars who want to gaslight you over them stealing the silverware to a group of professional liars who know how to keep the story straight.
Yes, going back to normal is an improvement, but only the first step. After all, “normal” is how we got Trump.
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It seems as though Viceroy Trump’s shocktroopers are starting to have second thoughts.
“However, as Trump left office, some Proud Boys were disappointed that he didn’t put up more of a fight to stay in power, and that he later condemned the violence that ensued during the Capitol siege, which led to five deaths.”Some members called Trump a “shill” and “extraordinarily weak,” and have since urged others not to attend any more Trump events or even those from the Republican party, The Times reported.
“Members are angered that Trump didn’t help the Proud Boys arrested for their involvement in the January 6 siege.”
“One hour after President Joe Biden was inaugurated in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, QAnon conspiracy-theory chat rooms had an overwhelming — albeit familiar — sense of hopelessness.
“What are we waiting for now?” one comment in a QAnon Telegram channel said. “Is anyone still holding the line?” said another.
“So, was Q just one big lie and psyop that I foolishly followed and believed for over 3 years?” another user said.”
“Wednesday was the final chance at redemption for QAnon, a baseless far-right conspiracy theory alleging that former President Donald Trump was fighting a “deep state” cabal of pedophiles and human traffickers.
“Many believers of QAnon had anticipated that Biden would be arrested at his inauguration, or that Trump would do something, anything at all, to prevent his successor from taking office.
“But in the end, Trump said goodbye, danced to the ‘YMCA,’ and flew to Florida, and Biden became president.”
…You mean he LIED to me???
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The Beltway media is telling us that the two parties in the Senate are in a standoff over the use of the filibuster. Actually not just the filibuster, but the whole ‘organizing package’ of the current Congress that determines who controls committees. “The longer the standoff over the organizing package persists, the weirder the Senate will become. New senators have not been added to committees and the ratios have not changed, leaving the GOP in the majority on some panels.” This is all done, of course, for the sake of Mitch “the Bitch” McConnell and his attempts to retain effective personal veto power on all activity despite no longer being Senate Majority Leader. “Schumer may be able to satisfy McConnell with something less than a written commitment, perhaps a speech on the Senate floor or a verbal acknowledgement that his preference is not to invoke the nuclear option. But even some Republicans are skeptical that Democrats will give up their leverage so easily and simply trust that Republicans will work with them on legislation. McConnell’s “reasoning is let’s do it now while we’re all in this management mode as opposed to under fire when there’s a burning issue,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “I’m skeptical of the outcome. I think Mitch’s effort is noble but I just don’t think it ends there.”
This of course is happening at the same time that the Senate has to take Viceroy Trump’s second impeachment trial, and even after he basically sent a mob to kill them, hardly anyone in the Republican caucus is definitely saying they’d vote to convict. Senator Rand Paul (BR.-Kentucky) told Fox’s Laura Ingraham that “a third of Republicans will leave the party” if it goes along with impeachment. Well, again: sounds like a You problem.
Look, Democrats have two imperatives before this Biden Administration even gets off the ground: One is to stop the Republicans from filibustering every damn thing on the Senate floor or else it will take 60 Senators to get anything done, meaning, nothing will get done. The other is to convict Trump for inciting an insurrection, because even if he’s only the President of Mar-a-Lago now, a conviction would mean that there would be a simple majority vote on banning him from federal office again, and even if Rand Paul is inclined to forgive his Master for sending his mob to trash the chamber, I don’t think the fellow Senator from Kentucky will, especially since Trump, combining the worst traits of Archie Bunker and Inspector Clouseau, single-handedly killed the Republicans’ chances in Georgia, and with those losses, took McConnell’s control of the Senate. Which is why he has to fight for what he can now.
Democrats are probably not going to outright kill the filibuster (otherwise that would kill the influence of West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, the last conservative Southern Democrat, and they need all the Senators they have), but they at least need to maintain the option. Currently neither party has reason to back down, but someone has to. And again, the key factor for Republicans is that if they got what they want in both floor assignments and impeachment, Trump would go free to run again, and the more foresighted Republicans (such as they are) realize that would be as much a problem for them as anybody. At the same time, convicting Trump is a short-term priority for Democrats compared to the ability to organize the floor, since they know (from experience with Obama) that Mitch and the Republicans will try to obstruct every single thing they want to do and then turn around and say that Democrats can’t get anything done and use that as the reason to campaign for more seats.
Democrats have to use the Republicans’ position against them. They have to be willing to let Trump’s conviction go to fight for the Senate, because that’s what they actually HAVE now, and it’s only McConell who is forcing the issue. McConnell would (probably) like to convict Trump but he can’t press his caucus and Democrats still need at least 17 defectors from the Party of Trump. But after their second opportunity to hold Trump accountable, if they smile for the reporters and say he’s “learned his lesson” again, that’s a liability for anyone in 2022. And if they want to keep their committee assignments, Democrats have to go around them and bring everything to a floor vote, which Chuck Schumer can do now.
Democrats have to make it clear that they can bear the consequences of not going along with the Republicans – not having committees and not having a Trump conviction – better than the Republicans can. Trump is now just as much of a problem to them. And the committee system is a convenience for the body, and if Republicans want to make it inconvenient for the majority, Democrats will have to govern without it.
In short, if Chuck Schumer is capable of realizing it (which I doubt), Democrats really have Republicans over a barrel and he ought to just make them work with him and not the other way around. If Republicans don’t like it? Tough. It was Mitch McConnell who said “Elections have consequences.” It is the Republican Party that acts as though 51 percent of the vote (in their case less) earns 100 percent of the power. And however many conservatives pretend to Social Darwinism, there isn’t even a point in having elections if we cannot enforce consequences for peddling stupidity.