Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect explains the dilemma of divided government:
| Can Biden Govern With a Republican Senate? |
| It now looks like Biden will squeak through by taking Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. But in the Senate, Republicans will likely have 51 seats. If Mitch McConnell is leader of a Republican majority again, what then? For starters, Biden will have to govern as a more centrist president. It will take some doing for him to get a Cabinet confirmed. The most important players will be the three Republican Senate moderates: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Susan Collins of Maine. Biden will need to reach out to them and see if they will occasionally break Republican caucus discipline and vote to pass crucial legislation and confirm nominees. Something similar occurred in 2009 when President Obama found three Republican senators to help him pass the Recovery Act—Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania), Olympia Snowe (Maine), and, yes, Susan Collins. Their price was a much weaker act that redirected hundreds of billions from public investment to tax cuts. Thus the danger. To get nominees confirmed, Biden would need to shop them first to McConnell and then to the three moderates. That means his Cabinet will be even more centrist than it already was going to be. And forget Rooseveltian legislation in the first two years. One ray of hope: There is a very vulnerable class of GOP senators up in 2022. But in the meantime, Biden has to deliver something to an anxious electorate. |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Gotta love all the calls for Kumbaya from Troglodytes, MAGATs, Maskholes, and Malignant Militias who’d destroy the foundations of democracy, kidnap and assassinate our governor, and leave us dying of Covid in the gutters at the first drop of a tea-cornered hat-red. We don’t need a Mister Rogers here, we need a Mister “T” … no, the Real Mister “T”.
Agreed
Call me naive, but I think Biden will deliver.
Re: “The most important players will be the three Republican Senate moderates: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Susan Collins of Maine.”
What kind of braindead magaphoney could write a thing like that? Was he in a coma the last 4 years?
Lisa Jerkowski, Mitt Romneyan,and Susan “Barnabus” Collins
To be honest, I am not even thinking that far ahead. Task number 1 is to get rid of Trump, which is a big hurdle considering that Trump and his armed gangs of brownshirts are working overtime to invalidate the whole election process. If we get president Biden, that will be a huge victory. There was no blue tsunami, the Democrats did not gain enough seats in the Senate and even lost some members in the House. At the least, with Biden in the White House, there will no longer be a right wing judicial assembly line, mass producing right wing justices by the truckloads. The Senate will block Biden at every avenue but at some point they will have to accept some of Biden’s judicial appointees in the first years of his presidency? Or not? Obama did manage to appoint Sotomayor and Kagan to the SCOTUS, that’s not chopped liver.
I hope that the Democrats and Biden don’t wimp out and surrender to GOP bullying and hand the presidency to the demagogue/conman-in-chief. Possible scenario: due to all the acrimony, bloodshed and divisions, Biden might quit for the better good to avoid a 2nd Civil War? Just my nightmare that probably won’t happen?
Finian O’Toole’s commentary fits nicely with this post.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/12/03/democracys-afterlife/
Linda, check out the sixth paragraph. Wish I could have written that.
GregB,
Thanks for that link.
One thing – do you agree with me that “Trumpism” has affected people on the left, too?
The ones who spent all their efforts bashing Biden and defending Trump were infected by a cult-like belief in things that were not true. And nothing you could tell them would change their minds that they were right and it was Joe Biden who was the existential threat to our country and Trump was no big deal, just like Obama, but more uncouth and orange-haired.
There is a vast, likely unnavigable, gulf between those who only demand ideological purity and those who have strongly held principles grounded in pragmatism. The latter aren’t afraid of being labeled heretics when they must compromise to make progress–which is much more important than winning at all costs.
This is NOT about demanding ideological purity.
This is about the self-described progressives who are propagandized to lie and say that Biden was corrupt and evil. They sound as deluded as Trump voters to me — and they sound nothing like Bernie Sanders or AOC because neither Bernie nor AOC are propagandized like those few leftist progressives who sound as brainwashed as Trump voters and believe just as many lies as Trump voters do. If their “sources” told them that AOC was a secret corporate tool, those progressives who hate Biden would be repeating that AOC was a secret corporate tool (as they will be doing when AOC becomes a national candidate and the purveyors of propaganda needed willing idiots to repeat their propaganda.)
It is scary because those progressives would turn against AOC in a second if she was a threat to the people whose propaganda they lap up and amplify. It would not be because AOC did not meet their standard of “ideological purity”. It would be because they were convinced that AOC was corrupt and evil because the “sources” they trust far more than Bernie Sanders told them so. Remember, these are the very same people who are now saying that Noam Chomsky and Bernie Sanders are liars and the only “truth teller” is right wing fanboy favorite Caitlin Johnson, an Australian who they believe tells the truth when Bernie Sanders and Noam Chomsky keep lying to them! They sound just like Trump voters!
The reason Democrats used to win and progressive legislation happened was because progressives argued about POLICY! They criticized other democrats’ policy decisions!
The progressives like AOC and Bernie still are like this, but there is a loud and vocal group on the left which gets outsize attention who have been completely propagandized to repeat and legitimize right wing character attacks against the democrats. They will turn against AOC if she ever is in danger of having national power, based on some lie that their propaganda sources tell them is true.
The interesting thing about that small group of propagandists on the left who demonize democrats is that they are total Trumpists in that they accuse the democrats of “wanting to do” what president trump has already done!!! They ignore the actual things that Trump has done and say that the focus should be on preventing Democrats from winning because they will do exactly what Trump has already done! Yes, it is nonsense, but they insist that Trump is okay, but Dems are evil.
They are as cult-like as the Trump voters to me and their reasoning always sounds just like a Trump voter. They don’t sound anything like AOC and Bernie Sanders, they sound just like Trump voters and if Trump shot someone on Fifth Avenue, those loud propagandized leftists would say that we must defeat the Democrats at all costs because all the democrats would shoot someone on Fifth Ave if they won!
In other words, they accuse the democrats of “planning to do” what the republicans are already doing, in the best Karl Rove way.
LOL! As if Biden wants anything other than to govern as a centrist! This is the perfect scenario for him. He’ll govern exactly the way he wants – in fact, he’ll “reach across the aisle” at every opportunity, especially getting us into more wars – but he has the perfect cover for never getting anything progressive done. “Well, Republican obstructionism, y’know.” sad head shake.
You people who actually believed Biden would be the “next FDR” were pwned.
The folks here had no illusions about Biden but they agreed with the views of Chomsky, West, Mike Moore, and Bernie. Vote for Biden to put an end to the reign of an amoral serial liar and demagogue morphing into a wannabe Putin. We will be very fortunate if Biden actually gets to be #46. You know, Trump&Co. are working overtime to invalidate the election, in case you hadn’t noticed.
Archbishop Vagano wants people to pray about the election. What’s a prayer going to accomplish? 🤔
I’m so desperate that yes, I’m praying and I’m an agnostic on most days. I don’t think it can hurt so it’s worth a shot? Maybe?
We can always pray that God doesn’t listen to the Evangelicals.
What good will praying do?
Pray that God Is wearing Bose
Silence headphones, I suppose
Blotting out the crazy braying
Of Evangelistic praying
Moscow Mitch will play hard ball and many others will follow him, preventing Biden from having his preferred cabinet and policies enacted.
I wish it were otherwise.
There is also a lot to be done in making the Democratic party and its candidates vote-worthy.
Raising money is not enough, especially if billionaires like Bloomberg have the notion that he can buy enough ads in Florida to win the Latinx vote for Democrats. That was a waste but perfect demonstration of poor judgment of billionaires who think they can buy anything they want.
Joe:
Expand the court. Take a page from Jabba the Trump and pile up the Executive Orders.
Cant expand the court without the senate.
Ah. Thanks.
Schumer’s threat after Barrett confirmation a bit hollow now.
Ofc. Silly me!!! Please forgive the covfefe, I am exhausted. Still recovering from Election Night.
A Republican Senate will limit what Biden can get done, but we also know that Biden is known as a deal maker. The legislative process is a transactional one of give and take. Supporters of public education must let it be known that public schools must not be on the chopping block as they have been already sacrificed too much in the past twenty years.
Since twenty-two conservative senators will be up for re-election in 2022, Democratic strategists should start now to craft a winning strategy. Politics is a game of chess, and planning ahead to win is where the Democrats have fallen short. Democrats need to strategize how to flip the districts of some of the vulnerable Republican senators. If they can hold on to the remaining Democrats, Biden may get a chance to make significant change in the last two years of his term.
Although it’s not much, even if Biden spent the next four years governing from a deep coma, it would be a marked improvement over the past four years.
Agreed. Four years without have to listen to or watch the Orange One! That’s a blessing!
The only thing that will shut him up is being put into prison. He’s probably looking into countries without extradition treaties with the US right now.
I’m reading now that if the current leads hold, the Dems will have a slim majority of 221-214 in the House. I think they have 232 seats in the House today.
Grrrrr. The horrible news keeps coming.
Right now I will be relieved that the democrats keep the house. That’s good news. especially if Trump ends up with another 4 years.
It’s also possible that Republicans may not be under the grip of Trump anymore, plus they realize that if they continue with what they have been doing, they will lose it all 4 years from now.
Yay! That moron-in-chief must be having a major hissy fit. Good. Take him out in a straight jacket and handcuffed.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/11/6/1993283/-Georgia-turns-blue-Pennsylvania-on-the-brink-and-an-official-call-could-come-any-minute-now?detail=emaildkbn
After a long night of waiting, both Georgia and Pennsylvania flip to blue
Nobody can govern with a Republican Senate, not even a Republican.
Course it’s been at least 4 years since any President has tried to govern.