It's just not true though--there's no way Manchin and Sinema were going for it.

They didn't even try. They didn't propose it, they didn't try to sell it to the public, they didn't try to pressure Manchin & Sinema. Surrendering in advance is the story of Dem decision-making for years and they're still doing it.

valid point.

Then WHIP the fucking caucus because that’s the DUTY of the LEADERS 🕯️for Harry Reid

You know how the Dem establishment are freaking out over the probable next NYC mayor? They could have done that with Sinema and Manchin too. They might not have been able to kick them out directly but they could have made them feel very unwelcome.

Should, not could. They weren't going to do it, but they should have. Many more people are going to suffer because they didn't.

The guy's entire political career was owned by Wall Street vampires and genocidal zionists. The Democratic establishment will lament his "decency" despite his repulsive record. Blue MAGA must die if the party is to ever recover.

Next Democratic president (if we’re still a republic) needs to throw decorum out and rule by fiat as Trump is. EOs to undo his big tax cut bill, re-establish birthright citizenship, and ban anonymous masked thugs kidnapping people off the streets.

Manchin and Sinema blocking it is a pretty critical piece of that history, though

People don't like hearing "a good thing didn't happen because it was blocked and stopped," but here in the real world, unlike the fiction we all consume, that's an outcome that happens.

I think we can still lay this on at the feet of the party as a whole. They have time and time again used "Vote Blue No Matter Who" to push through the worst candidates while scolding voters for wanting better. All while blacklisting progressive candidates who defeated weak incumbents.

Who replaced manchin? A Democratic socialist? A progressive? I'll give you a hint:

Do you really think the people of West Virginia are clamoring for progressive change but are being surpressed by the DNC?

The Democratic party has spent decades responding to Republican hate and bigotry with "they probably have a point but you shouldn't vote for them" so yeah of course he was replaced with someone worse. That is what happens when you constantly concede ground to bigots.

Google "Paula Jean Swearingen" and "Zack Shrewsbury." Then we can review if we could have done better than Manchin, who voted for more Biden judges and bills than any Republican would. Then we can analyze Sherrod Brown's Ohio loss. Then we can review the history of resource extraction in the US.

I think they must be a gang of toothless inbred hillbillies. Look at the kind of fuckers they KEEP electing.

They should have been kicked out of the party a long time ago. They ran using democrat donor funds, didn't they? Just another example of dems missing the mark so that when they can do nothing after, they are comfortable shrugging about it.

They were also both publicly violating federal law with their blindingly obvious quid pro quo selling out, but without justice laws don't mean anything.

As someone in Arizona, I'm still pissed as hell about it. Like to the point I think the ancient Roman practice of Damnatio memoriae is worthy of consideration.

The problem is - that it turned out they were correct. Killing the filibuster to codify a law that would've just been overturned by SCOTUS seems like a huge own goal. And - this Big Bootyful Bill wouldn't have had to go through reconciliation.

I mean, I've been beating that drum since I was calling Harry Reid wrong way back in the day. But that's not a popular way of looking at that particular procedural history.

True. But until the left can vote like the right, there's no good reason I can see to remove those guardrails. Ending the filibuster pretty much requires you to win EVERY election, whether inspired or not.

I honestly wonder if there is any scenario or amount of future knowledge that might lead them to agree to court packing. I'm thinking short of them actually getting the wall or driven into to exile by the fascists, the answer is no.

We begged. They both need to go.

The courts been a steaming pile since its inception

The Republicans currently have the trifecta. The only reason they haven't packed the court yet is because they already have the court. Could you please explain how the court reform would have prevented the said Republican trifecta?

Get it done quickly enough, and you have a SCOTUS that doesn't slow walk rulings pertaining to Trump's various charges, and that insurrectionist secret-stealing fuck gets jailed. Or a SCOTUS that doesn't hamstring Biden's agenda. It would only last till GOP control returned, but it could buy time.

Sleepy Joe asleep at the wheel again 😉👌

The things bluemaga forgets when they whine "there's nothing we can dooooo..." There were a lot of things that could have been done. They flushed all those opportunities because they're more comfortable being on the backfoot. More donor action that way.

Lest we forget Pelosi was the one that unilaterally killed Universal Healthcare to appease Republicans during ACA negotiations.

Nothing to upset the main stream. Democrats; we are not like Republicans. They get in power and look at what they did. a disgrace. Republicans: neen-neener! Democrats. We won’t go to their low. Republicans: thank you for making it easy for us to pull off a coup without any resistance. Refreshing.

Go back further when they had a super majority in the senate and refused to codify roe

Or we could have avoided this in 2010, and in 2016, and in 2020, and in 2024. But lets not look at all those chances to just do what was best for the country. "What have they done for me personally this year?" "Hillary didn't come to my house." "Where is Kamala and why hasn't she called me?"

Biden did not have a friendly scotus for one. For another, Trump can barely pass a reconciliation bill. He's just defending and impounding stuff. Nothing he's doing will have any lasting legislative impact if we can take back the house. You just need more support to actually do anything.

I hear we’re getting it soon… No wait, they’re say that’s tort reform….

Perhaps some democrats can start using what little money they have to push media in swing states. AOC and Bernie rallies are effective but need them in the last 3 months of an election cycle in battleground states. Electoral college, 2 term limit and voting id laws hamper progress in swing states

Reality of electoral college and citizens united. Democrats always playing catch up mainly due to one side outright cheating and breaking the law. The fact dnc suppresses some candidates in hopes of getting a centrist win is a symptom more than a cause.

Yes, tho also I think to the limited extent it is useful to assign blame, Biden owns that more than Schumer or Pelosi

All the same mindset.

There was zero chance of passing meaningful reform with such slim majorities.

That's not a knee-jerk "boo Biden" thing; he quite purposely kicked the conversation to a commission that was designed to defuse the issue, which it successfully did

Biden's biggest failure, unquestionably, is that he thought Trump was done (to be fair, so did I at the time). We thought it was 4 years of anomaly and back to normal, and we didn't do enough to make sure that it really was an anomaly and wouldn't happen again. We CANNOT make that mistake again.

Biden's biggest failure was choosing appeasement, also known as accessory after the fact in legal parlance, over justice. Of course, unfettered justice would have decimated both parties, and most of the judiciary. But bipartisanshit man has learned nothing from his decades of bipartisanshit.

The US developed this weird system whereby the Justice Department is part of the rxecutive branch, yet is somehow supposed to be independent. Biden either needed to not pick Garland, or quietly get him to quit. Pre-Trump, the idea of ordering investigations directly was supposedly beyond the pale.

... or Biden did intervene, but it was to prevent true justice from striking down "both sides" for their litany of crimes. This one's at least likely, I'm sure.

That's exactly what he did: he chose Merrick Garbage precisely for that purpose, and let Merrick Garbage betray the country from day one without even pretending that he valued justice.

He didn't have to actually order any particular investigation, all he had to do was choose a competent prosecutor and order him/her to DO YOUR JOB WITHOUT ANY PRETENSE AT FEAR OR FAVOR.

Some of us blackwomenfolk (the same ones who tried to sound the alarm and pleaded with Dems to pay attention when he brought Miller, et al, onboard his first campaign) NEVER thought ANY of that. We have NEVER had the luxury of making assumptions.

I'm a straight white dude and anyone who thought Trump was done after trying to overturn an election needs to get their fucking head checked. Which is a lot of people, apparently.

This is what Americans voted for and keep voting for. This is the GOP they keep rewarding after everything that has happened. This is the “exciting” outcome most of the media wanted. We have to grapple with that.

And we’re all going to pretend the DOJ under Biden didn’t prosecute Trump repeatedly, didn’t go after and jail the Jan 6 criminals, that Biden didn’t give speeches about the threat of authoritarianism (which the media criticized for superficial reasons).

It wasn’t an anomaly because too many of us actively wanted this or come up with excuses for eye didn’t vote, aren’t responsible, etc.

Not Biden’s failure, the voters failure. We had amazing candidates and the voters sat on their hands.

The problem with NOT making that mistake again, is we might not have a choice. Even if the Dem's retake the Senate and House in 2026 (which is 18 months away), is that going to matter? The Constitution is hanging by a thread, and 6 SCOTUS injustices and a president are determined to cut that thread.

Trump was indicted FOUR times in different jurisdictions. The fact that a random judge chosen was Aileen Cannon had a lot to do with it.

Biden clearly had little interest in pursuing it—whether that was the case because the votes were very obviously not there and he had other priorities, or he sincerely thought it was a bad idea and would buck an even greater D majority to reject, I can't really tell. But that's in the past.

What we really need is an effort on the left that makes the courts our #1 priority - because without the courts, we have nothing. Every single thing every Democrat (including the voters) should do should be with the sole goal of reorganizing the courts. We have to be feral about it.

He literally put together a blue ribbon panel to determine if they needed to expand the Supreme Court that determined there was no need to because institutions will hold strong.

I think our glorious leader is doing A LOT to elevate this issue in the American consciousness, it's close but I do think reelection trumps lobbying if seen as an actual threat

In actuality, Sinema and the corrupt dude from WV killed it cause they would not agree to kill the filibuster. No matter what Pelosi and Schumer did it was NEVER GOING TO PASS without Sinema and the other dude.

I wrote this for a different reason, but it is just as applicable here. bsky.app/profile/did:...

Court reform immediately Schumer is useless

a lot should have happened.

except Timothye Burke is lying..

Trump also should have been removed from office and never be able to hold office again post impeachment.Schumer and Peliso also killed that. They need to go home and nurture their grandchildren, permanently. Orange cheato isn't solely responsible for the ruination of the nation.

Is there some sort (any sort) of pressure they could have placed on Manchin and Sinema to encourage, force, buy their vote?

We were pleading for them to do something, warning time is limited and that MAGA will do this as soon as they get control, but they placed their misguided faith in that the system and the guardrails would hold.

He’s wrong though

Never had a clear majority and you know that. Blame today’s fascist regime on Dems? Gotcha.

and who amongst us could doubt the bona fides of "bubbaprog.lol"

You don't dismantle the lower-middle class over the last 40 years without them being complicit.

Akiva, thank you for that wonderful reminder. There are a few in the Democrat party that need to retire. Their day is over - Their thinking is not useful We need more minorities, women and young people who have the pulse of what is going on TODAY not yesterday in our party!✌🏼

All the old democ4ats have benefited immensly from citizens united, they are guilty either by association or by indiference with the exception of AOC and Bernie who is an independent.

Merrick Garland should have done his job.

the rumor was that not only Sinema and Manchin but also 8 or so other Democratic senators were opposed the affliction of passivity and false decorum

I read that too, that those Dems secretly opposed were happy to let Manchin and Sinema be the public face of the opposition.

True, but no one could have predicted that the U.S. would be this insipid, even 4 yrs ago. Most of us thought that we were rid of the orange imbecile. The real fault lies with the justice dept for not getting after it.

A good idea insufficiently explored: a Constitutional Court to which constitutionality questions are referred. Then SCOTUS can be limited to being the apex court of appeal.

We couldn't even get a raise in the minimum wage, for God's sake. Almost everything had to be done through reconciliation so no, that would absolutely never have gotten by Sinema and Manchin. In the two years we had a trifecta. Stop it.

It was Sinema and Manchin who killed it.

No, Machin and Sinema killed it. Just like they killed so much else.

We didn't have the court. We had no true majority in the Senate. But the amount of things President Biden and the Democratic party accomplished in the first two years should not be belittled.

Truth

American whine is getting old. We are free people & we have lightning in our hands. Let's grow a pair & exercise our Rights & Liberty. We the People are the boss in this country. We have the Right to Revolution. Why are We waiting? How long are we going to keep taking it? Revolution is the solution.