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Will Stancil Profile picture
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22 Jan, 6 tweets, 2 min read
SPOILER ALERT: The big Democratic plan to beat Mitch McConnell's obstructionism is.....

MeSsAgE BiLlS
"We'll wait until Republicans block a popular message bill, and then public pressure to end the filibuster will ramp up!" is a strategy that has worked a grand total of NOT ONCE
You have 51 votes, which is enough to end the filibuster right now. END IT RIGHT NOW. Stop dithering!
Democrats are forever waiting for a giant wave of popular sentiment in their favor, which they can then ride to accomplish all the things they want to do, without ever having to go out on a limb and do those things. Literally attempting to lead from behind.
And it fails 100% of the time, because it turns out the American public is not plugged into CSPAN twenty-four hours a day, waiting for the final illustration that Republicans are being unreasonably unobstructionist.
Dear Democrats: stop wasting time trying to win an argument barely anyone is paying attention to. Nobody cares about Senate procedure. Just do the thing, or don't do it.

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More from @whstancil

Will Stancil Profile picture
21 Jan
This is actually not the puzzle people think it is. Manchin doesn't want to do anything dramatic to call attention to himself. If you make him the deciding vote, then suddenly it's REFUSING to end the filibuster that is the dramatic stand.
The best possible situation, for Joe Manchin, is people saying "Don't bother: Joe Manchin will never support it." He gets to veto stuff without ever having to be a deciding vote!
It's actually really rare for senators in the middle to single-handedly sabotage their whole party's aspirations, which is why it was shocking when John McCain and few others torpedoed ACA repeal.
Read 4 tweets
Will Stancil Profile picture
21 Jan
Once you start noticing how much Democrats have internalized the idea that the only way to legitimately govern is with Republican approval, you can't stop seeing it. You have the majority! You don't need their permission!
It's not just the insistence on doing everything with bipartisan votes. It's also how so much of what Dems say takes the form of "I hope my Republican colleagues can support this" or "My Republican colleagues, if they were being consistent, would support this."
If you're elected into the majority, you can do something because YOU want it. It doesn't matter what the minority party thinks! Govern for yourself, not for them.
Read 4 tweets
Will Stancil Profile picture
9 Jan
Reporters and writers who care about understanding the Trump era need to pay a lot closer attention to the role of self-imposed Democratic helplessness. There's a really stunning example of it going on right now. In the sweep of history it's minor but it's incredibly revealing.
If you urge Democrats to impeach before Monday, you'll probably get a bunch of responses shouting at you about the House rules, claiming Dems are moving as fast as possible and that it's impossible to reconvene before then. ImageImage
These claims appear to be false - there are ways to end the House's recess. Besides, it's strange to claim the Dems are moving with urgency when Pelosi is the one who recessed the House in the first place.

But what's even stranger than these claims is where they're coming from.
Read 11 tweets
Will Stancil Profile picture
8 Jan
No. It doesn't matter if the written text of the articles "make the case as strongly as possible" because the entire body that will be voting on those articles fled that case on foot just 48 hours ago.
Democrats don't have to package it all into a narrative. There was a horrifying attack. It has consumed the nation . Everyone knows what's happening. There's something bizarre and solipsistic about thinking this hinges on how Dems present the "story."
The fixation on effectively "telling a clear story" to voters is what undermined the first impeachment, by sabotaging the real investigation in favor of a supposedly simple narrative.
Read 4 tweets
Will Stancil Profile picture
8 Jan
At first I read "the president was trying to stage a coup" as Hill rhetorically framing known events, like a pundit might.

But that's not really what Hill does. I think she might be describing publicly UNKNOWN facts.

She talks about mob incitement as Plan B. What was Plan A?
All of the public discussion has proceeded from the assumption that while this was premeditated, it was not a conspiracy. It happened in public.

But what Hill is describing is a true conspiracy by Trump - albeit one that failed - that is currently unknown to the public.
It's possible she is just extrapolating from current public information, but she really doesn't seem like someone who would mouth off in public to voice a bunch of dire speculation, does she?
Read 5 tweets
Will Stancil Profile picture
8 Jan
Here’s the thing: ultimately, Trump WILL reverse his statement. It’s inevitable. He always does. The question is whether we remove him from office in the meantime.
He walked back his Charlottesville statement over and over, he even claimed the Access Hollywood video was somehow a hoax. The gravity of his ego is irresistible which is why you can’t ever beat him by forcing him to concede defeat in any fashion.
I TOLD YOU
Read 4 tweets

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