The case against it is that the premise — that there’s something Biden and Democrats could propose that Republicans would agree to — is highly suspect, given everything that has happened for the last thirty years.
Republicans reacted to Bill Clinton — not exactly Bernie Sanders, you know? —becoming president by voting *unanimously* against his first budget. Obama intro’d Mitt Romney’s health care plan and loaded stimulus with GOP-friendly tax cuts. They opposed both. It’s what they do.
This idea that a nontrivial number of Republicans will work with a Democratic president at the beginning of his administration — no matter what he proposes — is just pure fantasy. It’s based on *nothing* but pundits’ desire to pretend the Republican Party isn’t what it is.
Last November it became fashionable in some circles to say that court expansion hurt Democrats in Senate races, based on no evidence whatsoever. People who oppose expansion just asserted it, because they want to scare Democrats out of expanding the court.
Didn’t happen. (2/6)
Here’s the thing: Republicans don’t believe their own assertions about the politics of court expansion. We know that because *they didn’t run ads about it.*
Lemme say that again: *Republicans didn’t run ads about it.*
Just thinking about how the New York Times kept insisting Donald Trump was running a “law and order campaign” even as he was encouraging his supporters to become violent on his behalf.
I’m *pretty skeptical* that if BLM activists spent a month publicly detailing their plans to go to DC to overturn an election by force they’d be allowed to get close enough to the Capitol to brawl with cops on the steps and force evacuations.
It was always pretty clear that the Lincoln Project ads that got a lot of attention were unlikely to be particularly effective wrt actual voters Joe Biden needed. Not because “Twitter isn’t real life” but because Democratic voters aren’t GOP voters. (1/N)
A lot of Democratic activists are perpetually frustrated Democrats aren’t more “aggressive” and “hard-hitting.” (I often share this view!) So they’d see a harsh LP ad and think “See, Republicans know how to throw a punch!” and assume the LP ads were *effective.* (2/N)
(There’s nothing some Democrats enjoy more than assuming Republicans are strategic geniuses.) (3/N)
Hi. I see you’re a former prosecutor. I’m curious how many poor black defendants you decided to let history, not a jury, judge. Or is that reserved for powerful white fascists?