Mirth wrote:
How did it get to this stage? It's hard to find an answer to that because both 'sides' are so focused on blaming each other.
well, for politicians here, the number 1 goal is to get elected, the number 2 goal is to get re-elected, and there are no other goals.
if you make compromises with the other side, your primary opponent will use that against you to punish you and you'll get voted out of office.
the middle evaporated a long time ago. when obama got elected and inherited a nightmare, mitch mcconnell's first order of business was to inform the country that obama would be "a one term president" and the senate republican platform would be to simply oppose and obstruct everything obama wanted to do to make sure he wouldnt get re-elected. that didnt work (regarding him getting re-elected), but it did work in the sense that once dems lost their 60 seat majority, mcconnell could just be a cynical obstructionist. then that prick has the gall to speak at 1am last night how its all the democrats fault. he stood there and criticized all the democrats who voted against the CR, while 4 senior members of his own party also voted against it.
CHIP and protection for Dreamers are both very popular policies in the US, both have 70%+ approvals overall. but paul ryan is terrified that if they pass the DREAM act, trump will veto it, and because paul ryan has no spine, he wont put it on the floor of the house for a vote. CHIP has even higher approval ratings, but it hasn't been renewed yet because republicans knew they could use it as a bargaining chip to try and pass unpopular policy that they need 60 votes in the senate to pass.
before this complete disintegration of US politics, it was much easier to simply pass things both sides agreed on, then fight over the rest. now, agreement is seen as a weakness. mcconnell went to unprecedented lengths to destroy many of the norms in the senate during obama's 8 years (harry reid also made bad choices) and now that he cant keep his caucus together, he's still playing cynical games. schumer did the right thing. he kept 95% of his caucus together to make sure they kept the defections to less than 8. he allowed the dem senators in very red states to vote yes, so their opponent in november cant use it in a campaign ad.
but the democratic base isnt going to punish democrats for the vote last night. the base wants CHIP re-authorized and they want the DREAM act passed. well-educated moderates can see through the cynical rhetoric coming out of mcconnell and ryan. and past history shows that this shutdown won't really matter. republicans shut the government down in 2013 and they picked up a ton of seats in the 2014 mid-terms.
trump created this entire mess by rescinding obama's DACA exec order. he created this showdown by pushing for the short term deal in september. my guess is they are going to agree on a 2 week CR that funds the government, reauthorizes CHIP for 8 years (instead of 6), and then we'll be right back here again in 2 weeks figuring out what will happen with the DREAM act.
