9th November 2016, 5:50 PM
Sacred Jellybean Wrote:Even if Trump does something "impeachable", Republicans control both the House and Senate, and won't do a damned thing about it. Come January, they'll all be lining up to kiss the ring. The Don's election was a referendum on the establishment. He exceeded all expectations, beat every opponent, and rose to the top. Why fight him when you can join him?That could happen, yes, but he didn't win a majority of the popular vote and the vast majority of their actual legislators surely don't like him very much, so as his scandals and court cases pile up, I could see even the Republicans giving up on him. After all, almost all of them would rather have Pence as president anyway, no question.
Or alternately, if there's a big economic collapse or something or if America wants to right this wrong and gives the Dems a big win in 2018, then we can impeach him then for what is sure to be the most criminal White House since Nixon.
On the note of 2018, since we're the opposition now, defending those really hard to defend Senate seats in 2018 (North Dakota, Montana, Missouri...) probably gets easier -- the party out of power usually gains in off-year elections during the other party's presidency. Of course, the Dems gained a little in both houses of Congress this election, but that will hopefully continue.
Also, the party has been SERIOUSLY wiped out at the state level over the past 8 years, as the party in power usually loses in states too and we have totally failed to figure out how to ameliorate that, but now maybe that can start to reverse. Getting the states back will be a long, slow process, but it's important and being out of power may help with that.
Of course, none of that in any way makes this okay, not with how the Republicans now have all three branches of government again and will surely use that power for some incredibly bad legislation -- repealing Obamacare, etc etc. I wonder, will the Democrats in congress finally decide to actually oppose Republicans, instead of continuing the decent, but now clearly failed, strategy of being reasonable in the face of Republican intransigence? You will never fire up the base by constantly giving in, as Republicans figured out over the past eight years. Blocking everything is horrible for having a functioning democracy, but it works. That it's come to this is a sign of our democracy's decline, probably, but what else can you do in the face of a crazy party unwilling to ever compromise? Keeping Obama from accomplishing anything for six years has helped them. We can hurt them by using some of those tactics. 48 senators can accomplish a lot, if they actually try. I'm not expecting it, sadly, but they must.
Quote:We're fucked. Part of me wants to stay and watch the trainwreck, but this election has been so stressful, I think I just want to withdrawal and forget all about politics for a while. It's too much. The most I'd like to do is come back in the midterms, research who's on the ballot, and cast my vote there... occasional voting is the most power I'll ever have (outside of perhaps volunteering). But the day-to-day stuff? I need a break to keep my sanity.Understandable. With how much the media loves reporting on Trump (and helped him win of course!) TV and such is probably going to be insufferable for some time to come, no question... I don't think I'll want to watch much of that either.