And why didn't the Democrats pass a debt ceiling limit increase or abolish the whole debt ceiling nonsense after the mid-terms when they had control of both houses of Congress? Schumer and Pelosi could have done it, but they passed giving the GOP ammunition to hold Democratic priorities or the whole government and finance hostage. Obama fell for this game in 2010. Here we go again weaponizing the Republicans. When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?
The straightforward answer is that Manchin and Sinema weren’t willing to increase/get rid of the debt ceiling. If by “Democrats”, you meant the D leadership, last term, actually, no, they didn’t have a majority of the Senate. They actually had the Senate leadership (including VP) and 48 votes out of 100 with Manchin and Sinema essentially acting as centrist free agents.
The cynical view is that the Dems expect the GOP it overplay their hand and profit from it politically.
No Democratic priorities can be accomplished with a republican house, debt ceiling or not. Republicans have done this many times before, and each time they ended up releasing the hostage without shooting them. So for Dems it's a simple calculation, have attack adds run against them that they "voted for unlimited debt" or run attack adds against their opponents who "voted for default"
It seems to me that the Republicans have been captured by their most angry and extreme members and their supporters. These people revel in conflict and have forgotten that elections are won by the crucial people in the sensible center. This process has become so strong that they simply never contemplate what their ‘feel good’ actions look like to anyone who doesn’t hate Democrats. As a result being disruptive has become an end in itself rather than a strategy. It’s particularly dangerous for the Republicans because their supporter base is smaller than the Democrats (and getting smaller due to demographic trends) so they can’t win election just by firing up their base.
This is the problem when your tail (the batshit right-wing media) wags your dog (your party). Individual right-wing politicians get rewarded for lighting matches in houses by the right-wing media even if that loses the GOP votes.
I think that the Republicans are thinking with the ever more prevalent right wing media system (which Twitter is now becoming thanks to Elon Reeve Musk) that they will win the narrative this time.
I think the right-wing media system is ever more bat-shit wacko but, IMO, not more prevalent. At least, that “prevalence” doesn’t seem to matter much as Dems just had one of the best midterms for a party in power ever.
More fundamentally, I think your mental model of people as sheep is wrong. “The narrative” just doesn’t matter that much. The important swing voters are pretty apolitical, hold all sorts of contradictory political views and are not very online. Voters drive the narrative more than the other way around. The “narrative” before the 2022 midterms was a red wave. How much did “the narrative” matter?
And why didn't the Democrats pass a debt ceiling limit increase or abolish the whole debt ceiling nonsense after the mid-terms when they had control of both houses of Congress? Schumer and Pelosi could have done it, but they passed giving the GOP ammunition to hold Democratic priorities or the whole government and finance hostage. Obama fell for this game in 2010. Here we go again weaponizing the Republicans. When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?
The straightforward answer is that Manchin and Sinema weren’t willing to increase/get rid of the debt ceiling. If by “Democrats”, you meant the D leadership, last term, actually, no, they didn’t have a majority of the Senate. They actually had the Senate leadership (including VP) and 48 votes out of 100 with Manchin and Sinema essentially acting as centrist free agents.
The cynical view is that the Dems expect the GOP it overplay their hand and profit from it politically.
No Democratic priorities can be accomplished with a republican house, debt ceiling or not. Republicans have done this many times before, and each time they ended up releasing the hostage without shooting them. So for Dems it's a simple calculation, have attack adds run against them that they "voted for unlimited debt" or run attack adds against their opponents who "voted for default"
It seems to me that the Republicans have been captured by their most angry and extreme members and their supporters. These people revel in conflict and have forgotten that elections are won by the crucial people in the sensible center. This process has become so strong that they simply never contemplate what their ‘feel good’ actions look like to anyone who doesn’t hate Democrats. As a result being disruptive has become an end in itself rather than a strategy. It’s particularly dangerous for the Republicans because their supporter base is smaller than the Democrats (and getting smaller due to demographic trends) so they can’t win election just by firing up their base.
This is the problem when your tail (the batshit right-wing media) wags your dog (your party). Individual right-wing politicians get rewarded for lighting matches in houses by the right-wing media even if that loses the GOP votes.
Maybe House Republicans are dead wrong. That'd be great. What no one seems to be talking about is the Senate in '24:
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/05/senate-dems-reelection-00060062
A lot of people know of the Senate in 2024. All the more reason why Dems capturing the Presidency (and sure, House too) is so important.
I think that the Republicans are thinking with the ever more prevalent right wing media system (which Twitter is now becoming thanks to Elon Reeve Musk) that they will win the narrative this time.
I think the right-wing media system is ever more bat-shit wacko but, IMO, not more prevalent. At least, that “prevalence” doesn’t seem to matter much as Dems just had one of the best midterms for a party in power ever.
More fundamentally, I think your mental model of people as sheep is wrong. “The narrative” just doesn’t matter that much. The important swing voters are pretty apolitical, hold all sorts of contradictory political views and are not very online. Voters drive the narrative more than the other way around. The “narrative” before the 2022 midterms was a red wave. How much did “the narrative” matter?