After the Blue Wave, 2019 Predictions

The only reason we have a highway system is because of that method, so I’m fine with it.

Call it the 2020 ‘Make Military Spending Useful Again’ Act or something.

Nah, you gotta go with something that sounds scary and patriotic.

“Logistical Reinforcement for Defense of National Security and Freedom Act.”

“Oh so you don’t want to defend the nation and freedom, Senator?”

Let it begin!

Much as I hate to agree with anyone from “the Institute for Free Speech”, he’s probably right. Not that the bill is going anywhere anyway, but even if it did, courts will hammer it. But it’ll make for some good sound bites!

I think we all know that fixing campaign finance is going to require a Constitutional Convention, which means it is never going to happen. But yes, it will generate sound bites about the Democrats doing what they promised to do.

That tightening and reforming campaign financing laws is viewed as unconstitutional is thanks to the corporatist takeover of the courts.

Once more, fuck you Scalia.

Yeah, that ruling will haunt us. It’s like a Reverse @ArmandoPenblade, where Scalia rises from the grave and shits on your dinner for years and years to come.

If there was any real desire to pass the bill, they could split it up. Keep the bits that don’t directly contradict Supreme Court constitutional rulings - auto voter registration, for instance. But this is about posturing so you might as well throw the kitchen sink in there.

I mean if any of it had a realistic shot of passing, maybe. But otherwise throw the whole package out there, make it one cohesive message.

There are zero parts of that bill that would pass a Republican Senate or be signed by a Republican president.

Agreed, but you can hammer them with their votes to keep corporations in charge of the country. Why don’t republicans want to drain the swamp and have fair elections?

Dems need to flood the House with smaller, more focused bills that contain the seeds of reform for election law, campaign finance, healthcare, education, infrastructure, environmental law, etc… Sure, those bills will get knocked down in the Senate, but at least people will see that Dems are trying to do something (that’s not just a stupid partisan grandstand) and that the GOP is actively playing obstructionist politics.

THAT is how you continue the Blue Wave…how you get even more people to the polls in 2020. If you can show that the seeds for these ideas exist, that unlike the GOP, Dems actually have real plans to tackle many of the issues that impact all Americans, then people will come out to support your candidates and give you the majority you need to get those ideas passed into legislation. Political stunt legislation like this bill they’re talking about is a total waste of time and just makes them look as bad as the GOP.

I agree. I’d rather see narrowly focused bills for obvious solutions / improvements, where you can point to the GOP and ask why they’re against them. Why are they against a national voting registration standard that makes it easier for everyone to vote? Why are they against anti voter-suppression legislation? Why are they against raising the Social Security payroll tax cap, which only benefits top earners? Etc.

The narrower the bill the better, because it makes it harder to paint it as extreme or to find a single thing that invalidates all

I’m ok with this as a starting bill, as long as they follow it up with narrower bills (that will also be rejected). Then Dems can point to their attempts to compromise by paring down the request and the GOP obstructing at every turn.