2825

It is closer to “We will carry out the party’s intentions” (or business).

Or maybe “We will fulfill the goals of the party”

2826

Really the point is that - for better or worse - the Soviets understood how to send information to the masses. Today, that role has been taken over by the Republican oriented media.

Democrats need to stop publishing thesis and academic articles about what’s wrong and start making posters, because what the Soviets (and Republicans today) get that they do not is the common guy.

2827

Thanks to you and @BennyProfane .*

“For better or worse” is right, though. I’m sure it’s occurred to a lot of Dem activists to create the same kind of propaganda (or its modern equivalent), but a) how effective would it really be and 2) does it dumb down the whole political discourse. OTOH, I guess some of that stuff was done here in the 1930’s and through WW2 and a good part of the Cold War to some effect.

*so partii is the genitive “of the party” and IIRC a final -m is the 2nd person plural verb ending, right?

2828

Given how the house voted on this, that seems exceptionally unlikely.

I’m not surprised, TBH, but it kind of boggles the mind that out of almost 200 elected GOP representatives, there is not a single person of integrity and character. Not even one.

Given the track record so far, I’m pretty sure we’re not going to find that unicorn in the US senate. It’s going to party lines straight down … assuming there are not a few democratic defectors.

2829

Members of the House need to please a pretty narrow swath of voters, within the smaller geographic population area of a congressional district.

Senators have to draw votes from an entire state.

There will be a half-dozen Republican senators who will have to make a choice that could end their political careers, one way or the other.

Now it may be that there aren’t enough votes to get a majority in the senate. It may even be likely.

But to try to derive the senate vote from the house vote today is a bad correlation to try to make.

2830

It’s not incomprehensible at all - if anything you more or less exactly described the shouting-based “conversation” I had with my father on the phone yesterday. He said, and not to exaggerate, agitated to the point of nearly yelling (paraphrasing as best I can from memory)

“What they fuck are Democrats doing for the little guy! They’re spending all this time on a witch hung against Trump and not one second for the American people! *I don’t give a shit if Trump shoots a person or cheats or steals it doesn’t fucking matter! Nobody else is giving a shit about immigration or …!”

I promptly asked him if he still cared about the rule of law.

“Of course I do, Jesus! Do you think the Democrats are any better!?!? All politicians are liars and you’re fooling yourself if you think any different!” And so forth.

2831

Looking for love in all the wrong places. :)

2832

This is an important point that many miss. This is why the house GOP is a different tier of turbo trash, with people like Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes.

2833

Well, there was Justin Amash (sp?) but he decided not to call himself a Republican anymore (and I can’t blame him, considering).

2834

I’m disappointed and somewhat surprised that nobody joined the Democrats… I do think the Senate will be different.
But this article was a good reminder why Republicans congressman are such cowards.

Analysts predict the contest to replace Rooney next year ultimately will come down to who can show the greatest fealty to the president.

“They’ll all be trying to outdo each other,” said Peter Bergerson, a political scientist at Florida Gulf Coast University. “It will be the Ivory soap test. You’ve got to be 99.99 percent pure. At least.”

2835

Is there a list of senators up of election in 2020 and which way they lean right now?

That’s probably the most interesting segment to consider as part of this whole process.

2836

This probably a fool’s errand. No Republican Senator, no matter what the polling says, is going to vote to convict Trump. Because they know that even if they get voted out, at least they can still count on the think tanks, lobbying, and FOX News gigs afterwards. A vote for conviction means heading back home and opening a car lot or something.

2837

I believe Romney will. I think Murkowski might. We’ll see what the polling looks like by the time they have to decide. If the polling moves enough, there’s a chance we see quite a few Republicans remembering they did not swear to defend Trump tower against all enemies.

2838

I wonder if any of them plan to look at the evidence and then make a decision based on the law. That would be pretty neat.

2839

You’re a dreamer, @rrmorton. But don’t ever change!

2840

Maybe we can all look forward to some tit-for-tat in 2024, or whatever, sort of like when Dems threatened not to approve any SCOTUS nominations until after Bush was out of office…

2841

Susan Collins (Maine), Cory Gardner (Colorado), and Martha McSally (Arizona) are the three most vulnerable Republicans running to try to keep their respective seats in 2020. All are up against strong candidates in states where the public opinion on the sitting president isn’t good.

I think Joni Ernst in Iowa may need to be careful as well. Thom Tillis in North Carolina may also want to keep a finger in the wind. John Cornyn in Texas and David Perdue in Georgia could get a bit nervous too, but so far neither is facing a really strong competitor.

2842

Riffing on what @Menzo already said, for “vulnerable” Republicans losing one single election may not be as catastrophic as losing FOX News support forever.

2843

I don’t think Susan Collins, Cory Gardner, or Martha McSally have much of a future in TV punditry, frankly.

2844

Ex Senators, in good standing, have all sorts of options. Lobbying, being on boards of directors, CEOs at telecom, pharma, or oil companies, etc.

But anyone voting for conviction will be excommunicated.

That is, unless it’s unanimous on the R side and they cast Trump off wholesale.

But that isn’t going to happen.