IOW Dems have a razor thin majority a couple of times in the last 20 years for a 2-year period each. They are expected to pass legislation to fix every single problem in that time frame. They manage to get X, Y, and Z done in spite of Senate rules that tie one hand behind their backs and full out raging opposition by the repubs, and the response is “goddammit why didn’t you get the whole alphabet done, you assholes?”
Even worse are the ones who think the POTUS position is some kind of emperor who can just simply decree “Make it so” and boom it happens, so why hasn’t he done this or that like I want (yes I’m mixing metaphors but you get the point).
Senate rules that tie one hand behind their backs
Rules the democrats put in place on themselves twice, and republicans remove as soon as they’re in power.
You don’t get points for handicapping yourself.
POTUS position is some kind of emperor who can just simply decree “Make it so” and boom it happens
The US executive is one of the most powerful positions on the planet. They appoint the head of every single federal agency and are the only ones capable of directly enforcing their will. We saw it under Bush when he went to war without congressional approval and essentially said “Yeah I’ll ask permission to stay 9 months into the war”. We saw under Trump he just ignored the SCOTUS to fuck off and face no consequences, we saw under Biden he can just go around congress for many things like arms for Israel and summery deportation of asylum seekers.
The difference is we want the executive to use their power for good, not either pretend they don’t have it or use it for objectively bad things.
Rules the democrats put in place on themselves twice, and republicans remove as soon as they’re in power.
Nope, the republicans have not removed the filibuster or senatorial holds. (side note: In the past, the filibuster was restricted in regards to appointing justices/federal judges only. First by Dems for SCOTUS justices, then by Repubs for federal judges. Other than that neither of them have removed the filibuster. The filibuster and senatorial hold are the rules I was talking about, which are the main ways that repubs stymie Dems’ ability to pass legislation (and the other way around BTW).
We saw it under Bush when he went to war without congressional approval and essentially said “Yeah I’ll ask permission to stay 9 months into the war”.
But he did get congressional approval beforehand when they passed this resolution. Of course he got it by lying to Congress and the UN .