makyo
It’s true that Manchin and Sinema are a pain and kill a lot of things that otherwise would get through majority votes. I mean I’m no expert or anything but I sure don’t get the sense that ending the filibuster would be something that would get the necessary unanimous support from the rest of the sitting Dems. It just seems like a lot of them believe it’s there for a good reason.
The person you’re replying to basically explains this - the two “democratic” senators (Manchin/Sinema) were not reliable votes so specifically on more rightwing issues you could usually get Manchin to be #50. Sinema is batshit as far as I’m concerned so it was pretty hard to ever get her to vote with the Dems.
Republicans absolutely will do something if it benefits them. We can safely assume current filibuster rules benefit them otherwise they would have removed them themselves already. Dems do actually stand on tradition (which is why they haven’t eliminated the filibuster even though it would greatly benefit them), often to their own detriment and I would say it’s far more likely that they are actully concerned about norms (I would say overly so) when they’re hesitant to do something like impeach justices.
THANK YOU
Dubbaya gets too much credit by which I mean I think he’s still been a worse POTUS than Trump was. Trump is a miserable lazy grifting criminal but W. actively made the wrong decision at nearly every juncture creating ripples throughout the world that we feel today and will feel for decades to come if not longer. Only Jan. 6 made me start to think maybe Trump could be worse for the USA and the planet - but that remains to be seen. Definitely all bets are off if Trump gets elected again.
So what they thought they’d just skate through their job as aides to the VP of the USA. I mean I know it’s not as demanding as POTUS but come on
I thought the larger point was that they’re using plenty of sources that do not lie in the public domain. Like if I download a textbook to read for a class instead of buying it - I could be proscecuted for stealing. And they’ve downloaded and read millions of books without paying for them.