General Discussion

BeyondGeography

(39,374 posts) Thu May 2, 2019, 11:36 AM May 2019

Democrats have many avenues of attack. Why hold back?

Jennifer Rubin

Republicans and nervous Democrats would have us believe that Democrats must choose a single approach in the face of President Trump’s multifaceted wrongdoing. Nope.

The House can hold investigative hearings — calling Robert S. Mueller III, Donald McGahn, Hope Hicks and others — without yet making a decision to pursue impeachment of Trump. At the same time, the House can subpoena Attorney General William P. Barr and hold him in contempt if he refuses to appear and produce the full Mueller report. The House can also, if Barr still refuses and further instructs the U.S. attorney not to enforce a contempt finding in court, pursue impeachment of Barr. Too much going on at once? Well, that never stopped Trump.

None of his precludes the House from moving forward on popular legislation...

One gets the feeling that Democrats are far too concerned that rigorous pursuit of Trump’s wrongdoing will detract from winning messages on health care, the environment and income inequality. For one thing, the former helps enliven their base, and for another, Democrats risk tolerating worse and worse behavior if they show skittishness over pursuing their oversight functions. (We already see Barr testing the House by refusing to show up for a hearing.)

There is another benefit for Democrats in pursuing a full-court press on both substance and scandal: the Senate. As House bills pile up outside the Senate chamber (because Sen. Mitch McConnell won’t bring them up for votes), the GOP-controlled Senate refuses even to investigate obvious wrongdoing and Republican senators make fools of themselves slobbering over Trump and his Cabinet officials (as they did with Barr), the portrait of craven, spineless enablers becomes more vivid. They won’t pass bills. They won’t do real oversight. They won’t insist on truth-telling from witnesses. The more reasons they give voters to oppose sycophantic senators, the more likely a flip in control of the Senate becomes.

Democrats therefore shouldn’t reject the political gifts they have been given. Trump’s surplus of scandals and unpopular policy positions shouldn’t limit Democrats’ avenues of attack. To the contrary, they should advance on all fronts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/02/democrats-can-do-it-all/?utm_term=.b77c30e558c4

4 replies

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Highlight:

Democrats have many avenues of attack. Why hold back? (Original Post) BeyondGeography May 2019 OP

The House has passed a bunch of great bills NewJeffCT May 2019 #1

+1 Chin music May 2019 #2

Dry powder? Something about the Rust Belt? doompatrol39 May 2019 #3

Yep. On. All. Fronts. calimary May 2019 #4

NewJeffCT

(56,828 posts)

1. The House has passed a bunch of great bills

Reply to BeyondGeography (Original post)

Thu May 2, 2019, 11:39 AM

May 2019

that McConnell won't even let come to a vote

Chin music

(23,002 posts)

2. +1

Reply to NewJeffCT (Reply #1)

Thu May 2, 2019, 11:44 AM

May 2019

doompatrol39

(428 posts)

3. Dry powder? Something about the Rust Belt?

Reply to BeyondGeography (Original post)

Thu May 2, 2019, 11:47 AM

May 2019

Not 100% guaranteed to pass or be successful so why bother?
May be a .000000000000000001% chance that it could backfire so definitely don't want to take the chance?

Your guess is good as mine.

calimary

(81,304 posts)

4. Yep. On. All. Fronts.

Reply to BeyondGeography (Original post)

Thu May 2, 2019, 09:11 PM

May 2019

WHO says we "can't walk and chew gum at the same time"? It's really just being a good parent, at its very most basic. You DO NOT reward or reinforce bad behavior. You wouldn't do it with your three-year-old. You wouldn't do it with your dog. You wouldn't do it with someone who works for you. Why do our politicians get a carve-out? How come they're "exempt" from this fundamental corner-stone golden rule of responsible parenting? Frankly, our politicians, our reps and senators and governors and on up - anybody on our federal payroll, for that matter - is our EMPLOYEE. He/She works for US. NOT the other way around. Their job (that we give them, every time there's an election) is to do what we, their employers/bosses, direct them to do.

House is gun-shy about impeachment? That's probably because they don't hear much about it from the folks at home. Or the only ones who care to call in or otherwise try to communicate with their reps. Sooooooooo...

Seems to me that's where the rest of us come in! Go find an Indivisible group in your area and get involved, even just a little bit. They schedule regular office meetings with Senate AND House folk - even if it's staffers and not the actual representative. But your message is delivered nonetheless. And after they see you turning up every month or so, they start to realize you and your group are an active and organized interest group that they kinda have to make at least a little bit of time for. They don't take you for granted quite as much. Granted, Democratic representatives are a lot more amenable to your message than a CON will be. You'll be an annoyance to them, but a necessary evil, because every last one of the GOP representation on Capitol Hill is painfully aware of what organized Democrats were able to do last time it was time to vote. We took their House away. Indivisible had a lot to do with that. It's been written up and spoken about, and they all know it.

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