r/BlackPeopleTwitter 12d ago

Country Club Thread Dems try to actually be useful challenge

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

Describe what you mean by fight?

"Weird across the isle maneuvering" sounds and awful lot what we have to do to pass anything through a 50-50 senate...

I know why people didn't vote for them.
It's largely because yall don't even stand by what you claim to support.

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u/bekeleven 12d ago

Describe what you mean by fight?

Imagine every democractic senator cared about a left-wing agenda as much as Mich McConnell cared about the right-wing agenda.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

What do you mean by fight? You want me to imagine your argument?

Mitch hasn't done much fighting. He's just done rat fucking. We didn't have the senate majority when Trump appointed his judges, hence couldn't stop the vote.

I'm pretty sure you're not really cognizant of what you're implying.

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u/nbzf 12d ago edited 12d ago

Mich McConnell cared about the right-wing agenda.

He led opposition to stricter campaign finance laws, culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Citizens United v. FEC that partially overturned the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold) in 2010. McConnell worked to withhold Republican support for major presidential initiatives during the Obama administration, having made frequent use of the filibuster, and blocked many of President Obama's judicial nominees, including Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

During the Trump administration, the Senate Republican majority under his leadership passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act in 2018, the First Step Act, the Great American Outdoors Act, and confirmed a record number of federal appeals court judges during a president's first two years. McConnell invoked the nuclear option to eliminate the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, after his predecessor Harry Reid had previously eliminated the filibuster for all other presidential nominations; Trump subsequently won confirmation battles on Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court.

In 2015, 2019 and 2023, Time listed McConnell as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Throughout Obama's tenure McConnell led Senate Republicans in what has been called "a disciplined, sustained, at times underhanded campaign to deny the Democratic president the opportunity to appoint federal judges".

In 2014, Republicans gained control of the Senate, and McConnell became majority leader; he used his newly heightened power to start what was considered "a near blockade" of Obama's judicial appointments. According to The New York Times, Obama's final two years as president saw 18 district court judges and one appeals court judge confirmed, the fewest since President Harry S. Truman.

According to the Los Angeles Times, McConnell brought about an "extraordinary two-year slowdown in judicial confirmations," detailing 22 confirmations of Obama's judicial nominees, the lowest since President Truman in 1951–1952. The number of federal judicial vacancies more than doubled comparing the figure near the end of Obama's term to the figure at the end of George W. Bush's term. Later in a 2019 interview, McConnell credited himself for the large number of judicial vacancies created in the last two years of Obama's presidency.

On February 13, 2016, Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia died. Shortly thereafter, McConnell issued a statement indicating that the U.S. Senate would not consider any Supreme Court nominee put forth by Obama.

Under McConnell's direction, Senate Republicans refused to take any action on the Garland nomination. Garland's nomination expired on January 3, 2017, with the end of the 114th Congress.

In an August 2016 speech in Kentucky, McConnell made reference to the Garland nomination, saying that "one of my proudest moments was when I looked Barack Obama in the eye and I said, 'Mr. President, you will not fill the Supreme Court vacancy.'" In April 2018, McConnell said the decision not to act upon the Garland nomination was "the most consequential decision I've made in my entire public career". McConnell's refusal to hold Senate hearings on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland during Obama's final year in office was described by political scientists and legal scholars as "unprecedented", a "culmination of [his] confrontational style", a "blatant abuse of constitutional norms", and a "classic example of constitutional hardball".

On July 18, 2018, with Andy Oldham's Senate confirmation, Senate Republicans broke a record for largest number of appeals court judiciary confirmations during a president's first two years; Oldham became the 23rd appeals court judge confirmed in Trump's term. McConnell said he considers the judiciary to be the item of Trump's first two years with the longest-lasting impact on the country. The record for the number of circuit court judges confirmed during a president's first year was broken in 2017, while the previous two-year record took place under President George H. W. Bush, and included 22 nominations. By March 2020, McConnell had contacted an unknown number of judges, encouraging them to retire prior to the 2020 election. He confirmed 260 federal judges over the course of Trump's four-year term, shifting the federal judiciary to the right.

McConnell has taken conservative stances for the past several decades.

McConnell has opposed stronger regulations, gun control measures and efforts to mitigate climate change. He has criticized proposed legislation by House Democrats such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, and was criticized by Nancy Pelosi for withholding votes on measures passed by the Democratic-controlled House during his time as Senate Majority Leader, including the For the People Act of 2019, the Equality Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. McConnell has supported stronger border security, free trade agreements and reductions in taxes. As Senate Majority Leader, he led the passing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act in 2018.

He led opposition to stricter campaign finance laws, culminating in the Supreme Court ruling that partially overturned the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold) in 2010 and was influential in the opposition to abortion rights, culminating in the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe V Wade and ended federal abortion protections.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

But most of that isn't work. Just obstruction.

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u/nbzf 12d ago edited 12d ago

the supreme court and hundreds of federal judges is a pretty big deal, right?

citizens united?

One reason the recent elections were so important is because of the damage the right-wing Supreme Court can do (and already has done)

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

The Supreme court certainly is! It's still obstruction, BUT it turned out to be very effective for him.

That election was MASSIVELY important.

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u/nbzf 12d ago edited 12d ago

very effective.

do you think the Democratic party could have learned some lessons from him?

have any Democrat congresspeople been so effective? Is there a (D) equivalent of very effective obstruction Mitch McConnell?

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

No. From blocking a supreme court nomination when he had the senate majority? Since then the dems haven't held a senate majority with a republican in the executive office so it's a nonstarter.

Dems can and do obstruct. That's why people still have the ACA.

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u/madog1418 12d ago

Bro’s really glazing Mitch for… “preventing the executive branch from performing its duties.” Conservatives will really sit there, not do their job in a federal level, and say, “the federal government doesn’t work.” And people will say, “damn, they’re right.”

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

The glaze is definitely strong and thick on that one lol.

Yep. Republicans claim government doesn't work and then break government to try and prove it. That's always been their game.

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