General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPlease Keep in Mind That Republicans Chair all Congressional
committees. Democrats on those committees do not get to decide what the committee does, who it hears or whether there is a public or private hearing.
Do not blame Democrats for what Republican committee chairs do. The Democrats don't get to decide. We are not in the majority right now.
If you want to fix that, get to work on the 2018 mid-term elections in your own Districts and States. That's how we get to decide what happens.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)for pledging his unwavering loyalty to Satan, and I think Mueller needs to start investigating him.
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)So it goes.
MiddleClass
(888 posts)Which are totally at the discretion of the chairman.
That's why Republicans say winning Congress is not about the speaker, it's about subpoena power, which is absolute, and at the sole discretion of the chairman of each separate commission, which the speaker appoints
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)This is what happens when people do not pay attention or stay home on Election day.
MiddleClass
(888 posts)To do anything legislatively outside of constituent services like, facilitating zoning, services, and the like.
You must be in the majority to get anything done, to provide, any oversight, get laws on the ballot, or basically do anything.
I think you mean required in the title
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)messaging. We have Zero Media on our side. Today we are seeing Comcast/NBC/MSNBC,framing the Narrative of the Democratic Party is out of touch with their Members ans Supporters and look no further than GA.6,and you guys have to move to the right to capture the Trump Voter. Heard this statement and others in the same tone coming from most of their over paid on air Talents. Gary Lack,Phil Griften and Zucker at CNN are driving this POS Narrative simply to maintain Ratings and Access to the Rethug Party.
MiddleClass
(888 posts)O.J. trial, CNN ratings, everyone chasing the ball rather than the news, it was all over.
Republicans were way better at boiling down to simple poll tested talking points.
Target talking points, wins over explaining genuine compassion. Every time.
A simple statement in politics, your explaining your losing.
Donald trumps Bullshit ice cream for everybody tagline, about health care at no point was tethered to any truth. But it still won.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)doctrine,that was the day the Rethugs Spin misters took over.
MiddleClass
(888 posts)But that helped,
Republicans beat us at controlling the narrative, sucking up the oxygen, regurgitating talking points in tandem like tag team. Ever notice Republicans use the exact same words, no matter the pundit is, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, George Will, Rich Lowery, on print, on radio, on TV, on C-SPAN, same phrases, same words. While Democrats were trying to explain compassion and why those talking points had no compassion, in all different ways, words, phrases, and most of all opinions.
The Fox news daily memo that Roger Ailes made his reports live by, have the same words.
Repetition is easier to remember than dissertation.
Which you remember more, Chris Dardens closing statement or gloves don't fit, you must acquit
They were better at the game than us
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)as a sales Rep. First thing one picks up on was,the Faxes with talking points nailed to the walls. Yes they are organized to the max.
Funny thing,these talking points are distributed to each and every operative early every day.
MiddleClass
(888 posts)Now that's a very pertinent bit of information,
the vast right wing conspiracy not only exists, it's larger than anyone thought
tblue37
(65,487 posts)into promoting their cause. Kochs, Mercers, Adelstein, Scaif when he was alive--They are billionaires, and they don't flinch at the cost of their crusade.
They have bought up broadcast media and some newspapers. The Mercers also fund Breitbart and have probably worked with the Russians (the Mercers own Cambridge Analytical) to use advanced data mining to microtarget lying propaganda and to mess with voter rolls to undermine election integrity. (I suspect they probably have hacked voting machines, too.)
RW moneybags also fund RW politicians and election ground troops, and they fund RW think tanks, to provide an endless supply of RW "experts" (mouths) to spew the party line on TV and radio and to produce articles and white papers that shape public discourse and policy.
Unlike more liberal donors, RW billionaires play the long game. They build political infrastructure, and they fill the pipeline with true believers in local and state offices, and nurture them to develop national stature to pursue national office.
Because they and their ground troops are fanatics, they don't lose interest or get distracted. Their voters vote, and they not only vote in every election, but always for the Republican candidate. They typically cannot be lured away by third-party pipedreams. Nor do they ditch their party's candidate for being less than perfect on a specific issue. Their voters accept that sometimes they must vote for someone they consider the "lesser of two evils."
And these guys fight dirty, dirty, dirty, while Democrats and liberals keep expecting there to be some limit to the viciousness, the ratf**king, the violation of basic decency, and the outright cheating.
We cannot keep showing up to these gunfights with granola bars and Robert's Rules. I don't want our side to turn evil or to cheat, but I wish we would scream as loudly as they do when our toes are stepped on, and I wish our "leaders" would look at the big picture and plan ahead instead of just reacting.
For example, our liberal rich people (though we have fewer of the super-rich, we do have some people on our side with money) should be funding media (and accepting, as RW moneybags do that they won't necessarily turn a profit), establishing and supporting think tanks and political ground organizations.
Above all, liberal money and liberal and Democratic officeholders should have long since been countering the wide variety of effective voter suppression tactics used by the RW, as well as insisting on hand-counted paper ballots in every election, with strict chain of custody observed for ballots.
Those with money and power on our side have been asleep at the wheel for decades while the RW has played the long game. I fear it might be too late to fix this mess, but I wish to hell they would try.
And they need to stop moving to the right and calling it the "center."
MiddleClass
(888 posts)Holy crap, it's worse than I thought, this dark money as got to be eliminated. Somehow.
Money has got to be taken out of politics, not campaigns + soft-money, but this dark money.
Now I knew about the Koch's and the heritage foundation, American enterprise Institute in a few more.
But damn, I really did not know and had not searched the Mercers, so I was unaware.
The right wing conspiracy, Hillary was right, and she was made fun of for that
Gabi Hayes
(28,795 posts)All the republicultists drove around with tapes Gingrich distributed in early 90s
Here you go. All you need to know, including the word lists that these FASCIST shills repeated ad nauseam
And it worked so well it got WJC impeached
Simple Bernaysian Marketing 101
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4443.htm
MiddleClass
(888 posts)David Dreier, JD Hayworth, Byron York, David from, Michele Bachmann, Kellyann Conway etc. use to spew, it makes me nauseous.
We got it do something about it, we got to organize against it, we got to outlaw this Bullshit
Gabi Hayes
(28,795 posts)Worship at the luntz/Gingrich altar
Lot of the class of 95 and later owe their careers to the GOPAC catechism
tblue37
(65,487 posts)calimary
(81,461 posts)EXACTLY.
EXACTLY.
EXACTLY.
EXACTLY.
EXACTLY.
EXACTLY.
EXACTLY.
EXACTLY.
EXACTLY.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)via their programing and the Gnat Attention Span that has over taken our Nation.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)'single payer or bust!"