How Will Biden Work With Republicans?

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I posted this elsewhere, but I thought it was a meaty enough question that it might bear starting a thread on it.

I’ve seen some A2kers (Max and Rev come immediately to mind) saying they have hopes that Biden will eschew the shouting and try to find ways to work across the aisle. I didn’t ask, but I suppose they also would like Biden to sort of forgive and forget Trump’s criminal, unethical and immoral actions, in favor of ‘looking ahead and not behind’, like Obama did with George W.

I just hope that Biden learned something from 8 years of Obama’s constant pivoting to try to get a few “moderate republicans” to go along with his agenda. He pivoted on climate change. He pivoted on immigration. He even tried to please republicans with his choice of very non-threatening Merrick Garland for SCOTUS. All these pivots got Obama bupkis.

I just hope that democrats learned that we need to bring guns to gunfights, and not just detailed policy proposals. I hope we’ve learned that moderation might be useful as ONE tool in a toolkit, but that moderation alone ain’t gonna save us. I hope we’ve learned that another integral tool is the willingness to roll the **** over anyone that opposes your goals.

Because the reality is that while reaching out to republicans is noble and small ‘d’ democratic, there is an incentive structure in place for Republicans to be intransigently oppositional. From the time of Newt Gingrich to now, republicans have built into their unspoken (and sometimes spoken) modus operendi that compromise means weakness.

I hope we’ve learned that, and that Biden doesn’t always feel obligated to play so nice when dealing with these republicans.

What do you think?

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Type: Question • Score: 7 • Views: 1,171 • Replies: 46

Oh, please, please, PLEASE do encourage this.

1 Reply

@McGentrix,

How’s that tear drinking going?

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@snood,

I am one of these people. I want Biden to reach across the aisle. More importantly, I want Biden to reach out to the American voters (i.e. not the politicians) that the extreme left hate.

I will say this clearly. The biggest battle that Biden will face is with the left. He will have to fend off the Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez wing of the party.

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@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

I am one of these people. I want Biden to reach across the aisle. More importantly, I want Biden to reach out to the American voters (i.e. not the politicians) that the extreme left hate.

I will say this clearly. The biggest battle that Biden will face is with the left. He will have to fend off the Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez wing of the party.

They have much more in common with each other than either of them do with anyone across the aisle.
It’s just dumb buying into the narrative that they need to beware of each other. We all better hope they find a way to use each other as assets.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

I don't think Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is going to be that influential. She's only been there for 2 years, and yes, she has become an imagined threat by the Republicans................. she gets attention, but she will not be the dominate face of the Democrat Party.

I desperately want both parties to cooperate for the good of the country and to protect the American people. What I don't want is a repeat of the Obama doctrine where one keeps trying to negotiate in good faith while asshats like McConnell chuckle at the naïveté of the Democrats and play them like fiddles. I admire Obama for his faith in decency and cooperation, but Boehner, McConnell and Eddie Munster never negotiated in good faith.

I doubt that Biden will be duplicitous like Trump, but I want him to be firm and fair.....and twist a few arms, and stop being afraid of the far right.

1 Reply

@snood,

There are left-wing extremists. There are right-wing extremists. They expend all of their energy throwing mud at each other. It is good for them; the right wing extremists justify the existence of left-wing extremism. But this eternal argument about who is a communist and who is a fascist isn't good for the country.

I want to reward the people on either side who care more about finding solutions for our real problems then in fighting these endless partisan battles. If someone on my side works with someone on the other side to solve a problem... I will reward them both.

Really Snood, aren't you tired of this?

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I heard a serious discussion on NPR recently about whether throwing a Molotov cocktail into a police car should be considered a serious crime.

The left is both silly and outrageous.

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I am much more concerned about the democrats being able to work with each other than trying to figure out how to work across the aisle with people who pride themselves in not compromising.

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@snood,

That's an important thing, too often Democrats get independent (it's what makes them democrats) But the Republicans don't think independently, someone tells them what to say and what to believe and then they all march in lockstep.

I truly hope the Democrats can maintain some discipline, the future is too important to screw around with.

PS, I just got a news update, Biden carried Arizona........guess Trump shouldn't have dissed a war hero.

1 Reply

@snood,

What is the goal of "Democrats being about to work with each other"? They can't even win the Senate in an easy year. That should tell you something. Do you even care if they get anything done?

It would be nice if Americans can work with each other.

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@maxdancona,

I’m not going to argue with you, Max. It accomplishes nothing. I don’t learn anything, and you just like to argue. Fight with someone else,

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

You bliieve there as a chance to retake the Senate. I think Biden won with a silent support from th Lincoln Project folks. This election was all about getting rid of Trump, not a counterplay of ideas.
I said elslewhere that in Pa's Conservative Center I saw many lawn sign arrays where ALL the GOP state and fed Offices were displayed but NO TRUMP signs.
I think down level offices were heavily supported by the gop and by Lincoln.
I dont believ that winning a Senate seat or bolstering the HOUSE was ever iin the cards . Hickenlooper in Colorado was a popular Dem Governor from a state that has been approaching cerulean in the last 10 years

1 Reply

@snood,

That's fine. You did invite me here in the OP. I am going to post my opinion. You can respond, or not, as you choose.

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snood wrote:

What do you think?

Well, you're clearly spouting nonsense about Republicans never being willing to negotiate. However, after the last four years, it's certainly going to be the case that there won't be much negotiation with Mr. Biden.

And you're clearly out of touch if you think that Mr. Biden is going to be able to roll over anything at all with the Republicans in control of the Senate.

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@glitterbag,

glitterbag wrote:

Boehner, McConnell and Eddie Munster never negotiated in good faith.

Untrue.

Mr. Obama was a bad president who wasn't capable of working with people that he disagreed with.

That's not the fault of the people that he couldn't work with. Mr. Obama's leadership failures are all his own.

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@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

I think down level offices were heavily supported by the gop and by Lincoln.

Actually the Lincoln people tried hard to oust moderate Republicans from the Senate.

In particular they put almost as much effort into toppling Susan Collins as they did into attacking Mr. Trump.

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@oralloy,

that didnt go so well did it?

1 Reply

@farmerman,

No it didn't. But they certainly tried to do it.

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@glitterbag,

glitterbag wrote:

That's an important thing, too often Democrats get independent (it's what makes them democrats) But the Republicans don't think independently, someone tells them what to say and what to believe and then they all march in lockstep.

Democrats and progressives sure seem to me to always be able to rant in lockstep.

glitterbag wrote:

PS, I just got a news update, Biden carried Arizona........guess Trump shouldn't have dissed a war hero.

Mr. Trump will get his second term in 2024, and that backstabber McCain will still be dead.

2 Replies

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