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Democrats win control of Senate as US voters reject Trump’s agenda (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 5 days ago by to c/politics@lemmy.world
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Republicans routed as Democrats gain powerful new leverage over Trump for remainder of his presidency

Democrats have regained control of the US Senate, routing Republicans nationwide with historic victories that will give them powerful new leverage over Donald Trump for the remainder of his presidency.

Democrats will soon have the ability to hold up not just Trump’s legislative agenda, but also any appointments he makes to his cabinet or the federal judiciary – including the supreme court, where conservatives have a 6-3 majority.

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[–] 1 point 5 days ago (1 child)

I really don’t see any way the GOP wins the presidency in 2028. That’s just not how US politics work. People always hate Congress, but they blame the president for bad economies and bad news.

Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace in 1974. Regan trounced Carter in 1980. Never underestimate the American public's willingness to forget about past crimes. I hope you're right that 2028 becomes a second drubbing of the GOP over their failed policies and corruption. I also doubt that what we saw last night will have any durability. It wasn't all that long ago that Democrats were talking about the the Blue Wall. And that fell apart almost as fast as it got named.

Swing and low info voters simply don’t give much of a shit about the work Congress actually does on a daily basis. They’re going to blame the president for their problems like they always have.

I agree that most voters don't care about politics. And more importantly, they don't want to hear about it. And this is why I see an impeachment (which will ultimately fail) is such a dumb play. It will force people to deal with politics. It will be the news cycle for months. And ultimately the votes just don't exist in the Senate to convict. Which means the public has politics shoved in their face for months and the end result is a propaganda win for Trump. He will push a failure to convict as him being "INNOCENT of any wrong doing" (of course it will use ALL CAPS). And the Democrats get what out of that? No one is held accountable, nothing useful gets done to begin the process of fixing the country, and the public just sees the Democrats being useless for months on end.

We need to hold Trump and his cronies accountable. But it's not really possible right now. Once he is out of office and we have a DOJ which isn't filled with criminals, then they can pick apart the criminal empire. Until then, the Democrats need to show the public that they are working to make the lives of the public better.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago

    Nixon resigned due to corruption, and then who became president in 76? The economy stunk it up and Iran humiliated us in 1980, so then who became president? War goes bad and economy tanks in 2006, who got elected in 2008? Congress obstructs Obama for two years, who became president in 2016?

    I think you're proving my point, rather than refuting it. I'm not saying Americans have a long memory, I'm saying they've proven they don't understand the role of Congress in our government and blame the head of state instead.

    You can go back many decades and see the same pattern over and over again. Americans blame the president when things aren't going well, and reelect the president when they think things are good. And it's mainly but not exclusively tied to the economy.

    I don't see the economy improving with Trump in charge. It'll likely get worse. The GOP can whine and cry about Congress all they want but that's never worked in the past, and won't work now. Americans expect the president to deliver and they've allowed Congress to concede large amounts of power to the WH for that reason over the decades.

    I'm not making any argument about impeachment here (I'd rather harass the GOP with constant investigations), I'm simply saying the GOP doesn't have a good way out of this situation. And I do think it's going to be durable, because Trump is their biggest liability and he absolutely cannot stfu or stop doing impulsive, stupid stuff that grabs headlines and legitimately hurts voters.

    If Trump kicks the bucket and Vance tones things down, that could change the landscape. But even then he's not going to do all that much with a Dem Congress and many things like the medicaid cuts will hit hard under his watch.

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