If money is power, then capitalism is a form of government, and that is exactly what we see happening.

Country has been wrong a long time, but much more transparently so.

This is probably the most famous one, all the way back from 2014! https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/abs/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B

And here's an OK video on the study (more biased than the study itself but very easy to understand): https://youtu.be/5tu32CCA_Ig

And this study contains a lot of great links and references if you want to go deeper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379421001256

of course it would have happened

all the dems had to do was nothing

The vote in January only requires a majority vote which the Republicans can push through without any Democrat support. They have no incentive to work with Democrats for that vote.

No, it is not fucking 4d chess.

Yes, we were always going to lose healthcare. trump only wants to destroy Obama's legacy.

But the Democrats chose the absolute most demoralising time possible to cave and still only used their sacrificial lambs who aren't up for reelection next year.

They uses the shutdown to win last Tuesday. Now they want to go home.

You're projecting competence on people who never meet the moment

They're not going to fix healthcare in January. They're not even going start a fight over it. By January, open enrollment will be over, and the fight will already be lost

If they had just waited until Thanksgiving, they could have gotten anything they wanted. There would have been consequences, and the blame would be squarely on Trump

Now? This was all for nothing. Maybe Republicans gave up some ground on the off cycle elections... But all of this was to force a negotiation

Then, days after getting a seat at the table, they immediately fold. Hell, reopening everything until January might have been the opening offer

Defeatism and capitulation haven't gotten us very far these past 10 months.

The majority of Americans (52%) blame Republicans for the shutdown and Trump's disapproval rating was up to 63%.

All they had to do was sit and wait. The heat was on the Republicans.

But no, let them off the hook like centrists always do. This country is in desperate need of a progressive wave.

The ACA subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has promised a vote in December which, I'll tell you right now, probably means we aren't going to hear about this again in a meaningful way. You'll see reporting that the subsidies have expired and that's it. Sure this was likely going to be the outcome but there isn't going to be a dramatic vote where the public will lay blame on Republicans unequivocally. This shutdown was that opportunity for accountability and the Democrats blew it.

Selling today for tomorrow erases all the pain that was suffered for a promise to do the same tomorrow. Neither party is in our favor. Burn it to the ground.

If it was a win, everyone would have voted for it. They would have declared victory. They would not have quietly done this on a Sunday with the minimum votes so most of them could have plausible deniability.

Just, no.

There is no master plan, there is no 3d chess, this is money talking.

The only way this works is if Republicans vote no in December. Then in January people start to see the massive increase in insurance directly taken out of their paychecks.

The dems then get to force another shutdown with more support because many Americans can only understand after something effects them directly.

I think they chose a bad time to do this, but here we are

This is why I reserve skepticism even for well reasoned posts.

You know... if I was a Russian disinfo gremlin desperate for something to pivot to after the whole "The name is Mamdani" spanking they just got I'd probably also be trying to amplify the whole "The Dems are cowards" messaging. Problem is that, thanks to years of their machinations, more people are actually checking sources and reading details now. Good.

Yep, its all so clear now.

I recall an infographic that I cant find at the moment. It showed congress as red, blue and purple over the decades, and he is spot on about the timing of congress splitting perfectly 50/50.

They just pussed out - didn't want Trump to end SNAP

That doesnt mean there are 42 "good ones". The ones that voted yes are the one chuck thought would be safe since they arent facing re-election in 2026. 42 no votes could be entirely theater.

It's because Schumer worked to get this to happen, then bowed out at the end so he could pretend he had nothing to do with it. He was the architect and the driving force behind this capitulation.

So people are downvoting MiddleAgesModem for falling for a blatantly obvious attempt by Schumer to redirect blame.

Probably because it is naive to think that Schumer didn't approve or even push for the Democrats to capitulate.

People are downvoting because they're using this to fulfill their pre-existing hatred of Schumer. Even if it doesn't make any sense.

Like the others, he pussed out.

He started the initiative by lowballing the Healthcare and these chucklefucks doubled down. If he had stuck to the plan this would be far less likely as an outcome.

As the top Dem in the senate it is his fault because he started it. Plus we are in this position because he did the same shit in the spring.

Yup. It's all kayfabe.

Everything Chuck says is just calculated and performative, just like when Josh Hawley pretended to give a shit about the impacts of the BBB on Missourians.