Just... well done.

No one with any sense would suggest that compromise be made on core principles. This bullshit pandering to the “‘pro-life’ Dem” happens every time the Dems lose and doesn’t become less stupid or more charming; whoever is convinced that the evangelical or coal miner vote is still in play would be one of those people…

The political theater throughout was great - Dems are on the edge of their seats and Klobuchar actually stands up with anticipation while Rubio is hanging out and chewing gum, then Schumer’s fast silencing of the cheers after John McCain’s dramatic thumbs down, and McConnell is actually pouting. Dems came across well…

I’m hoping for... I don’t know. A few of them were clearly uncomfortable, so that’s good? And people do things in crowds they’d never do alone. Regardless of how amazing any one law enforcement officer is, and they’re out there, it’s not a career path for people who love publicly flouting authority. Maybe on their…

Were they there... voluntarily? I guess crowds of people in uniform are really appealing to some people, but my first thought is always about how many of them are really just forced to be there.

Yeah, guy on the right is disturbing. But the guy on the left - those are the eyes of someone who is desperately wishing he is anywhere else. That is the face of someone thinking, “What has become of my life?” I like him.

I like to think they are either trying not to laugh at Capt. Crazy or that some of them that are winning bets on how soon he was going to say something was racist or how racist is was going to be or what direction the crazy would spew. But I’m an optimist.

There’s a huge difference between Americans surveyed supporting universal health care and their support for a single payer system, which the Pew Research Center put at 33% in June. I can see a public option in the next five years, but Medicare-for-all is a pipe dream.

Exactly! We have to fight, but becoming the mirror image of the GOP is not the way to go. Let’s popularize democratic norms again; we can be that “bipartisan” at the very least.

They’ve gotten some of what they wanted. Too much for my taste, but I don’t get to be dictator. But to really succeed, they have to pass laws. There’s money to be made for rich people, but only if they can pass the tax “reforms.”

Even if we have a slight majority, which is the most we could gain in the next few years, having a change of this magnitude with even 45% of the population feeling powerless and betrayed isn’t going to be stable. And I don’t think you or I really want to live anywhere that so many people aren’t represented by their…

My response specifically stated that the ACA was a failure of Republicans to be reasonable and that Dems did try to be bipartisan.

I suppose I would qualify that obstructionism is, by definition, without good purpose and call the things you’re describing protests, filibusters, boycotts, and organizing, among other things.

Aw, that inexplicably makes me feel bad for Joe Pesci, but you’re right. The Fonz is such a good example - even at the time, kind of a caricature of what older people thought younger people thought cool was, but never quite there.

But to meet those objectives, they’ve got to be able to pass laws. They certainly deserve the dumpster fire they’ve built, but most moderate/sane Repubs are frustrated, if not embarrassed, by the present... whatever you want to call what’s happening now.

So you’d call the government we have now a success? You think this is what they wanted?

Thank you! Obstructionism is tempting, like most things toddlers do when frustrated. But it’s not a solution to anything.

He would, although he’d have to change his confidentiality policies.

Yeah, bipartisanship IS the road Americans want Congress to take because half of Americans voted in Republican senators and half Democratic senators and the accomplishing nothing route hasn’t been good. In a country that’s pretty evenly divided by party, any one party doing all of the lawmaking is wrong, regardless of…

It does. And all credit that’s due to Murkowski and Collins, it was so sweet to hear the Senate actually gasp as McCain voted no.