The G.O.P. abandoned a bipartisan border security bill that also aided Ukraine after Democrats called their bluff on immigration, agreeing to tough measures Republicans demanded.

But Democrats tripped them up by offering substantial — almost unheard-of — concessions on immigration policy without insisting on much in return. Now it is Republicans who are rapidly abandoning a compromise that gave them much of what they wanted, leaving aid to Ukraine in deep jeopardy, border policy in turmoil and Congress again flailing as multiple crises at home and abroad go without attention because of a legislative stalemate.

Wait, dems don’t ask for anything when conceding to right-wing bullshit? Wait, repubs don’t actually want the things they say they want? Repubs don’t actually want to govern?

Call me surprised.

  • @NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    734 months ago

    Reminds me of when Trump and the repubs had the ability to repeal and replace the ACA but didn’t because they have no actual ideas or plans other than heel digging.

    • @bus_factor@lemmy.world
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      504 months ago

      Hey now, they came veery close to repealing it, McCain just decided to postpone dying for a few days to be the deciding vote against the repeal.

      They had no replacement, of course, because undoing whatever Obama did was the goal, not helping people.

    • Bipta
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      264 months ago

      Reminds me more of when McConnell was forced to filibuster his own bill.

      • @dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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        104 months ago

        And then came out publicly to blame Obama for “not doing enough to stop the bill.” His defense boiled down to, “why didn’t the adults do enough to convince me I was an idiot.”

        • littleblue✨
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          14 months ago

          Are we still doing Guillotine Bingo? I’m not sure I’m gonna get 'em all in the right order they go up the steps, but at least the prize is democracy and a return to near-sanity for most of us, eh? Whee!

  • DominusOfMegadeus
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    544 months ago

    I know it’s complicated, but it sure would be nice if there were consequences for congressional fuckery like this.

  • Republicans want a border crisis, so they can keep their base riled up. They don’t want to actually solve any issues, because then they wouldn’t have anything to screech about to their voters.

    • FenrirIII
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      74 months ago

      I saw somewhere that Fox News talked about the border every 5 minutes during the elections and almost not at all when the election is over.

  • TipRing
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    284 months ago

    This was always a Rope-a-Dope by the Democrats. As soon as Trump demanded Republicans oppose the deal, the Democrats in the senate were free to concede everything knowing it would never pass in the House and they could roast Republican ineffectiveness in the media. You don’t need to lambast the Democrats for rolling over to the right on a bill they knew was DOA in the other chamber.

  • @Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee
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    254 months ago

    Republican senator James Lankford of Oklahoma spoke on the floor of the Senate moments ago to say that Americans were telling Congress to “do something” about the increase in migration at the US-Mexico border.

    But he said he had Republican colleagues who believed lies they read on social media rather than the text of the bill itself. One unnamed fellow GOPer told him: “If you are trying to move a bill that solves the border crisis during the election, I will do everything to destroy you,” Lankford said. And they have done so, he said, by signaling they would not support a bill Republicans had said was sorely needed.

    There it is. It’s not about getting what their voters are directly asking for, it’s not about getting what their party claims they want, it’s all a show.

    • @girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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      34 months ago

      But he said he had Republican colleagues who believed lies they read on social media rather than the text of the bill itself.

      The current state of right wing America in a nutshell.

  • @Custoslibera@lemmy.world
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    64 months ago

    I’d like to think that somewhere deep down at least one republic congress person has a realization that they actually aren’t a functioning political party capable of a policy position but that’s just not true.

    What’s the point of you even being in office to death grip power if you’re impotent anyway?

  • @gastationsushi@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    DC brain article. The GOP position is a goal post attached to a high speed train. The Democrats can’t “win” by chasing after it.

  • @Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
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    -74 months ago

    Now the Republicans own the problem.

    That sneaky Joe Biden. Pretending to be over a barrel when the real plan was to trap them in their own foul stench and excrement. It was a win win for Joe and a lose lose for the GoP. But only Joe was intelligent enough to foresee the outcome. Bravo man. Bravo!

  • @ira@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    This is the dumbest take I’ve seen yet.

    Democrats gave up literally everything before even getting to the negotiating table. They’ve taken the Republicans’ wildest dreams and made it their initial offer. Republicans not accepting it and working them even further past that isn’t some kind of egg on their face moment, let alone a win, let alone, you know, actually helping people in desperate need of it.

    It’s wild watching the machinations that liberals go through to be racist while trying to convince people that they’re not. The end result of this is going to be even more draconian than what Democrats are offering, and that’s perfectly OK with many of them.

  • @TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    -164 months ago

    I don’t really give a shit about the media portraying this as a gotcha by Democrats.

    Them offering those concessions was fucking stupid in the first place, and they gained basically nothing while risking and incredible amount.

    No because if dig vomit articles like this,they’ll be convinced it’s galaxy brain move to do it again. A truly feckless party.

    • Talaraine
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      144 months ago

      You mean except for aid to Ukraine, which is desperately needed like, yesterday?

    • DarkGamer
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      94 months ago

      What exactly are they risking? What do you object to about the concessions? Looking at what was proposed it seems to be a quota on illegal immigration that triggers an emergency if the number is exceeded, and minor procedural changes intended to make the process more efficient.

      • @TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        What exactly are they risking? What do you object to about the concessions? Looking at what was proposed it seems to be a quota on illegal immigration that triggers an emergency if the number is exceeded, and minor procedural changes intended to make the process more efficient.

        They’ve effectively ceded the entire narrative around the boarder to Trump and accepted that there is a ‘crisis’.

        The risk they took was that this would actually have gotten passed, which would be stupendously horrible and almost certainty would have cost them the election.

        They got a shitty paper victory (which wont mean shit in 3 weeks), gave up any kind of distinction on the boarder, effectively accepting that Donald Trump is ‘right’ about border policy and they were ‘wrong’, risked the passage of an incredibly stupid and draconian border bill, and have generally shown that they are weaker than they were even considered to be.

        This entire community seriously needs to stop cheer leading Democrats and develop some critical thinking skills. This a ‘victory’ like removing single payer was a ‘victory’ under the Obamacare negotiations. Supposedly, it was going to get them Republican votes (spoiler: it didn’t).

        This whole thing is actually a huge loss for the Democrats, because they’ve effectively given Trump a W in terms of the entire framing of the border issue. It will come back to bite them, book mark this comment, and we can come back to it when it does. Effectively, Democrats have handed leadership on border policy to the Republicans. Democrats need to do so much better than they have been and dumb ass shit like this is not how they need to be doing better.

        Broadly, if the NY Times is calling something a victory, you should seriously consider it with greater scrutiny.

        • FaceDeer
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          44 months ago

          The problem is that right now the Democrats are all that the US has. These decisions need to be made right now and the Democrats are the only ones who physically have the ability to get them made in vaguely sane ways.

          So maybe you don’t like them, maybe you think they’re crap, maybe you think they’re doing a poor job. But that’s still the best you’re going to get right now, which is all that really matters for some very important things going on. And so we cheer them on.

          It’d be great if next chance the Americans get they swap them out for people who are better, but that chance isn’t coming along for a little while yet. And they’re stuck with a pretty shitty electorate, too, so that needs to be taken into account.

          • @MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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            54 months ago

            Recognizing how shitty they are is A PART OF recognizing where we are.

            We are stuck in a burning forest. Republicans are the arsonists who started it, and the Democrats are a half-fouled moped that we must use to get out.

            Though we MUST recognize that we’ve been given a half-fouled moped and not a Land Cruiser…

            • @TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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              34 months ago

              Republicans are the arsonists who started it, and the Democrats are a half-fouled moped that we must use to get out.

              Republicans want to unload a tanker truck of gasoline on the fire, while Democrats are negotiating to only pour a couple of gallons on the fire, as opposed to arguing in favor of water.

              Democrats are not a part of the problem, the are the problem in the same way Republicans are.

              Pretending this was some kind of Democratic victory is self-delusion at its finest and the Lemmy community needs to do better.

              • @MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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                24 months ago

                Almost entirely agreed. They aren’t a problem in the same way, but the point still stands in that the result is the same: us burning alive in a forest fire while Democrats cheer about falling in to a ravine with fewer trees…

          • @TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            There are long term electoral and policy consequences for these kinds of faux victories. We just watched the ratchet effect happen in real time. Republican border policy is now Democrat border policy.

            If the end result is stagnation there are less risky approaches. My biggest concern here is that Democrats will see this as a victory, and next time they are feeling their oats, they’ll try it again and get their hand slammed in the rat trap, and some insane piece of legislation will be one step closer to becoming law.

            It was a stupid fucking plan and they got lucky. To your point, the Dems are all we have. They shouldn’t be taking these kinds of low reward, high risk plays.

            • FaceDeer
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              4 months ago

              And perhaps that’s a sacrifice that’s worth making to prevent Ukraine from being genocided by Russia. Your judgment of what is a “low reward” is not necessarily shared by everyone.

              • @MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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                04 months ago

                Ah yes, you worry about Ukraine while our entire democracy here at home slips away…

                Fucking pathetic target fixation from you.

                • FaceDeer
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                  -24 months ago

                  Your democracy isn’t going to vanish because you’ve got some overly-strict border controls for a while.

                  Ukraine can vanish if Russia is able to conquer it. Millions of people can die in gulags, of starvation, or have their children taken away and “reedcuated.” It’s literally happened to Ukraine before. Russia is explicitly trying to do that to it again right now.

                  So excuse me for my priorities.

        • DarkGamer
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          4 months ago

          That’s one way to look at it, I see the Democratic response to be more like, “I don’t think there is a crisis but if stronger border security will shut you up and let us run the government like functional adults, I suppose that isn’t so bad. We like security, too.”

          Republicans have been fear-mongering over the border every election cycle with moderate success, and this takes the wind out of their sails without much of a downside. I don’t object to stronger borders/immigration reform even though I don’t think it’s as important an issue as the xenophobic right seems to.

    • @MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      You are correct, but the dipshits in the comments have the exact same attitude as Democrats… They think getting punched in the gut instead of the face is a win when not getting punched at all is ABSOLUTELY an option for someone who actually has balls…

      The bill might not have passed, but it has successfully moved the Democrats to the right. “Meet us in the middle!” cries the Republican, and the Democrat steps forward, and the Republican back… “Meet me in the middle!” Every. Time. Fucking dumb Democrats.

      Democrats are the party of boiling frogs.