>At least try to legislate.
It is still "puffery" if they don't have the needed majority to pass it. I am sorry, I can see you try to find any excuse, purity test, "no true Scotsman" fallacy, to rationalize not voting for the Democrats, but you will have to if you want anything to happen.
It's difficult for a politician to do something that isn't political, so I think we can let them off the hook for making symbolic gestures.
However, putting legislation up for a vote is not puffery. Establishing what parties vote against and why is actually an important part of what the opposition does. Otherwise they may as well not turn up.
Yeah, so, it won't be put up for a vote before the midterms. So? Are you going to vote for the party that at least proposes to do something you want, or will you vote, or leave in place, the party that has proposed nothing or the opposite?
Why should someone vote for the Democrats when they will just throw us under the bus the moment it becomes convenient?
Democrats aren’t a unified block, and they have some bright stars coming into their own this year. Their future looks bright, if people vote their interests the signal is getting through and change is possible.
And because republicans are a unified block whose entire platform is to serve you for dinner. Their whole existence is dedicated to reversing any change.
I would say the same about Republicans.
Yeah, "all" the Democrats will throw you under the bus. All of them. You aren't delusional at all. How much better you are under the Republicans!
You would like a third, fourth choice outside of Democrats and Republicans? Well, you would need a ranked-choice voting system for that. Remind me, who is pushing to extend that system of voting? And who is completely opposed to it and is even banning it wherever they can? Dare to answer?
Perhaps, just maybe, like i mean its possible, we live in a world where chains of events happen, markov style. So that when a bill that can't currently passed gets voted on, there is an event where the politicians who opposed it can be held accountable by thier constituent in later elections.
I know it sounds strange, but what if the math is right, and there can actually be casual relationships?
Sounds reasonable. Doesn't appear to match reality. People have very short memories and are subjected to way to many campaign ads (aka propaganda).
Calling on legislators (in any odds) to perform legislation “Puffery” is a hand wavey way to beg the assertion that “alternative tactics” need to be implemented to get around the process. This is how corruption happens.
Change the rules legally if they don’t work. Rouse your base with actual arguments legally if they don’t work.
Haha nope. It’s the opposite actually. They need to run candidates willing to say things that I agree with in order for me to vote for them.
Which they did, so your point is?
I mean, generally speaking they actually haven't. Look at all the candidates who abandoned trans rights.
A voter who won’t vote for anyone but their perfect candidate is electorally useless in a country of hundreds of millions. Democracy is about compromise, and compromise often means nobody is particularly happy about the outcome because nobody gets all of exactly what they want.
Trans people want to exist without being harassed, assaulted or killed, without being classified as degenerates by the government. They're in the same social space that gay people were 40 years ago.
You aren't talking about compromise on fiscal policy, you're talking about compromise on basic human rights and decency. Accepting transphobia from the Democratic party just means the transphobes get everything they want.
There is a huge difference between being on the wrong side of an issue and choosing not to take sides. In a lot of America, the trans kid in sports thing has turned into a clusterfuck. We probably don't have the votes to see that through. That does't mean someone should be against making trans a protected class for employment, et cetera purposes.
>There is a huge difference between being on the wrong side of an issue and choosing not to take sides
Democrats aren't choosing not to take sides, they're choosing to take the anti-trans side because they feel (likely correctly) that it holds more political currency in the current right-wing authoritarian climate.
>That doesn't mean someone should be against making trans a protected class for employment, et cetera purposes.
But that's just the thing - they will turn against that for the same reason, naked political opportunism. Republicans seem to actually care about principles, odious as those principles sometimes are, whereas the Democrats are constantly trying to curry favor with centrists and conservatives because they're afraid to be labelled "leftist."
> Republicans seem to actually care about principles
Which principles straddle Reagan, Gingrich, Bush and Trump?
for some reason I can't replay to jumpcrisscross below, so I'll put this here: Just cuz you can't get everything you want, doesn't mean you should have no 'hard lines' you're not willing to compromise on. So no, the past 20-30 years of 'the lesser of two evils' doesn't cut it anymore. I've voted for Dems. my whole life, but if they don't get a lot more effective, I wont be doing it in the future. When they had all 3 branches of legislature, they couldn't get stuff passed - everything got gutted or given away (remember the last shutdown when people begged them not to cave ?). Anyway, here's hoping for more independents and BrandNewCongress to pickup steam.
> When they had all 3 branches of legislature, they couldn't get stuff passed
And why? Aren't you forgetting something?
Who is hurt most by a government shutdown? What does it solve? Would Democrats have gained something politcally or lost more support?
Look at the opponents of Democrats (the party), and where they stand on trans rights. Most Democrats support trans rights, almost no Republicans do. We can all close our eyes and wish we had a system that didn't reduce down to two parties, but at the end of the day we're all going to get either a Democrat or a Republican representing us unless you live in a hyper specific part of the country.
Earlier today I had to grit my teeth and vote for Josh Turek in Iowa, even though I think he's a shithead who threw trans people under the bus just to eke out a few more votes from conservative fence sitters. I could've made a protest vote, but the realpolitik of the situation is I'm either getting Turek or his Republican opponent, and I think Turek will do a much better job representing me despite his dumbass about-face on trans issues, whereas the Republican will be actively harmful.
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In what way? Trans people are .01% of the US population. You're just repeating BS propaganda.
In many ways. Perhaps the worst is men being incarcerated in women's prisons because of prison housing policy that allows male prisoners to self-identify as women. These men have subsequently raped, sexually assaulted and impregnated female prisoners.
This has been a direct consequence of policy in multiple Democrat-led states which prioritizes self-declared gender identification over biological sex.
Just so you know, these are the opinions of a crazy person. And when you share these opinions IRL amongst normal people, they absolutely secretly start to realize you’re a crazy person.
No, this is real. Look up Ramel Blount, for example. A male prisoner, incarcerated in a women's prison, who was convicted and sentenced to seven years for raping a female prisoner who was housed with him.
He was in a women's facility because New York Department of Corrections policy (Directive 4498R-A) allowed him to self-identify there. Without this harmful policy, he would not have had access to women he could attack. This was policy introduced by mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democratic Party politician.
Then that specifically should be dealt with. It is not enough for the response people like you have had against ALL trans people.
Is this bait?
No I'm genuinely pleased with this change in direction by some Democrats. Hoping more will do the same.
So you think you are better? What have you achieved? Your own purity, at the expense of your trans friends' rights? "Yeah, you are hounded now by crass Republicans who use every lever of power to make your life hell, but at least I didn't vote for a Democrat who may or may not have lied about his support! Praise me!"
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