Surely you mean there is no motion from those in power in the legislative branch, namely the Republicans. The Democrats and Democrat-aligned independents make motions which are blocked by the Republicans.
People's inability to recognize who is responsible for bad acts leads to throw-the-bums out elections. People are disgruntled, whether based on facts or false beliefs fostered by propaganda. They throw the bums out. They hope for better things.
If we want the government to function better, we need to assign responsibility, not let Senator X and his pals, or Representative Y and her pals, screw everything thing up and then hide in the crowd. "Oh, look what the legislative branch has done! Throw them all out!"
But maybe their share portfolio being hurt will bring them to action...
When Democrats were in power, the Republicans found all sorts of ways to gum up the works.
In the comment above you suggested there's nothing congressional Democrats can do. That is incorrect. Any time the Republicans don't have unanimity, and any time they need sixty votes in the Senate, the Democrats have leverage. They need the guts, and/or the understanding of basic game theory, to use it.
Calling me an "armchair expert" and waving your hands about how things are complicated is not a counterargument.
And how many votes are needed for every executive order he signs? None, is the answer. The tarrifs required not one single vote from congress.
There won't be any votes that require 60 in the Senate that will happen for trump to continue his awful agenda.
Please tell us where exactly Democrats have any power, and be specific.
I didn't claim Democrats have absolute power, but they do have some.
Not really, given the budget reconciliation process and its applicabilty to that: bypasses the filibuster entirely and only a simple majority is needed with a 20-hour capped debate time ij each house.
> Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said Thursday that he planned to support the Republicans’ funding bill; he needed at least seven other Democrats to overcome a filibuster and set the vote up for final passage. Nine others who caucus with Democrats joined him and nearly all Republicans voted to advance the measure....The 62-38 vote came after days of turmoil among Senate Democrats who were split on either working with President Donald Trump and Republicans to pass a continuing resolution that includes $13 billion in cuts to nondefense spending or allowing the government to shut down.
No, they really don't have the power you think they do.
The Republicans don't need 60 votes in the Senate to pass tax cuts. They only need a simple majority, which they have.
>"Democrats, as the minority party, don’t have the votes to stop the GOP plan."
https://apnews.com/article/senate-budget-tax-cuts-spending-g...
You're crying that Democrats won't do anything, when they do not have the power to stop this. You're in need of some education about how the government works.
Higher prices and a possible recession will affect every person in the country and even globally.
His MAGA base might not blame him, but that’s only like 30-40% of the electorate. The other 60-70% won’t be happy if their lives are negatively impacted.
IMO the only thing that can get through is actual personal consequences for the voter themself
Well, yes. And his approval rating has been steadily declining in tandem with the stock market declines he's caused. If/when prices suddenly skyrocket because of tariffs, you can bet his approval ratings will decline further.
They will not blame Trump, republicans, conservatives nor anyone who work foe them.
Not everybody is part of the cult. Many people simply thought Trump would take the economy and prices back to 2019. If he doesn’t, he’ll be punished.
CBS published this list: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/which-products-most-affected-ta...
What exactly on this list is a day to day item that is going to adversely affect the middle class/blue collar Trump voter enough to cause them to flip their alliance? On that list maybe clothes and shoes. But even still those are generally bought only a couple of times a year and any increase will be griped about in the moment, but come election time will be forgotten.
There are only four things that will make a middle class voter feel pain enough to re-align their vote. Fuel/energy costs, general food costs, rent/housing costs, and job insecurity. If these tariffs do not adversely touch those areas, they will have little to no impact on switching votes. Also of note, over the last four years those items are the ones that drove Trump back into the Oval Office.
But the lower class will also feel the tariffs. Because the lower class needs that $9.99 sweat pants.
Foreign Alcohol as a treat - If it’s a “treat” it’s already likely a more expensive choice than a domestic equivalent and any cost increase becomes part of the luxury of it being a treat. If your $60 bottle of Italian wine that you occasionally treat yourself with is now $80, you won’t really notice that $20. If you do, maybe you opt for a better domestic instead. If the $20 california wine you daily drink becomes $30, you notice that. But I assert that there is quite a bit of exceptional alcohol produced in the US and the middle class electorate is not going to starve for decent alcohol.
Furniture - Like cars, this is not a regular purchase and frankly not one where a price comparison with a prior purchase of a similar item will really notice any price increase due to tariffs. How often do you replace a dinner table? 10 years? Of course it’s more expensive than the last time you needed one.
Coffee is the one example where you have daily consumption and like I said on my original comment, food is one area that if affected, people will notice.
The big unknown still is the impact on the economy and job market. His actions may reduce competitiveness of American companies globally due to retaliatory tariffs and resentment.
If the tariffs cause a recession, people will punish him for it.
Ultimately Trump needs GOP in congress to be friendly…more than he needs the public at this point. He cant (and wont, despite the trolling) run again.
It did though, they just didn't know how to measure it, and it wasn't felt immediately. It was like the flash of light that dazzles before the pressure wave of the nuclear bomb blasts everything (which in the analogy is this moment, now).
What happened on Jan 6, and in the leadup and response to it, was the erosion of democratic norms. Before Nov 2020 they were stronger, and after Jan 6 they were significantly weakened. Our institutions are essentially built on trust, and Trump in his campaign to overturn the 2020 election spent every waking moment for months attacking those foundations. He purposefully eroded people's trust in Democracy for no reason, because there ultimately the fraud he alleged in that election was not found.
That impacts everyone. They just don't feel it in the supermarket; they just have no "democracy meter" that they can use to gauge how healthy their representation is in government. But the reason he's able to do what he's doing now is he because he laid the foundation in 2020.
"Your concerns don't matter, and we hate you. Shut up and take it."
That and covid.
After these events, it's just a matter of time before they are deposed. A hostile elite can't go mask-off like that and expect to stay in power for long.
No widespread fraud was ever proven that could have swayed the election.
Should we have pretended there were major flaws with our voting system just to help you with your feelings?
Or maybe we should have let Trump be president again for no reason just because you were really upset about it.
And did you ever wonder why, if Democrats were able to magically steal the election in even red states like Georgia and Arizona in 2020, they didn’t bother to try it again in 2024?
I don't claim to have access to secret knowledge about the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the elections. My view on the actual election fraud claims is agnosticism. I have no access to information that would allow me to independently come to any conclusion on the matter.
However, a large volume of very plausible evidence was put forward. And, instead of honest engagement with those concerns, we got extreme censorship, gas lighting, and a violent crack-down on everyone involved.
We cannot allow people that have this attitude towards us to continue to rule over us.
Even AG Barr said there was no evidence of widespread fraud. The “plausible evidence” you speak of was a firestorm of unsubstantiated claims on social media that incited a violent attack on the capital.
Yes. Put your actual decision makers on social media, and have them engage openly with the people making unsubstantiated claims.
> Even AG Barr said
Almost all of the information that was put forward that seemed plausible was deleted from the internet, and never addressed.
We can figure out what happened after we get rid of everyone that played a role in that; once we have a truth-finding apparatus that is made up of friendlies.
The only thing that matters from all of this is that unfriendly people are in power, and the only solution to that is to get rid of them and replace them with friendly people.
Trump, for all of his many flaws, at least pretends to be friendly.
You think Trump is “friendly” and of course he is. He is the primary beneficiary and spreader of lies about the 2020 election, so why wouldn’t he also be the best arbiter of truth on the subject?
I prefer to live in democracy, where we follow a process to redress grievances. In 2020, President Trump's claims were given great deference. He was given the opportunity to prove them in court. He was heard by state legislatures and governors. The vice president weighed his claims. The Congress did as well. Even after the election states like Arizona handed over their voting machines to groups like the "Cyber Ninjas" who attempted to prove claims that ballots were tampered with in that state.
Nobody found the evidence Trump claimed.
Because it doesn't exist, it never did.
Because the alleged fraud did not happen.
What happened was a man lost a close but fair election. That's what the facts show, despite any threads you feel are "seemingly plausible", it was the most audited election in history. Eventually if you can't put up, you really have to shut up. It's that simple when it comes to a) living in a democracy and b) being an adult. Sometimes you don't get your way, and the response to that cannot be to burn down the entire system.
That's what I mean when I said that this impacted everyone - when childish temper tantrums like Jan 6 are allowed to stand, when the people who acted that way are pardoned and the person who instigated that event is reelected.... well that to me means we are trending away from democracy and toward a different way of dealing with reality.
With media in their pockets they can get away with anything.
For better or worse, though, voters don't judge politicians based on the impact their policies have in 10-20 years. They're going to judge these tariffs in 18 months when they vote in the midterms and again in 2028, long before a widespread shift in manufacturing can occur.
You accidentally answered your own question.
Folks who try to make "the insurrection!" a thing don't really have a good read on the pulse of the average American. This is a failed branding attempt for what amounted to an unscheduled tour around the Capitol.
The same people pushing "Jan 6th" can normally take home the gold medal in mental gymnastics when discussing the events ending with numerous American cities being on fire just 6 months prior. Multi-city infernos were "mostly peaceful" protests, but when a Republican is shot by Capitol security, it's an "insurrection."
Additionally, his base will not blame him, they will swallow whichever of the many narratives the propagandists are currently cooking up that suites their fancy.