{"id":131965,"date":"2016-11-07T23:31:53","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T06:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/07\/daves-last-two-pre-election-2016-posts-no-really-part-2.html"},"modified":"2016-11-07T23:31:53","modified_gmt":"2016-11-08T06:31:53","slug":"daves-last-two-pre-election-2016-posts-no-really-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/07\/daves-last-two-pre-election-2016-posts-no-really-part-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Dave's Last Two Pre-Election 2016 Posts, No, Really (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

So for the past several years, we've had a Congress where the GOP dominates both houses. And the White House is occupied by a Democrat.<\/p>\n

How has that worked out?<\/p>\n

No, really. <\/p>\n

We've had a Republican Congress posturing about what it wants to undo about the Obama legacy, about stopping the Obama Administration, about endless attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, about going to any length, even shutting down the government,<\/i> in order to Stop. Obama. Any. Way. Possible.<\/p>\n

Every indication is that the GOP will continue that into a Clinton presidency. For example, multiple GOP Senators have said that they will oppose any<\/i> Supreme Court Justice nominated by Clinton. Not for what a given individual jurist seeks to do, or believes, or has a history on the bench about — but solely because Clinton has nominated them.<\/p>\n

That, in turn, leaves us with a weakened Supreme Court. It means that ties go to — well, whichever lower Federal Court ruled. It means that law and precedent across the nation varies, fraying the threads that make us a United States.<\/p>\n

We've had split Congresses before — one chamber Republican, the other Democratic. The result then was not necessarily gridlock, but compromise. Important issues had to be decided jointly. It wasn't necessarily pleasant, but government worked.<\/i> <\/p>\n

I'll confess I've an ideological bias. But outside of partisan politics, I can't see that another 4-8 years of a Republican-dominated Congress and a Democratic President is going to be of value to this nation. If you think that Hillary Clinton is a better choice for President, it makes no sense to vote that way and elect a Republican-dominated Senate. <\/p>\n

Right now, after at one point standing at 2-1 odds on 538 that the Dems would take the majority in the Senate, it now stands at roughly 50:50.<\/p>\n

If you are in one of those Senate swing states — Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina,<\/b> but also New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania<\/b> — please consider helping turn the Senate to the Democrats. Hell, given how goofy the Dems are, a slim Democratic majority is hardly a blank check to Wild Socialist Excess and Fiendish Leftist Witchery from The Hillary, in legislation or in judicial appointments. But it might mean that, in conjunction with a GOP-dominated House, we might get a Congress that halfway functions. <\/p>\n

Wouldn't that be refreshing?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/div>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So for the past several years, we've had a Congress where the GOP dominates both houses. And the White House is occupied by a Democrat. How has that worked out? No, really. We've had a Republican Congress posturing about what it wants to undo about the Obama legacy, about stopping the Obama Administration, about endless … Continue reading “Dave's Last Two Pre-Election 2016 Posts, No, Really (Part 2)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US+Senate+538+2016-11-07.JPGimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":129349,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/05\/if-your-candidate-doesnt-get-nominated-should-you-vote-for-the-one-who-does.html","url_meta":{"origin":131965,"position":0},"title":"If your candidate doesn't get nominated, should you vote for the one who does?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-Jan-16 11:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"(This may be a premature moment to have this discussion, as I suspect it will rise up again later this year. But I've seen it floating around in a lot of circles, and so I'm going to spend a lot of words summarizing my thoughts on it.)(Also, this is written\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/vote%2B-%2Bapathy%2Bsolves%2Bnothing.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132447,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/26\/here-come-de-judges.html","url_meta":{"origin":131965,"position":1},"title":"Here come de judges","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 26-Dec-16 12:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I suspect most liberals\/progressives aren't fully cognizant of the key role the federal judiciary has served in being a check on a GOP-controlled Congress and so many Republican-controlled statehouses. That's about to change as Trump inherits twice the open bench slots that Obama did when he took office, plus, of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131814,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/17\/the-essential-and-highly-respected-will-of-the-american-people-that-wasnt.html","url_meta":{"origin":131965,"position":2},"title":"The Essential and Highly Respected Will of the American People That Wasn't","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Oct-16 7:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"When Antonin Scalia died eight months ago, the GOP labored mightily to figure out why the sitting President should not get any sort of a hearing for his Constitutionally-sanctioned nomination to the Supreme Court. Ultimately, they settled on the idea that ... well ... um ... Obama was a lame\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32502,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/11\/yknow-im-just-about-to-give-up-this-government-thing.html","url_meta":{"origin":131965,"position":3},"title":"Y'know, I'm just about to give up this "government" thing*","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 11-Feb-13 2:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because (a) the GOP has demonstrated time and again that they are out to simply play games until they get their way, even as a Senate Minority, and (b) the Dems seem more than happy to let them do so. \u00a0Take for example yet another fully qualified candidate for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13470,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/12\/04\/the_eric_holder_kerfuffle.html","url_meta":{"origin":131965,"position":4},"title":"The Eric Holder kerfuffle","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Dec-08 9:27am","format":false,"excerpt":"Not to defend Holder's negligent sign-off,\u00a0on the last day of the Clinton Administration,\u00a0on the pardon of Marc Rich (everyone acknowledges it was a stupid thing to do, and a blot...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131666,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/28\/the-conservative-arizona-republic-endorses-clinton-for-president.html","url_meta":{"origin":131965,"position":5},"title":"The conservative "Arizona Republic" endorses Clinton for President","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 28-Sep-16 7:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yet another long-time conservative newspaper -- it hasn't supported a Democrat over a Republican since its founding in 1890 -- has come out for Hillary Clinton. The editorial lays out a calm case as to why she is a suitable candidate for president, and why Donald Trump is distinctly not.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}