this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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Since they're a little less totalitarian than GOP they don't force everybody to vote with the party as aggressively. When the majority is narrow it like now that means Biden can't force it through if even just 1 or 2 people aren't on board.
And then you can look at the track record of the specific senators who won't go along. The party leadership would have to push alternative candidates to get them voted out to make that happen. But do you want them to have that degree of centralized control?
I mean this with no disrespect: I think you should examine why your response to criticism of the performance of elected officials is to focus on justifying the behavior of those you view as allies.
Can I suggest that you view it like a sports team? If you were on a sports team and the team lost, even if you thought that they were at a serious disadvantage, you'd watch the game tape and say, "Do you see here? We should've subbed out this player, and here, we should have avoided leaving this gap in the defense."
I think you're demonstrating a conditioned response to generate permission structures for a preferred party. I think the media programs us to view all criticism of our preferred party as a threat to their success, and the only response to criticism to be defending their actions instead of asking how we can leverage power better.
For contrast, compare Biden's nominees to lead the FCC and to the FTC. Biden nominated Lina Khan to the FCC in March of 2021 and he and Chuck Schumer got her confirmed in June. Under a 50-50 senate. And she's been an absolute all-star. This is what I wanna see.
Conversely, Biden waited NINE MONTHS into his presidency to appoint a head to the FTC. This has huge consequences. The FTC was captured by the internet service providers under Trump, and they can't reverse these terrible policies until they get a new Democratic appointee. After a nine month wait, the nomination stalled for a year, and now we're in year 3 of Biden's presidency and still living under Trump's net neutrality rules. There isn't a reason why this is okay. It's a fumble. It's a self-goal. If you want Biden to get reelected, don't spend time telling me why this is actually fine, join me in saying, "Hey! Wake up and take care of this! I've seen you guys do this with other nominees, so I know you can, so do it!"
Our job is to push the government to act, not run defense when it doesn't.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/07/biden-fcc-nominee-advances-to-senate-floor-despite-ted-cruzs-protests/
I don't view them as allies, just less terrible. I specifically do not treat it as sports because that's far too simplified.