Why would they want to stop it? They are GOP. Trump is GOP. The agenda they are pushing through is GOP. Time for Liberals to start buying guns and have a Leftist revolution.

I guess I was hoping that loyalty to country exceeded loyalty to the Republican Party or loyalty to the rich.

But that was a given. My surprise is that the media isn't putting any pressure on McConnell.

Well, we have known since at least 1994 that Republicans have precious little loyalty to the country. One suspects that they place their loyalty to their religious notions far above quaint ideas like democracy or freedom. After all, who cares what the founding fathers and philosophers think if you believe god told you otherwise. I don't think religiosity and democracy and easily compatible frankly

The issue is our bi-partisan system has led to a few major things feeding this issue:
1. Extremists in both parties refuse to cooperate in meaningful ways.
2. Gerrymandering has led to high concentrations of like minded people in each district.
3. The media has been declawed and seperated, now two narratives are told about every story. (Ex: school shooting - Liberals will talk of the gun issue while Conservatives lambaste the irresponsibility of someone)


This has a very simple chain reaction. If I am a republican senator, awaiting reeelction, I have to do the thing that will get me rejected which in most cases is whatever the party has pushed for. Since more extremists exist within the party these policies become more and more extreme. Because if gerrymandering I can't oppose my party and rely on moderate/liberal voters to vote for me; because they don't exist in my district. It's a bad system.

@Byron, but NEITHER side of the "separated media" seems to hold McConnell to account! I get it that the right doesn't say anything, but why is the left so silent?

Left and right in the US aren't all that widely spaced apart, are they? Both have major candidates sponsored by big multi-national corporations, and so both end up with centerist policies with comparatively little seperating them - constrast with the multipolar system in France (where neither major party even got to the final voted for president).

Sexual Harrassment Panda perhaps

@orathaic, I'll give you a pass since you're not from these parts. But the left and right in America are poles apart now. The canard that there's no difference between the parties is used by the right to coax lazy thinking idealists on the left to vote for the Green Party or some other protest vote.

@Hauta, both parties are in the pocket of corporate America. Why do you think Hillary got foisted on the Democrats.

The economic policies of the parties are minimally different. The social policies are the big difference.

Trump hasn't done anything illegal. He has pushed his agenda which he campaigned on and the GOP is supporting it to various levels. Trump hasn't done anything abusive or illegal.

You have to remember Americans are still recovering from anti-communist propaganda. So we really can't have that much variation in our economic policies. It's pretty much restricted and monitored capitalism V. Laissez Faire

@Carebear, maybe from where you sit the parties economic policies appear similar, but if you make $7.25/hr, then the Democrats policy/goal of $15/hr is a lot different from the Republicans.

@ND, you need to use better bait. I'm not going to respond to a hook in the water holding a sign that says "Eat me".

:)

@Hauta - That may be the only economic thing. When it comes to industry regulation, they barely do more than Republicans. During the Obama administration, how many bankers went to jail for the mortgage crisis?

Very similar, there are differences because different corporate entities support the Democrats from those which support the Republicans. So you see some differences.

But from a Euuropean perspective, there would be at least five parties if you didn't have a two-party system, and these would offer a variety of optipns. There would be moderates from both parties, there would be the religious right, and the conservative right, on the left there would be social liberals and possibly environmentalists.

And that is all guess work on my part but roughly the spread. Instead you have parties which can't agree on things, and can't kick members out for voting against the party (a party whip system which exists in most parliments) and both parties are reliant on corporate funding to get re-elected, so they listen to their lobbiests... The power balance is all off.

@Carebear, I won't deny that there are areas of agreement between the 2 parties, like stroking off Wall Street, but in many other areas, e.g. the environment, where Dems and all of the honest scientists acknowledge manmade-caused climate change but Repubs don't.

Note that McConnell's wife is a Secretary (of State, if it were British) in the Trump Cabinet.
McConnell is so parliamentary rules savvy that it's needed to be to remain as Majority (or Minority) Leader of the US Senate.
How he will get around a Democratic filibuster or other Dem. opposition to the nomination of whomever for a new FBI director without the screaming need for a Special Counsel in the current, near-Constitutional Crisis mode --- stay tuned.
P.S. Russian students at USA universities during the putsch attempt in Yeltsin's day were told to close their books, forget the Lectures and tune in CNN tv.