> The Democratic base is tired of reaching across the aisle only to have their hands slapped and be met with disapproval and silence.
Perhaps the Democratic base should stop "reaching across the aisle" the way they are because it clearly isn't working. On any given issue, Republicans generally understand the Democratic position on things and reject it. Democrats rarely understand the Republican position. That makes it sound like "reaching across the aisle" is a bit more of "preaching across the aisle" than truly attempting collaboration.
> And revenge means a D Potus coming in and doing things like firing every Republican they can, attempting to redirect funds.
This already generally happens, and more power to the Democrats who want to swing the pendulum hard on the Republicans after this one. The fact remains that for the last several administrations, if you were high up in one of these organizations, you would have to expect to get fired or demoted when the other party gets into power. If you want to see the history of this, the EPA has some of the most visible examples. The situation that's new is the wholesale gutting of entire agencies at the direction of a third party (Elon Musk).
> IMO, the only revenge that will work is by making laws forcing both sides to legislate. Idk what that looks like but not legislating has led to interpreting the law as acceptable behavior for the team to win, not interpreting the law as applied against the acting individual. However something like a legislation quota sounds messy and easily abused in a country of lobbyists.
I completely agree with you here. The administrative bloat of the executive branch is largely because the legislature has abdicated the power to write the rules on all but the broadest basis to the executive branch. The executive branch is run by only one elected person who has the power to change quite a bit about its operations.
> On any given issue, Republicans generally understand the Democratic position on things and reject it. Democrats rarely understand the Republican position.
The Republican position cannot be understood if all they ever do is reject any legislation from the opposing party as opposed to collaborating.
Reaching across the aisle doesn't mean "preaching across the aisle". That's a pretty bad faith argument.
Democrats don't have radically different ideals. Most are moderates as are most Republicans. To reach across the aisle refers to picking popular issues amongst both parties and attempting to negotiate on legislation, exactly how a functioning country should operate. Republicans have instead slapped the hands of anyone attempting to create legislation out of bad faith that they are not the side generating the good will.
This tracks consistently with the other side of the Republican party that wants to regress the country not create new legislation.
The Republican position is fully understood, that is no mystery. Why they choose to not fix bad legislation or not modernize legislation is entirely based in avoiding any idea of bipartisanship so they can point fingers and shrug off blame.
Perhaps the Democratic base should stop "reaching across the aisle" the way they are because it clearly isn't working. On any given issue, Republicans generally understand the Democratic position on things and reject it. Democrats rarely understand the Republican position. That makes it sound like "reaching across the aisle" is a bit more of "preaching across the aisle" than truly attempting collaboration.
> And revenge means a D Potus coming in and doing things like firing every Republican they can, attempting to redirect funds.
This already generally happens, and more power to the Democrats who want to swing the pendulum hard on the Republicans after this one. The fact remains that for the last several administrations, if you were high up in one of these organizations, you would have to expect to get fired or demoted when the other party gets into power. If you want to see the history of this, the EPA has some of the most visible examples. The situation that's new is the wholesale gutting of entire agencies at the direction of a third party (Elon Musk).
> IMO, the only revenge that will work is by making laws forcing both sides to legislate. Idk what that looks like but not legislating has led to interpreting the law as acceptable behavior for the team to win, not interpreting the law as applied against the acting individual. However something like a legislation quota sounds messy and easily abused in a country of lobbyists.
I completely agree with you here. The administrative bloat of the executive branch is largely because the legislature has abdicated the power to write the rules on all but the broadest basis to the executive branch. The executive branch is run by only one elected person who has the power to change quite a bit about its operations.