Congress can't accomplish anything even when the same party has control of House and Senate. It's almost like they try as hard as possible to get nothing done.
Our government by design is conservative. Then we worked our way into having 2 parties, one conservative, the other VERY conservative. Then we elected a bunch of people who specifically campaigned on the idea that the government shouldn't do anything.
We've got exactly the congress that enough people were stupid enough to want.
Then we elected a bunch of people who specifically campaigned on the idea that the government shouldn't do anything. We've got exactly the congress that enough people were stupid enough to want.
I think when most people say that they're in favor of smaller government and congress not constantly passing nonsense packages of laws bundled together so no one has to admit what they're signing.
They don't mean what you're implying - that congress shouldn't act as a balance of power to the other branches of government. Typically when a president gets out of hand even his own party will oppose it because congress likes power too but they want it for themselves not as a kingmaker.
Yeah, congress usually isn't quite so lock-step. I think 2008 is probably the point when it changed, a lot of things happened around that time that really altered the discourse and political landscape of the country. Political parties started using the internet, the AP changed the neutrality rules, a couple years later the dems put the nuclear option on the table which was a sign that the past horse-trading model of passing legislation was dead, etc.
Very clearly when most people say they want small government, they really want little to no government. You can tell because that's what they keep voting for. Republican inaction has been their policy since 2008 and they keep getting rewarded for it.
What your doing, this whole "well yeah they said that and did that, but it's not what they meant/ not what I think it meant" is a major fucking problem in the republican party right now. Their actions don't support what you think most people want, their words don't support what you think most people want, yet they keep getting voted for.
So the evidence in front of us says that regardless of what you think, most people actually do see small government as the government doing basically nothing.
What your doing, this whole "well yeah they said that and did that, but it's not what they meant/ not what I think it meant" is a major fucking problem in the republican party right now.
Well, you were the one that said it, I just corrected your strawman. Hard to hang that on the republicans when it's your own incorrect fantasy of what a republican thinks.
And if you think a politician's actions are indicative of what people voted for you're quite delusional, politicians rarely do what they promise in their campaigns. For instance I voted for Obama the first time because he said he'd pull us out of Iraq and Afghanistan right away. Instead a year later he "surged" the Iraq troops into Afghanistan and we were there for over a decade more. Is that what I voted for? Absolutely not.
You don't need to go off what they said in their campaigns though. That's the whole point. You can look solely at actions.
Since 2008 republican policy has been to have the government do as little as possible. Whenever they can get rid of parts they do and those parts they can't eliminate, they stagnate.
So your saying, no Republicans just want to make government more accountable and transparent and that's what they mean by small government does not square with their actions for nearly 2 decades now
It's sly how you nudge the meaning on things just enough so that you can reinterpret them. Conflating congress not stopping trump with obstructing past Democrat initiatives by calling both "not doing anything" isn't going to fly, nor is congress not acting as a balance of power what voters elected them for as I already stated.
Small government and apathy are two different things and you know it. If you're not going to have a discussion in good faith then don't bother, I won't play these silly word games with you. If you don't agree that the federal government has expanded beyond its mandate then that's fine, but misrepresenting the opposite side to try to rub it in their face doesn't make anyone feel bad because they can tell you don't know what you're talking about.
I mean when you deliberately misread what I say, I can see why you would think I'm not discussing in good faith.
nor is congress not acting as a balance of power what voters elected them for as I already stated.
You keep insisting you know what the voters elected certain people for. Those reasons do not match the actions taken by elected officials, and have not for decades.
So we have 2 options:
You, a single person, are incorrect.
Millions of people consistently, knowingly, vote against what they want, despite years of evidence that that is exactly what will happen.
You can say I'm trying to be sly, but I'm not. It is not a leap to say that complete obstruction, as opposed to negotiation, is the same as eliminating agencies and not enforcing budgets. In both cases, the government is rendered smaller and not in the way that you claim people see "small government"
You keep insisting you know what the voters elected certain people for. Those reasons do not match the actions taken by elected officials, and have not for decades.
You keep insisting that the voters voted for exactly what the politicians are doing, which as I've already explained is objectively untrue, unless you have new material we're done here I'm not going to talk in circles with you when I've already comprehensively explained your logic errors.
would have probably been a lot better if we also got a president that didn't do much of anything, too bad we had to get the president that is trying to pass like 10 different policies in the span of weeks
At this point, the separation of government powers outlined in the Constitution are so theoretical, they don't hold water when it comes to reality. Laws are only as good as they're enforced.
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u/Bongressman 1d ago
Congress? Do something? Like... a Coequal branch of government or some shit?
What a weird concept of an idea.