BREAKING: Senate Republicans blocked a domestic terrorism bill that would have opened debate on gun measures after the deadly Texas school shooting. https://t.co/hMdW0iNItZ
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 26, 2022
… Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tried to nudge Republicans into taking up a domestic terrorism bill that had cleared the House quickly last week after mass shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and a church in Southern California targeting people of color. He said it could become the basis for negotiation.
But the vote failed along party lines, raising fresh doubts about the possibility of robust debate, let alone eventual compromise, on gun safety measures. The final vote was 47-47, short of the 60 needed to take up the bill. All Republicans voted against it.
“We’re disappointed,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
She said it’s “shameful” that the National Rifle Association and others have stood in the way of advancing such measures but encouraged Congress to press ahead.
“The president has been very clear that’s it’s time to act,” she said…
Schumer said he will give bipartisan negotiations in the Senate about two weeks, while Congress is away for a break, to try to forge a compromise bill that could pass the 50-50 Senate, where 60 votes will be needed to overcome a filibuster.
“None of us are under any illusions this will be easy,” Schumer said ahead of the vote…
The domestic terrorism bill that failed Thursday dates back to 2017, when Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., first proposed it after mass shootings in Las Vegas and Southerland Springs, Texas.
The House passed a similar measure by a voice vote in 2020, only to have it languish in the Senate. Since then, Republicans have turned against the legislation, with only one GOP lawmaker supporting passage in the House last week.
“What had broad bipartisan support two years ago, because of the political climate we find ourselves in … or to be more specific, the political climate Republicans find themselves in, we’re not able to stand up against domestic terrorism,” Schneider, who came into office in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting, told The Associated Press…
We must forever honor the 12 year old interpretation of a rule accidentally added in the 19th century and never used this way before because the founders actually intended to recreate the Articles of Confederation with a 220 time lag.
— Chris Wyman (@wymancr) May 26, 2022
if the court will throw out a vaccination mandate while deep in a global pandemic, they will very, very definitely go after executive action when it comes to firearms.
— GONELIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) May 26, 2022
the administration has seemed to be taking a "first do no harm" approach to executive authority, which is maddening — but maybe not wrong.
— GONELIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) May 26, 2022
The problem I've had with a lot of activist criticism is that they operate on the assumption that Biden doesn't care as much as they do on most things, which I don't think is correct (and it's also v. notable that Harris has had just as loud a voice in recent days).
— Chris (@SpiderDreamer) May 26, 2022
I understand completely that unilateral Executive action is both limited and fraught, but for heaven’s sake, where is the POLITICAL action? Where is the performative outrage? Where is the spitting, shaking anger before the cameras about something something America and something something sanctity of life! Where is the kind of theater that Republicans seem to be able to conjure up over, I don’t know, sidewalk graffiti or politely refusing to serve a poisonous liar at a restaurant?
“No drama” is a thing, and it’s useful in some cases, but FFS what does it take to get Democrats — not a FEW Democrats, not just Beto or Chris Murphy but the entire fking Democratic establishment and every one of their surrogates — frothing mad?
If not this, what?
Gentleman’s C-minus for effort.
100% with you – this is where Dem politicians fall short. Everything GOP does is performative art – we should be doing the same thing. This exactly the kind of issues to get people up and out there because they representative the collective who are normal.
@bbleh
Hmm. So you didn’t think Biden’s first statement was blunt enough?
Personally, I don’t harbor the illusion that Biden getting as mad as Steve Kerr (let alone Schumer doing it) would have any effect at all on Republicans in the Senate, even (maybe particularly) if he did it again and again.
and while we castigate, within our own ranks, the lack of outrage among Dem leadership (Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly excepted). I still marvel at how well the GOP lines up behind Mitch and kill this all effectively dead because Manchin and Sinema because of whatever, but how no one ever has the same outrage for those GOP senators who could do what would seem to be moral and allow a discussion to take place, regardless of their personal feelings.
while I do not admire how well the GOP performs in lockstep, it continues to bother me how no one in the Media is willing to call this out, it’s always… Congress when the GOP is to blame and specific Dem senators are singled out when the converse is true. I tire tremendously of the framing and double standard.
@randy khan: I thought Biden did a decent enough Biden job — empathetic, blunt, sincere. And Beto did some good theater, and so did Murphy, and I’m sure there are a few others.
But FFS, compared to the Republican chorus of fire-horns? Over anything at all? Over NOTHING at all? It’s crickets from the Dems.
Biden gave *a* speech. Schumer did some pathetic meeping about “negotiating” with the Republicans, which came off as “Dems Fold In Advance.” Manchin is actually making news with his transparently bad-faith waffling about a “different tone.” And otherwise … ?
I’d like to see some righteous thundering about the gun dealer who gave those AR-15s to a just-18-y/o kid on the basis of a promise to pay. Arrest him, confiscate his goods, throw him in prison on suspicion of terrorism, and let him fight it all the way to the Supreme Court while he sits and rots. Or how about Schumer scheduling nothing but gun-control for two weeks, nothing at all, with every Democrat giving speeches in support and voting for every measure, and let the Republicans whine about rules and process. How about EVERY Dem politician and EVERY surrogate talks about NOTHING else — and particularly the Republican complicity — for the next two weeks, on EVERY outlet in and in EVERY interview? Hell, how about some FISA warrants and high-profile raids against gun runners who pop up and who they know will fight to the death, and let it happen, all on live TV?
Okay, maybe the last is over the top. But FFS, how about a real bar-fight, instead of a few speeches and some polite whimpering, followed by … nothing.
@ bbleh: With support like yours…
I think we’re about to witness the implosion of the GOP. The videos of the cops abusing the desperate parents combined with whatever videos from inside the school; the absurd statements coming out of the GOP membership (some guy, Burt?, said there’s no silver bullet); the growing sense of the NRA’s perfidy — This is all far more meaningful than some sort of repeat of GWB standing on the pile of 911, boasting about what a manly man the military was going to make him.
Don’t fall for the empty gestures crap. The world knows Joe has a heart. He has nothing to prove to us.
(ETA: The Burt quote was cited on Stephen Colbert; I tried but can’t find anything on Twitter.)
Clearly some people have more of an affection for performative crap than I do. The sock down the flight suit prancing for immediate TV impact easy-emotion sound-bites seems more like pep-squad than governance.
@debbie yeah there is definitely a stink coming off that unfolding bunch of conflicting information. Feels a *lot* like a badly orchestrated coverup.
Given the flailing incompetence and total disinterest in actually governing by the GOP, that’s not hard to imagine.
I was surprised that Kai Ryssdahl called out the 50 GQP Senators specifically and directly in a segment on Marketplace a couple of evenings ago. It does feel like it’s different this time.
We know that change is frustratingly slow and uneven. We have to keep pushing to make things better and recognize that frustration is part of the process.
The NRA continues to be on the worst possible timeline for them, and that’s a good thing. They must dread their party in Houston starting today (Friday) (and I see that Abbott will no longer be attending).
Cheers,
Scott.
@scav you’re right but in the age of social media you need the performative crap to get noticed to get crap done. Everything today is about branding, marketing and ‘look at meeee!’ attention seeking crap. I don’t like it but thats the way it is.
OT – I can’t believe Andy Fletcher died. Only 60. He did look kind of ill in some of the pics I saw on the Twitter machine. Ray Liotta, Alan White and Fletcher for the third celebrity passing away today. RIP.
I think there’s a corollary to Murc’s Law that says only elected Democrats can draw attention to something. You want noise? Make some.
The punchline from a good thread.
Yup.
Without consequences nothing will ever change for the better.
(via Popehat)
Cheers,
Scott.
Bernie woulda won gun control!
(narrator: he would go on to callously defend the NRA against parents of massacred kindergartners) Photo
@piratedan ” I tire tremendously of the framing and double standard. ”
I call out the Washington Post constantly for their dishonest, misleading, and disingenuous use of language. It’s always Congress that is failing to act, when it is 50 Republican senators who obstruct everything they can. The idiot twins, Manchin and Sinema, are a separate problem that wouldn’t matter if just 12 out of 50 Republicans were interested in governing responsibly. None are.
The Post also treats both the party and individual Republican senators as if they are just your normal, constructive, responsible partners in legislating.
In April 2012, Thomas Mann (Brookings) and Norm Ornstein (AEI) wrote an Op-Ed for the Post — “Let’s Just Say It: The Republicans Are the Problem.” As we all know, the GOP of today is far more extreme and dangerous than they were in 2012, yet the Post news pages don’t appear to have noticed. Post columnists (e.g., Jennifer Rubin, former loyal neocon Republican) castigate the news pages for their inaccurate and irresponsible reporting and language, but nothing changes.
Reality shifts dramatically, but the Post utterly fails to adapt. The Times is as bad, and often even worse.
@bbleh “But FFS, compared to the Republican chorus of fire-horns? Over anything at all? Over NOTHING at all? It’s crickets from the Dems.”
Patty Murray is my senior senator. Legislatively she’s fine, but when I heard her “outrage” at the leaked SCOTUS draft, it reminded me of the SNL presidential debate skit — GHW Bush v. Dukakis — it which Dukakis responded to a question about his lack of passion. Needless to say, Dukakis would have put a tweaker high on meth and cocaine to sleep after about five seconds. I realize people have different personalities, but, above all, Democrats have to inspire their often unreliable electorate to vote in record numbers in a midterm election. Murray’s presentation wouldn’t have inspired anyone. It made me sad.
@debbie “I think we’re about to witness the implosion of the GOP.”
Oh, debbie I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard someone either say that or write it in a comment. But it never happens. I think that’s because their base is insane and most other voters aren’t really engaged.
I don’t get anything from performative outrage. There’s also the fact that Dems still get slammed for “words, not action” when Repubs inevitably vote against proposed legislation.
Nothing will change in the Senate unless we get at least two more Dems to cancel out Manchin and Sinema and keep the House. Pretending otherwise is a waste of energy.
Regarding performative outrage and/or action by elected officials: I think it’s important because when 95% of the noise on an issue comes from one side, that side’s message dominates by default.
First I hate performative bullshit and politicians who do it turn me off including democrats. I would be less likely to support that kind of idiot and I think they get primaried not elected. We aren’t the same.
Second our politicians have said plenty and usually do, but the media never cover it and don’t repeat show it over and over. We have a media problem. I think it’s the ownership class. Maybe anti trust laws can help there, but we need better judges and a bigger majority.
Third, we aren’t going to just arrest the gun shop owner blah blah. He didn’t break any laws and democratic countries don’t throw people in jail for non existent laws. That is a really stupid self defeat. It wouldn’t get to the supremacy court, the first county judge it went in front of would order him released.
The gop took decades to get us to this point. We won’t solve it quick. Concentrating on judges is really necessary and Biden has actually been good on that and even Mancin has been reliable there.
@ Another Scott:
Surprising that Abbot canceled his NRA appearance, considering he didn’t cancel his fundraiser THE NIGHT OF THE FUCKING MURDERS. 🤬
It’s fine to enjoy performative outrage. Where I draw the line is changing the conversation from the issue at hand to demand performative outrage.
In any event, experience has taught me that the response to performative outrage by Democratic leaders is “just words” (or “sternly worded letter” if it’s in writing). So I have stopped assuming there’s a winning formula in these sorts of things.
I followed a school bus home yesterday (Thursday) afternoon after running an errand in town. Big orange bus, flashing stop lights to protect the tiny elementary school kids from drivers ignoring the law requiring them to stop. After watching the horrible events / coverage / reactions from RepublicanFascists, then seeing those beautiful little kids running up their folks’ driveways — I cried most of the way home yesterday.
Then to learn about the shocking lack of action by the City Police, who appeared to believe their role outside the TX elementary school was to discipline the parents of the children then being murdered inside the school building. Those cops should be indicted for posing as police officers, and their salaries should be confiscated for their inability to actually function as police officers. And where was the police chief? AWOL all afternoon.
Couldn’t watch the usual nightly cable news at all… And fuck the Republican-Fascists, esp. those from TX where multiple mass murders have happened lately. Texas, the only state to secede in defense of slavery TWICE — once from Mexico, TX was part of Mexico until the central government outlawed slavery — that’s what that brave battle at the Alamo was all about, keeping people enslaved!! Then again in 1860 they seceded from the US when they feared slavery would be limited in any way.
Brave Texans, using guns to keep other humans enslaved to make them money on their giant farms stolen from the Native Americans who lived there before the Conquistadors showed up in the 1600s.
Maybe we need a definition of performative outrage/actions. Beto crashing Abbott’s news conference qualifies, IMO. Are left-leaning voters criticizing Beto for that action? Not that I’ve seen — non-gun nuts seem to appreciate his leadership on the issue and were heartened to see someone expressing the appropriate level of outrage at the right people. The media covered it too, widely. Maybe there’s a lesson there, I don’t know.
1. Democrats do not have surrogates in the media to make noise. At best, you may get Donna Brazille or James Carville as a paid contributor to give a few minutes perspective on MSNBC. Even MSNBC talking heads, like Velshi, Maddow, Hayes, Wallace, Reid, etc. will not go in lockstep with Democrats the way Fox News does with Republicans.
2. None of us are the rage monkeys Republicans are. We seem to respond to different stimulus better, but as the deck seems stacked against us this might change. We may want to become a white hot ball of rage to give us energy.
It’s doubtful that performative outrage will achieve much, or at least performative outrage of the type where a politician yells a lot. That approach works with the base of the GOP, which is what GOP candidates worry about because of their fear of being primaried. That’s really not the Dems problem. The problem for Dems is to cobble together a big enough coalition to overcome the systematic advantages for Republicans that our screwy political structure creates. The gun issue is something that might move the needle for those voters on the margins and something more along the line of those ads for abused animals might be more effective that outrage from Chuck Shumer or Patty Murray, who really don’t fit that role. The messaging should highlight the ridiculous, insane lengths that Republicans will go to justify unlimited access to guns. The most heart-rending thing I saw yesterday was a photo of little Amarie Garza smiling as she shows off her A-B Honor Roll certificate. That kind of message will reverberate with a lot of people, maybe juxtaposed with the idiotic “solutions” by asswipes like Cruz who want to arm teachers and make schools into prisons, closing with “Republicans, is that the best you can do for Amarie and her classmates?”
I don’t know if Dem leaders need to be shaking with rage, but it’s past time for them to continue treating the Rethugs as legitimate negotiating partners.
They need to make it clear at every opportunity that the GOP is a treasonous fifth column operating within our country: actively enabling the spread of the Covid virus, undermining the right to vote, undermining women’s health care and bodily autonomy, blocking any attempt to deal with our gun plague, and oh yeah, they tried to overthrow the government, and are still saying that was terrific.
The Dems need to make it absolutely clear on a regular basis that the only solution to the Republican Party is for the 60-70% of America that’s still somewhat sane to completely and totally crush them at the polls. Otherwise, we’re just a step or two away from an authoritarian kleptocracy.
ETA: I’m sure this message can be conveyed calmly but forcefully, and that’s probably the best way. But the Dems should state at every opportunity just what the GOP is. And stuff like Sen. Durbin begging Republicans to cooperate on gun control completely undermines that. That’s gotta stop, NOW.
@ Betty Cracker:
I feel it wasn’t, if only because Beto was the only thing that stopped that press conference from turning into some glorification of the TPD. What I do think was performative absurdity was Ted Cruz’s appearance, as always, condemning anyone politicizing the tragedy…as he was doing!
“The horror is that America changes all the time, without ever-changing at all.” – James Baldwin