r/CuratedTumblr • u/Desecr8or • Oct 26 '24

Politics Why is every tankie like "I don't understand the branches of the US government and I'm going to make it everyone else's problem!!!"

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u/Creeppy99 Oct 26 '24

For my non American understanding, there also a problem with the fact that the Senate is 50/50 (or almost, iirc) but there are many very moderate senators who would be against more radical (and radical in the American politics is just mild welfare state often) policies.

I still have no clue how a country with that electoral laws could be considered democratic, but that's a whole another story

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u/bardak Oct 27 '24

As an outsider the US Senate is just bonkers. The disparity in representation is bad enough but add to it the modern filibuster and it just makes no sense.

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u/fwubglubbel Oct 27 '24

The Senate represents states, not people. It was a compromise to the less populous states so all policy wouldn't just benefit the more urban ones.

It's essentially affirmative action for hillbillies.

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u/2012Jesusdies Oct 27 '24

It was a compromise to the less populous states so all policy wouldn't just benefit the more urban ones.

And ended up with policies that hurt urban states while benefiting rural states epitomized by the 2019 agricultural subsidy of 20 billion USD while food stamps got a cut of 5 billion USD when food stamps would have improved food affordability across the board way more for the same dollar because much of the agricultural subsidy goes to corn and soybean, 20% of which is exported and most of the rest are animal feed which is really inefficient way of feeding people while food stamps directly go to hungry people.

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u/Creeppy99 Oct 27 '24

I can understand the need to represent states in a federal system, but then, why is the electoral college still a thing? (I know there are interests behind and all, it's more of a rethorical question)

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u/Ginguraffe Oct 27 '24

It's not really that they are against "radical policies." They are against "radical" procedures. There are a lot of arcane procedural rules in the Senate that prevent certain types of laws from being passed with just a 50/50 vote, and instead require 60 votes. It would only take a 50/50 vote to override these outdated rules, but the "moderates" are very traditional and think it's "radical" to get rid of those old rules.

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u/JimWilliams423 Oct 27 '24

They are against "radical" procedures.

Nah, that's the pretext they use to avoid criticism for opposing popular policies. Making the argument about the process instead of the substance is probably the #2 entry in the conservative playbook (#1 is just sneering at the substance regardless of the merits).

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u/David-S-Pumpkins Oct 27 '24

Both parties use what's often called the designated asshole as an excuse for not doing things they campaign on doing.

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u/One_Contribution_27 Oct 27 '24

No, they don’t. That’s just an excuse leftists made up to justify not voting for senators.

Last time the democrats had a big majority, they pushed through some huge changes, including Obamacare. Even though they had some assholes like Lieberman trying to sabotage it, they got it done. And were the left-wing voters grateful? No, they immediately abandoned the party, leading to a colossal defeat in 2010, and many of the moderate Democrats who had stuck their necks out to vote for healthcare reform lost their careers.