<Snipped quote by Vilageidiotx>
And particularly with AHCA, certain parts of it are pretty popular even among republicans (notably the pre-existing conditions clause). I would expect that within the first 100 days as promised, he kills the enforcement arm of the bill (the penalty aspect), and puts a moratorium on the rest. Then cherry-picks the popular things, like pre-existing conditions, and puts them to congress piecemeal. Because the democrats can't very well vote that down or filibuster it, and there's no real GOP opposition to those elements -- the cost would be a concern, sure, but you can throw out the bathwater without killing the baby. Once the bill-cutter-upper comes out onto the table, I guarantee you, the Left will magically produce about a hundred better ideas than AHCA, and the Right already has several. This will not be a crisis.
.....anyway if you look at Trump as an experienced business mogul, instead of an inexperienced politician, all sorts of crazy shit starts to make sense. Pretend Mexico is the corporation owning the skyscraper next to Trump Tower. "We're gonna make Mexico pay for the wall" is a negotiation tactic. Mexico comes back with something like "Uh.... look we're not gonna pay for it, but build what you want." "Well can you at least pay for the paint on your side?" "....Do we get to pick the color?" "Sure." "Okay. But the wall can't be _______, we wanna talk about some things...." Now the wall is a reality, and that's all he was ever after -- consent to build a new wall. Politicians in this country haven't done that kind of negotiating in my lifetime anyway..... apparently it's effective so far? I mean we'll see but...... look all of NAFTA is already showing up to the table and it's been two days. Fight Trump on any backwards social shit, I'm there with ya, but... I mean I think he's got some chops. I think we're seeing it already and it has not been long.
I have serious doubts that business negotiation will translate to political negotiations, but I mean, fuck it, he won his chance to try fair and square, time to see what happens.
I gotta say though, since this is the Bitchfest thread after all, addressing my fellow lefties here: This isn't time to lash out. I've been seeing too much of that the last couple of days, Dems throwing fits or lashing out at third-party voters (fight me) or people who rode out the election, or the midwest, or florida, or the other side for that matter, and really gotta say that strategy is entirely useless. You can't browbeat people into voting, that only makes them disinterested. The Dems lost this election on their own accord. Clinton was a bad candidate, that's the long and short of it. The last few elections are really showing that a popular base is very valuable in modern politics, and the number of left-wingers all over who couldn't (or still can't) talk about Clinton without saying "I don't like her, but..." should have been a massive fucking red flag. What we gotta do isn't to brow beat, or freak out. It's time to look to our own camp and clean house and make it a party that people
want to vote for. 2018 is midterms, that's the next chance to say something. Not just in November, but in the primaries too, because it's the primaries when you get to decide what your party represents. This election season has been such a knock-down drag-out that it has taken people I thought to be completely apolitical and swept them right up into it. It's no time to be complacent and lose that energy. One of the take-aways from this election is that the people still ultimately define politics, and if they have a hankerin', they can do some cool shit. So lets do some cool shit.
Wilted Rose
