Every once in a while, a great tragedy strikes and our government comes together across party lines. Either the polarization is getting stronger or the information cycles are getting faster, because that time is just getting shorter and shorter. 9/11 unified our government for a couple years. Then COVID brought unity for a few months. Then Trump tried to overthrow Congress and hang Mile Pence on January 6, and the government was unified against him for a few days.
You had Republicans like Mitch McConnell giving a speech calling for unity and preventing “drifting apart into two separate tribes with a separate set of facts and separate realities.” He later went on to say there was no question Trump was practically and morally responsible for the events of the day, but at that point the cooperation was already fading, as he voted not guilty in Trump’s 2nd impeachment. He’s since endorsed Trump for president.
I guess my point is, if you ever want to pass an amendment in today’s political environment, it’s gotta happen after something shocking happens - and even then you’ve got a few days to get it done at the most.
Congress votes on party lines and there hasn’t been a 2/3 supermajority since 1977.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/95th_United_States_Congress
Sadly, we can’t count on cooperation in government.
Or reason. Only loyalty.
Every once in a while, a great tragedy strikes and our government comes together across party lines. Either the polarization is getting stronger or the information cycles are getting faster, because that time is just getting shorter and shorter. 9/11 unified our government for a couple years. Then COVID brought unity for a few months. Then Trump tried to overthrow Congress and hang Mile Pence on January 6, and the government was unified against him for a few days.
You had Republicans like Mitch McConnell giving a speech calling for unity and preventing “drifting apart into two separate tribes with a separate set of facts and separate realities.” He later went on to say there was no question Trump was practically and morally responsible for the events of the day, but at that point the cooperation was already fading, as he voted not guilty in Trump’s 2nd impeachment. He’s since endorsed Trump for president.
I guess my point is, if you ever want to pass an amendment in today’s political environment, it’s gotta happen after something shocking happens - and even then you’ve got a few days to get it done at the most.
Meanwhile china…
(I’m not a tankie but damn if they are not kicking the west’s ass right now with getting shit done)
Hey now. I bet you we could get some kind of bipartisan amendment through if it pertained to selling arms to Israel.