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The problem with this is that it assumes both parties act independently.

You know how right now how Republicans are willing to use every loophole, cite ancient forgotten laws, and violate every norm? That's always been possible. You can't actually write a constitution to constrain bad-faith actors. You can always come up with a bogus interpretation to do what you want.

If this is possible, you have to ask, why did leaders ever try to follow the law in good faith? How was it ever possible to establish a norms-based stability when either side could knock over the board at any moment?

The answer is that good-faith interpretation of the law fails when people only do so out of principle. It succeeds when good-faith interpretation is a peace treaty. Both sides agree to follow the law in good faith, as the alternative is complete chaos as both sides try to twist every loophole.

Democrats are a bunch of liberal arts majors that have forgotten that Democracy and the rule of law does not exist because everyone worships them as high ideals. They exist because they are a compromise, a peace treaty.

Republicans break norms. In response, Dems latch on even tighter to the norms. Instead, they should be seeking to break them at every opportunity they can. They need to be as ruthless as the Republicans, and even more so.

Following the rule of law is hard. It means giving up power and results that you could otherwise achieve by violating the rule of law.

Right now, only Democrats are trying to obey every norm and precedent. As such, Republicans have nothing to lose by violating these. It's all upside to them. Their bad behavior is the direct result of Democratic cowardice. If Democrats were willing to give as well as they get, we could actually have a rules-based order again. Paradoxically, a prerequisite for rules to be effective is that both sides need to be willing to violate them.

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It’s because a lot of the criticism attributed to “the Democrats” it’s just general criticism about the government and has nothing to do with a Democrats specifically.

I have very specific criticism of my Dem Mayor Bill White. The guy has been a cancer on the city and the party since his first term in office. He exists almost exclusively as a sell-out, as a money spigot for the horrifyingly corrupt city police department, and as a means of obstructing any kind of mass transit improvements straight down to fucking bike trails.

The problems with White aren't unique to this candidate. They're endemic to the party. You've got people who will not fucking retire, who are entrenched in their seats through gerrymandering and these enormous corporately-financed war chests, and who only ever seem to compromise with their right-wing next door neighbors. They do a shit job for years on end, get the most greasy, sychophantic press coverage, then trash people in their own party on their way out the door. Also, just shameless bigots, besides.

More often than not, these are Democrats of convenience. They only run under the party banner because the seat their contesting is tilted liberal by demographics or gerrymander. Your Eric Adamses and Lori Lightfoots and Henry Cuellars and Kristin Sinemas would be interchangeable with a Tim Scott or Rick Scott or Scott Walker any other voting day. But they've coded themselves as liberals in order to blend into liberal communities. And they've sold their souls for campaign cash, so they'll say anything to anyone the day before the election, then toe the corporate line the day after.

I really feel like as soon as a Democrat gets in the office people forget that the other half of the government is fucking Republicans

When Democrats are in the majority, they're helpless because the majority isn't big enough.

When they're in the minority, they're helpless because Republicans are being too mean to let them do compromises that enrich the donors in their districts.

When they win an election, it is because they got the Silent Majority support of the Liz Cheney Republicans. When they lose an election, it is because AOC scared off their base of support or Jill Stein conspired with Vladimir Putin to trick Palestinian voters into voting for Iran.

Somehow, Republican obstruction only ever works for Republicans. And Democrats are always running perfect campaigns, perfect governments, and perfect foreign policies, only voters are just too stupid to notice.

It's never the Dems' fault. The only solution you're presented with is to vote for Democrats harder. And if the Dems don't win in historic landslides, you only have yourself to blame when the Liberal President's last budget pays for the Liberal Mayor to task his Liberal Police Chief with herding everyone browner than a paper bag into the gas chamber.