#partisan-negotiations

#partisan-negotiations

"My constituents are saving thousands of dollars and they know it. Republicans can and should take credit because the alternative would've been massive tax hikes under the Democrats had they won the 2024 election."

The Constitution explicitly vests Congress with the authority to create a body that will guarantee the successful continuity of government by responding to presidential incapacity to discharge the powers and duties of office.

Organizational filibustering refers to strategies that delay and obstruct efforts to pursue social justice in systems. These additions can stretch out the process of implementation of diversity strategic plans or multicultural programs for years. Change agents can become battle-fatigued and give up their efforts. They can also become so disheartened that they leave a group or organization altogether.

The principle of intellectual charity is fundamental to constructive political conversations. This principle states that, in any discussion, we should accept the best version of an opponent's ideas, not a distorted version or a "straw man." Exaggeration and distortion of opposing opinions (always present, to some degree, in political debates) have become the standard form of political argument in contemporary America.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge's Political Psychology Lab tracked shifts in Americans' views across nearly four decades and found that divisions were broadly stable through the 1990s and early 2000s, before rising steadily from 2008 onward. Using more than 35,000 responses from the American National Election Studies between 1988 and 2024, they estimate that issue polarization has increased 64% since the late 1980s, with almost all of that change occurring after 2008.

I think we know what the agenda items are. Accomplishing those is going to be hard with a small majority. The upshot is that Trump's prime-time address is unlikely to make more than a ripple in the congressional agenda over the coming months. It's the reality, Republicans acknowledged Wednesday, of life in Washington right now: Despite its trifecta, the party's legislative ambitions are being hemmed in by its barely-there majorities.

The interchamber tensions between Democrats are becoming a regular feature of funding fights in the second Trump term. Lawmakers, strategists and voters alike exploded in anger last March when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and a handful of colleagues allowed a spending package to move forward amid the Elon Musk-led DOGE assault on federal agencies. In November, tempers again flared when a handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to end a record 43-day shutdown.