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> Conservatives don't control government or anything else in any meaningful sense. 6/3 conservative Supreme Court and the House. That’s half of the federal go

> Conservatives don't control government or anything else in any meaningful sense. 6/3 conservative Supreme Court and the House. That’s half of the federal government.

Vecr 4y ago
More like a just over a sixth, there's three branches, executive, legislature, and judicial. If you buy into the whole "media is the fourth branch" thing, I say that's actually a minority or a plurality.
- kevingadd 4y ago
  If you think "complete functional control over the supreme court for likely decades" is insignificant enough to make conservatives count as a minority you need to pay more attention to the powers and impact of the supreme court. They can effectively overrule any legislation if they wish and have proven a desire to do so.
  - Vecr 4y ago
    They say they can do that (judicial review is kind of not in the constitution) but what California and New York are doing post New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen puts a bit of a question on that. Making much of New York City a "gun free zone" is not what "the right to keep and bear arms" sounds like to me.
- ModernMech 4y ago
  I’m counting executive branch, judicial branch, and congress as two because they each individually have their own mandated powers. The conservative Supreme Court just unilaterally gutted fundamental human rights for everyone in the country. That’s serious power that not even the President has. It’s a joke to pretend conservatives have no political power in the face of that. The third highest government official is the Speaker of the House, who will be a Republican in January, so it’s pretty hard to say Republicans have no power when they control the Speaker. It’s crazy how much power that is. But to call the media a branch of government and to assign “control” of media to Democrats is really a stretch. Pretty hard to make that case with Fox News around.
taolegal 4y ago
Progressives aren't able to beat conservatives into submission because there's foundational checks and balances against that. That conservatives have any power at all is a testament to progressives ability to catastrophically & embarrassingly mismanage themselves and fail to deliver. But really progressives are just complaining that things aren't changing fast enough, it's inarguable that govt as it exists today is nothing remotely like limited govt.
- djur 4y ago
  There's no political constituency for "limited government". Most voters want the government to do things they like and not do things they dislike. They just disagree on what those things are.
- ModernMech 4y ago
  Progressives aren’t trying to “beat conservatives into submission”, where do you get that? Political violence is currently a big problem on the right, according to the head of the FBI (who himself is a conservative). Conservatives were the ones who lost in 2020 and attempted to literally beat their opponents into submission on Jan 6 2021, ending a record of peaceful transitions of power.
  - taolegal 4y ago
    > Political violence is currently a big problem on the right Political violence was pioneered by far-left terrorists, famously when they bombed Congress. More recently, Rand Paul got violently attacked. And a Bernie supporter committed a mass shooting & shot a Republican congressman. Of course you can't ignore there was the pervasive political violence throughout 2020 during BLM rioting. Remember the guy who mowed down a Christmas parade? Really the worst was when Hilary Clinton was the first to go all-in on election denial in 2016. And then spawned an entire 4 years of conspiracy theories surrounding Russia. Liberals largely failed to call her out & hold her accountable. They just project all of their worst crimes on their opponents.
    - ModernMech 4y ago
kevinh 4y ago
It's truly incredible that this easily-verifiable statement of fact has been downvoted.

> Conservatives don't control government or anything else in any meaningful sense. 6/3 conservative Supreme Court and the House. That’s half of the federal government.

Vecr 4y ago

More like a just over a sixth, there's three branches, executive, legislature, and judicial. If you buy into the whole "media is the fourth branch" thing, I say that's actually a minority or a plurality.

kevingadd 4y ago
If you think "complete functional control over the supreme court for likely decades" is insignificant enough to make conservatives count as a minority you need to pay more attention to the powers and impact of the supreme court. They can effectively overrule any legislation if they wish and have proven a desire to do so.
- Vecr 4y ago
  They say they can do that (judicial review is kind of not in the constitution) but what California and New York are doing post New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen puts a bit of a question on that. Making much of New York City a "gun free zone" is not what "the right to keep and bear arms" sounds like to me.
ModernMech 4y ago
I’m counting executive branch, judicial branch, and congress as two because they each individually have their own mandated powers. The conservative Supreme Court just unilaterally gutted fundamental human rights for everyone in the country. That’s serious power that not even the President has. It’s a joke to pretend conservatives have no political power in the face of that. The third highest government official is the Speaker of the House, who will be a Republican in January, so it’s pretty hard to say Republicans have no power when they control the Speaker. It’s crazy how much power that is. But to call the media a branch of government and to assign “control” of media to Democrats is really a stretch. Pretty hard to make that case with Fox News around.

taolegal 4y ago

Progressives aren't able to beat conservatives into submission because there's foundational checks and balances against that. That conservatives have any power at all is a testament to progressives ability to catastrophically & embarrassingly mismanage themselves and fail to deliver. But really progressives are just complaining that things aren't changing fast enough, it's inarguable that govt as it exists today is nothing remotely like limited govt.

djur 4y ago
There's no political constituency for "limited government". Most voters want the government to do things they like and not do things they dislike. They just disagree on what those things are.
ModernMech 4y ago
Progressives aren’t trying to “beat conservatives into submission”, where do you get that? Political violence is currently a big problem on the right, according to the head of the FBI (who himself is a conservative). Conservatives were the ones who lost in 2020 and attempted to literally beat their opponents into submission on Jan 6 2021, ending a record of peaceful transitions of power.
- taolegal 4y ago
  > Political violence is currently a big problem on the right Political violence was pioneered by far-left terrorists, famously when they bombed Congress. More recently, Rand Paul got violently attacked. And a Bernie supporter committed a mass shooting & shot a Republican congressman. Of course you can't ignore there was the pervasive political violence throughout 2020 during BLM rioting. Remember the guy who mowed down a Christmas parade? Really the worst was when Hilary Clinton was the first to go all-in on election denial in 2016. And then spawned an entire 4 years of conspiracy theories surrounding Russia. Liberals largely failed to call her out & hold her accountable. They just project all of their worst crimes on their opponents.
  - ModernMech 4y ago

kevinh 4y ago

It's truly incredible that this easily-verifiable statement of fact has been downvoted.