4 ms·

Congress has been neutered and there's been efforts to ensure that it stays that way.

• mosura 9mo ago
  It isn’t new though. The whole reason it is such a mess now is it was equally deliberately ignored for decades.
  • nullocator 9mo ago
    No. One old man and a bunch of malicious zealots at his side are introducing a tremendous amount of instability into the country and the world at large; just like they did with his first term, only now less inhibited.
    • pstuart 9mo ago
      The problem is the old man and his enablers have zero respect for the law, whereas the other team does (they are not above reproach but in this regard they are distinctly different). This makes the fight unfair, as without law all we have is unbridled violence as a tool and that is a path to ruin for all.
      • mosura 9mo ago
        > have zero respect for the law They are simply enforcing a law that people have had every opportunity to democratically change in the decades since it just stopped being enforced properly, and yet they failed to secure a democratic mandate to do so. Complaining from that position is far from being on a moral high ground.
  • mrguyorama 9mo ago
    Obama was "Deporter in chief" You are just wrong. America didn't even really have borders for most of it's existence, as the very idea of a Nation wasn't really a thing until into the 1800s. We had a purposely pourous border with Mexico until relatively recently. How many mexican immigrants do you happen to think live in Minneapolis?
    • mosura 9mo ago
      While a pan-US national awareness is widely seen as emerging during the civil war the rest of what you are saying is disingenuous. Prior to that it was a selection of colonies etc. which very much had borders because skirmishes over taxation rights was a thing. There was significantly more inter ethnic strife in the US pre WW2 than most people seem to appreciate, much of it relating to if encountered (by whatever means) people should be settled/assimilated/rejected. There were riots/protests of this type in major cities at least between the civil war and the 1930s, and state policy reflected this, such as with the Chinese exclusion act which would hardly have been possible without a border.
• SlightlyLeftPad 9mo ago
  It’s the literal plot of Star Wars
• jshier 9mo ago
  Congress hasn't been neutered, they can reclaim their power at any time. Republicans in power simply refuse to act at all.
  • ceejayoz 9mo ago
    That they neutered themselves doesn't make them any less neutered. I'm skeptical about their ability to reclaim it, too. Lots of them remember being terrified and running away Jan 6, even if many now pretend not to... and SCOTUS has been on a tear wiping out long-standing legislation Congress was quite clear about like the Voting Rights Act.
    • jshier 9mo ago
      To extend the analogy, Congress hasn't had their balls removed, they simply aren't humping other dogs right now. I'm not an expert, but while many of SCOTUS' rulings have been against the plain letter of the law, few of the decisions ruled out Congressional power in those areas categorically. Congress could pass a new Voting Rights Act, or redefine the EPA's powers over wetlands, or any number of things, they just choose not to. And of course, even with a Democratic Congress, getting past the veto may be impossible.
      • ceejayoz 9mo ago
        > Congress could pass a new Voting Rights Act, or redefine the EPA's powers over wetlands, or any number of things, they just choose not to. They could, and SCOTUS could toss it, like they did bit by bit to all the important parts of the first. Or just invent a new legal standard, like the "history and tradition" one they used in Bruen, Dobbs, and Bremerton.