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The States : red states in a race to the bottom

I've been reading a book by Weber on the "parliamentarization" of the Reichstag and the Bundesrat in Germany in the early 1900s. He keeps insisting on something which really strikes a chord in me now.

So, very brief background, Prussia dominated the Second Reich -- the German Empire after nation-building under Brandenberg-Prussia. Prussia is assured by law of complete dominance of the greater Reich government, and in practice this means the Prussian Diet sets German policy even to the detriment of the smaller German states, even though it is theoretically a federal system. There are a bunch of consequences but the most important is that the Reich parliamentary organs -- the Reichstag and Bundesrat -- are bodies of career office holders and technocrats who neither have the ability nor the aspiration to rise to leadership, because leadership is already locked down by Prussia. The Prussian Diet might produce leaders honed by the experience of debate and compromise but it is completely dominated by the large landholders -- they have a three class suffrage system much like France before the Revolution, where the wealthy basically write policy and at best the rest of Prussian society, insofar as they have representation at all, can veto certain types of measures. Though, typically, they can only protest and the law is still forwarded to the King of Prussia -- the landholder class again -- for ratification into law. And to top it all off, the King of Prussia is the Reich Kaiser, and the Prime Minister of the Prussian Diet is the Reichskanzler -- the Reich PM. So the fix is well and truly in. Nobody has the ability to hone leadership and political skills at any level because it's all just a transmission for power established at another level of society -- wealth and land. So the Diet and the Bundesrat and the Reichstag don't produce any leaders.

That seems to be what the end of democracy in the US in the 80s and 90s and the substitution of plutocracy has done to the Congress. It doesn't produce leaders anymore. It doesn't produce anybody with political chops. Because there is no politics anymore -- there is no give and take and compromise between large slices of the polity. There is only the power train of the wealthy dictating policy, the Court approving it. A Democratic administration might, for a time, hold back the worse abuses, while the GOP puts them into overdrive. But Congress has no leadership role. Look at it now -- it's invisible, even though it is the ruling party! All it does is duck its responsibilities. All its members do is posture uselessly.

That is why I think we get Schumer and Gillibrand and the like. Congress is supposed to be a cauldron of burning political ambitions and a knife fight, with the most effective politicals rising. Clay, Calhoun, Taft, Rayburn, LBJ, O'Neil. Those types. But since the capture of American government by the rich, we have had exactly none. Gingrich was a demagogue with no feel or ability for real politics. Reid and Pelosi were rules experts who played the system but had no ability to form lasting alliances or cadres. Hastert, Boehner, McConnell, not to mention Biden, were time servers; McCarthy and Johnson are literally in leadership as the dopes the smart soldiers put in front of the bullets. We no longer have anybody who can understand or practice politics, because we have a post-political government.
 
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I dont buy the "she did it for Michigan" comments. She was getting nothing out of the WH for Michigan and everyone knows it. Gretchen did it for Gretchen...she wanted the headline for her future campaigns. (Look at me im not crazy I can work with Trump even!)

Trump doesn't help Red States...here is some proof!

Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen.bsky.social)

Trump just denied North Carolina’s request for FEMA relief from Hurricane Helene, calling it “unwarranted.” https://ncnewsline.com/2025/04/12/fema-will-stop-matching-100-of-helene-recovery-money-in-nc-stein-says/
bsky.app bsky.app

Gretchen, like most Dems, suck at this!

"Trump is evil and wants to destroy Democracy!"
-Dems

"We must work together with the GOP and the WH to get what we want"
-Also Dems

Jesus his people tried to kidnap her...and there she is begging for scraps like Oliver Twist. That isn't leadership...it's being a collaborator. She is Mitt Romney with better policies. It's the perfect example of why people don't trust Dems.

Janet Mills gets it.

Edit: For Michigan!

1000014237.jpg
 
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Kepler said:
That is why I think we get Schumer and Gillibrand and the like. Congress is supposed to be a cauldron of burning political ambitions and a knife fight, with the most effective politicals rising. Clay, Calhoun, Taft, Rayburn, LBJ, O'Neil. Those types. But since the capture of American government by the rich, we have had exactly none. Gingrich was a demagogue with no feel or ability for real politics. Reid and Pelosi were rules experts who played the system but had no ability to form lasting alliances or cadres. Hastert, Boehner, McConnell, not to mention Biden, were time servers; McCarthy and Johnson are literally in leadership as the dopes the smart soldiers put in front of the bullets. We no longer have anybody who can understand or practice politics, because we have a post-political government.
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I've been thinking about this for awhile, I know LBJ would smack some folks around and come to an agreement somehow that both sides could vote for. Tip could could do the same though and no doubt those skills are gone. Those guys had majority's that could pass bills easily yet they still got others on board.
 
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walrus said:
I've been thinking about this for awhile, I know LBJ would smack some folks around and come to an agreement somehow that both sides could vote for. Tip could could do the same though and no doubt those skills are gone. Those guys had majority's that could pass bills easily yet they still got others on board.
Click to expand...
Congress is working exactly as designed as a representative body of Members responsible to their constituents. But those constituents are no longer voters. They are bribers donors.
 
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