199

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) is calling for the Senate to change its rules amid Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) continued blockade of over 300 military promotions continues.

“I wish the Senate would change their rules so that one senator doesn’t have that kind of power, so that we actually would have a democracy where you have a fair vote,” Smith said of the upper chamber of Congress in an interview on CNN.

He added that it’s clear to him that Tuberville doesn’t believe in democracy.

“He doesn’t believe in the system of government that we’ve set up,” Smith argued. “You have a vote, you lose you move on.”

Smith, who served as a state senator in Washington in the 1990s, called the House Freedom Caucus and Tuberville’s approach to governance “incredibly destructive.”

“What he and the Freedom Caucus believe is ‘if you don’t get what you want, do as much damage as you possibly can’ to the government,” he said.

“In this case, it’s incredibly destructive to the defense of this country, to the national security of this country, to not be able to have top leaders appointed to their position nearly undermines our ability to protect this country bottom line, Smith added.

top 16 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] TwoGems@lemmy.world 47 points 1 year ago

Republicans work for the Russians. So of course their job is to damage the country.

[-] athos77@kbin.social 44 points 1 year ago

Remember how they held up Merrick Garland's appointment, and all the other federal judge appointments, so they could stuff the Supreme Court with their hand-picked acolytes who would do as they were told when the time came? Cynical minds think they're doing the same thing now with the military, because the last insurrection showed there wasn't enough support from military leaders.

[-] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Democrats need to take note.

The right promised the religious base they'd ban abortion. It took them almost 40 years, but they packed the court and got RvW overturned.

They came out, they promised, they did it.

Every democrat that promises M4A and doesn't deliver, i don't care why, needs to be voted out. Since Clinton M4A has been sidelined, and millions of Americans have died earlier than they should have and lost their lives earnings and their families being gutted generational wealth and inheritance. Besides the cruelty. Besides the insane wealth transfer from the bottom up, it's guaranteed no economic mobility. It's created a caste system.

The centrists are just as beholden to the 1% as the right is. Yale and Harvard have both dropped studies showing that public opinion has 0% effect on whether a bill gets passed.

Dems either stop holding a carrot in front of progressives and put people over profit or I, a fucking nobody, will file papers to start a new Progressive Party, with the Bull Moose as the mascot.

Dangle the carrot long enough, you'll find you end up getting the stick.

Look up Teddy Roosevelts platform from when he ran for president as a progressive.

we still have the SAME FUCKING EXACT PROBLEMS 100 YEARS LATER

no more carrots. Start grabbing big sticks.

[-] TwoGems@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Good on you for being proactive

[-] Mateoto@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

The cornerstone of American politics, full democratic representation, was once a powerful force, enabling smaller states and minorities to influence US politics and direction instead of being marginalized.

Regrettably, some actors with ulterior motives have exploited this system, steering it away from democratic principles, prioritizing minority rule, and serving their own interests over the democratic spirit.

[-] ME5SENGER_24@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

Not for nothing but I wish those 300+ in the middle of Tuberville’s pissing contest lobby against him and turn the military against the Republicans. Else, do you want a Junta? Cause this is how you get one! Piss off the people that operate the guns long enough and they’re gonna turn them on you

[-] ohlaph@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

One person shouldn't have the power to hold the military hostage.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 6 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Smith, who served as a state senator in Washington in the 1990s, called the House Freedom Caucus and Tuberville’s approach to governance “incredibly destructive.”

Tuberville began his blockade in April in protest of a Pentagon abortion policy enacted late last year.

The policy, which covers travel expenses for abortion care, hit the six-month mark earlier this week.

“If Senator Tuberville doesn’t like that, well go support a Republican candidate for president next year, go to the ballot box and make your case.”

“But, to undermine the ability of our country to defend itself just because you didn’t get your way on one piece of policy is destructive and wrong,” he argued.

Tuberville has also faced strong criticism from Alabama voters, Democrats and the White House.


The original article contains 417 words, the summary contains 124 words. Saved 70%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] Stern@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

He's stopping unanimous consent. Nothing stopping Dems from pushing folks through the old fashioned way by having votes. Hell after a few days of headlines of Rs voting against properly staffing the military I'm sure they'll get Tuberville to ask for unanimous consent himself just to end the bad press on the rest of them.

[-] UFO64@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Bad press? The are wearing Trumps mugshot like a badge oh honor my dude. Some are posting their own fake ones online. This would be the opposite of bad press for them.

[-] Hazdaz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yup, keep talking about it instead of actually doing it.

Most Democrat thing ever. Let's discuss this for the next 6 months. We can talk about how it hurts our feelings. Then by the time they finish talking about it, they'll shelve the proposal because they'll state its too close to the elections. Because as always, Dems want to make sure they are fair to their opponents. Then after the election they'll have lost enough seats in the Senate from inaction that they won't be able to do anything. And during none of this time, will Democrats even think about informing the general public about this or make speeches to the military to show how unsupportive to the military the GOP really is.

If this was flipped, and a lone Democrat was holding up hundreds of military promotions, Republicans would be on the news every night talking about how much Democrats hate soldiers. They'd be pressuring the public to get in contact with that Dem. They'd probably be pulling some dirty tricks to make the promotions happen. They would find a way.

this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
199 points (97.6% liked)

politics

19077 readers
3498 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS