Democrats have only hardened their position as the government shutdown enters its 23rd day, leaving Republican majorities in Congress with few answers — and many criticisms.

For the 12th time, Senate Democrats blocked the Republican Party’s government funding legislation this week without a single senator switching his or her vote.

Just three Democratic caucus members voted for the bill: John Fetterman, D-Pa.; Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; and Angus King, I-Maine. That means Republicans are still five votes short of the 60-vote threshold to ensure passage of the bill, just as they have been since before the government shut down 23 days ago.

Democratic voters had pressured their party to take a more confrontational posture toward Trump in the shutdown battle. The new stance may be paying off with the party’s base.

    • SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      Governments are the product of the people. There is no divine or natural laws that triggers “an election”. A government is simply created from thin air when a group of people (any group of people) get together and say: fuck the old system, we are putting that in the trash and signing a new social contract.

      Of course, there’s virtually never unanimity of agreement over this social contract in one geographic area, so that social contract is only as binding as the force used to put it in effect.

      Realistically, 6 months+ of government shutdown in the US will likely cause a collapse of the USA as a single unified federal entity, since the federal government effectively rots. At that point, all bets are off. A fracture of the US is very possible.

      • 5too@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I assumed they asked because in many countries, it would legally trigger an election.

    • ibelieveinthehousehippo@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      In parliamentary democracies the budget is automatically a vote of confidence. If the government can’t pass it, an election occurs. Nothing shuts down because the system is still operating on the existing budget that was already passed.

    • jackal@infosec.pub
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      5 months ago

      Is that written into laws? No. But you know who made the original government? People who decided to make their own shit.

      We have more information and better access to new decisions. We can simply decide to start over collectively and start once again. We don’t have to do things because that’s the way they have always been (in our individual lifetime).

        • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          I will accept literally any other ideology before fascism. A monarch, a communist dictatorship, a tyranny of the majority, pre-fascist crony capitalism, futarchist prediction markets, primitivist tribes, machine rule, you name it. Go nuts. The bad ideas we haven’t tried might not end up with secret police disappearing people.

          • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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            5 months ago

            I get it, I just don’t think leveling the building full of asbestos is the best plan of action. If that metaphor makes sense.

          • ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 months ago

            Communist dictatorship is off the table, too. I mean, there is China’s communism that probably isn’t quiet as bad. Damn, we’ve seriously lost ground here. Anyways, markets, communism, etc, are all based on trading labor for resources. We’re quickly approaching a world where robots are doing much of the labor. Humans who are not rich, selling sex, or some other service not acheivable with robotics are going to be very fucked.

            • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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              5 months ago

              IMHO at least the communists want something good, that sometimes results in fascism and sometimes gets crushed. The fascists just want something bad and often succeed.

    • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      Is that a real possibility? How does that actually work

      Generally but not always with violence