I don't think behaving like the opponent is a good thing all because (some) of them acted that way.

I think that kind of mentality, especially cancel culture, almost put Trump in power for four more years (or for life the way his rhetoric goes and his increasing appointment of sycophants - the patriotic ones are all resigning over time).

In some ways I think Biden was one of the best choices, being not compromised by a more extreme mentality.

I wasted several hours responding to another journal the other day from someone brainwashed that there are millions of fraudulent votes. I don't believe in hating people, but boy do I pity them... to be so far gone from reality and so enslaved to a cult of personality.

It is mind boggling that someone can be a perfectly normal, kind person in person, and then somehow hand wave Trump's conduct and believe all the far right propaganda. The thing that's different is while cancel culture IS evil and a sadly growing phenomenon, the communist oppression the far right cries wolf about isn't a real goal of the left in the USA. Meanwhile from day one Trump has called the media the enemy of the people, has stopped just short of saying whistleblowers deserve death, openly supports torture, openly supports jailing political opponents. I don't see how anyone who reads his Twitter account for a couple weeks (or days) can think he's fit to lead.

I dunno, dude. Republicans have been sliming Democrats for the longest time and have been ruthless in trying to game and break the system in their favor. Sure, Democrats have gerrymandered districts, but Republicans made that a friggan science and at this point, Dem politicians and activists are just trying to get the playing field back to level.

I don't hate Republicans and the right wing. I just don't think they have anything useful to say, especially with a track record of being wrong and having supported what will be the most disastrous presidency the US has ever experienced, and that's even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Particularly since "owning the libs" has become less a statement of the extremely online folks, and more a statement of purpose for the party at large.

I guess my main point is these are all symptoms of human nature, which can get nasty if not careful. It's important not to become them when fighting them is my main point. See the areas of the world with constant violence for hundreds of years between people not even related to the people that started the conflict. That's the result if the attitude of the other side is used to excuse one's own.

Don't get me wrong though, because I fully agree it's disgusting what's going on. It's very telling when a few on the right say the real reasoning behind these things with comments like "Republicans would never win again if everyone voted." It makes it pretty clear discouraging voting is their main goal with this junk. I just don't think that makes suspension of values depending on who you are talking about right.

I don't think I'm suspending my values at all. I still believe Republican voters are people, and nothing will change that. I think they're largely misguided people, but ultimately I don't want to have to expend mental and physical energy getting them to realize how incredibly misguided they are so that they're in a place where we can begin to talk about productive things. Again, there is a literal difference of reality here and I'm at a point where I'd much rather do useful things than coddle their warped reality.

So instead you're going to... what, act just like his supporters would have had they won? You're going to sink down to their level, that's your plan?

Biden is going to be a better President than Trump, but that's kind of the lowest bar you could possibly set. However, the polarization and bashing 'the other side' is still a problem.

We won. No need to rub salt in the wounds. We still need a functional congress, which means working with senators and house reps who are republican. Gloating over a victory isn't going to help that.

To fix all the mess that has been caused, we're going to need to get both parties involved, since both parties caused it.

Mm... Not quite. I still see Republicans as a major impediment to getting anything done, since so much of their party has been running on being obstinate jackasses when in the minority and they have any leverage to gum up the works and then being turbo asses to get their priorities in and running over any and all Democratic objections. That said, if Trump supporters actually say "I think I messed up in supporting Trump" then I will extend my hand in welcome to them.

But not before then.

Imma have my celebration that Biden is president and I'm not gonna care that Trump supporters -- those who aren't convinced that actually Trump won the election but the Demon-crats are trying to steal it! -- are gonna be sad/upset that their guy didn't win and draw offense from me celebrating. Because that requires them to try and figure out why I and many others celebrated. Which requires them attempting to grapple with what Trump actually did while in office, and how people were hurt by it.

That said, I believe Biden is going to be substantially better than Trump in office, if only for the general level of competence he is bringing with him. He is actually going to be attracting the "best people", people that -- especially after 4 years of Trump -- are going to want to work in government again. And the federal government is finally going to be headed and run by competent individuals in high posts.

Moreover, McConnell is absolutely not interested in working with the Biden administration. He endorsed Trump's useless and flailing lawsuits to try to get the election overturned in his favor, and like many Republicans has not said word one about acknowledging the reality of Biden's win.

Working with people on the other side requires acknowledging a common reality, and Republicans do not want to be there yet, following their enfant terrible king into the abyss.

Let's just hope, assuming Republicans do win one or both of the runoff elections for the Senate, that Biden's legacy of friendship regardless of party helps him govern. Granted that won't help if the more extreme Democrats paralyze the House with unreasonable demands like the Green New Deal, or whatever.

1) It won't, especially not with Mitch McConnell at the helm. I have no illusions of him attempting to work with a Biden administration to get things done, because this dude has not exhibited any desire to get anything done that was not completely in his partisan interests. Remember, McConnell was the one that wanted to make Obama a one-term president and callously gummed up the works in the Senate. McConnell was the one that refused to sign onto a bipartisan statement telling the American people about Russian interference in the 2016 election when presented with evidence of that very thing. This iteration of Republicanism has little use for ideals of compromise and working together unless it's used as a cudgel against the other side. This is to say nothing of their staid ideas that haven't changed in literal decades and haven't produced the results they keep claiming it does.

2) How is the Green New Deal unreasonable? It is a plan to move the US into an economy that relies considerably less on fossil fuels, which helps us survive in this increasingly hostile environment. Nothing is going to happen immediately, and the conceit is already happening at large: look at the abundance of wind farms and other forms of clean energy. Coal is dying and needs to be put away, especially if we as a species are going to survive.

The thing that gives me (a little) hope is that McConnell has worked with Biden in the past and has spoken very highly of him.

"We got results that would not have been possible without a negotiating partner like Joe Biden. Obviously, I don't always agree with him, but I do trust him, implicitly. He doesn't break his word, he doesn't waste time telling me why I'm wrong.… There's a reason 'Get Joe on the phone' is shorthand for 'Time to get serious' in my office.”"

That is McConnell on Biden several years ago.

"Several years ago" would be the operative phrase here. I would like you to be right, but I fear that you're wrong.

Have your celebration, by all means. However, at the end of the day, if meaningful change is going to happen, you need to work through the still republican controlled senate. Which means working with republican senators. Blame them all you like, it still won't change the fact that they will be necessary to fix the mess they caused. Playing the blame game is not going to help in that endeavor. Trump and McConnell leaving the political scene isn't going to change that.

Politics is the art of compromise. And at the moment, the republican and democratic parties are much like the Dr. Seuss novel of the two Zax, one going East and the other going West, neither going anywhere. Both parties are decrying 'I won't budge until the other one does', which ends up in absolutely nothing getting done to solve any problems. Which also won't be helping anyone. It's been like that for two decades now. Hell, even Bush Sr. and Clinton had better cross-party communication than we have here today. And without that, the entire system grinds to a halt, and nothing gets done. Hell, I don't think the country has had an actual budget passed since Obama was elected. We've been running on emergency funding being rammed through special appropriations ever since.

I don't envy Biden. He's got a mountain of problems to fix, many of them are at a crisis point already because of the general state of neglect over the past couple of decades the government has gone over while everyone is more concerned about blaming than about fixing the damn problem already. I respect him, and I certainly hope he can be as good for this country as you feel he can be. But I don't think he's going to be able to do it without reaching a hand across the isle. He will need Congressional support to enact change. Because, unless I missed something in civics class all those years ago, Congress is the legislative branch.

If you want new laws, or want them changed, you go to Congress. Not the President. Whose job is: 1) Chief diplomat and public face for America to foreign countries, 2) Commander In Chief of the military in the event that fails, and 3) head of the Executive branch of government to enforce the laws Congress has passed. That's it. That's his job description right there. So as far as making and passing laws is concerned, Biden is actually in LESS of a position to do something than he was. I hope and pray he can repair the grevious damage the infant with a toupee did to our foreign relations over the past four years, that's in his bailiwick at least. But trying to make a health care system that actually works? Not his job. His only tangential responsibility to that is his presidential veto, which as been much abused over the decades. Trying to get our economy going amidst a pandemic? Also not his problem, Senate has the power of the purse. And the senate is still republican controlled. So if you want to actually solve problems? They're going to need to be involved somehow.

At some point, someone has to be the bigger man and say 'I don't care who started it, I want to finish it' and extend a hand. Otherwise, we end up with total systemic collapse. I only hope we haven't already reached the point of no return already.

McConnell hasn't left the political scene, but good lord would the political environment in the United States be helped if he did. He has literally been the point of failure for various compromises because he seems only interested in raw power and getting what he wants, and little interested in anything else. Which would be a disgrace if the Dems lose one or both of the runoffs in Georgia and we once again have divided government, and then we have to attempt to work with him instead of around him. I think McConnell is a terrible party leader, not for the things he believes in, but in that he is only interested in power and if there's any compromise in him, it's severely atrophied and he can't get his party to support something instead of block something.

I get the instinct to cry "a pox on both your houses" when nothing gets done but the Republicans have literally been the problem here. The reason there hasn't been any additional COVID relief is because the Republicans -- led by McConnell -- have decided they wanted to take a "wait and see" approach and have been taking any sign that the economy is jerking along as a "well, we can't raise the debt now at this point, gotta cut more social services!" Nevermind that the tax cut they love so much has blown up the debt, but there's no thought in Republican circles that maybe they should get rid of that first.

ALL OF THIS X2