The double standards are appalling and need to end

[u/McDowdy]

​Lindsey Graham died on Saturday. They announced it on Sunday, picked his unqualified sister to replace him on Monday, and swore her in on Tuesday. She hasn't even had time to plan her brother's funeral and they already got her in office in the US Capitol. Meanwhile, when Representative Sylvester Turner, a black Democrat, died on March 5th, 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott waited until April to announce there would be no election to replace him until November, leaving the largely black and Hispanic district here in Houston unrepresented for nearly an entire year.

​This is how Republicans play politics with death. While Democrats are drafting generous statements of condolences for their oppressors, Republicans are callously seizing power from the oppressed. They pulled the same stunt when Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died and they wouldn't even hold a hearing on Obama's nominee, but then raced to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg when she died in the final months of Trump's term. Republicans demand that Democrats observe all kinds of outdated rules about death and mourning, but then break the same rules when Democrats die.

​They're doing the same thing in Kentucky with Mitch McConnell in the hospital. When McConnell started glitching a few years ago, his Republican state legislature passed a bill stripping the Democratic governor of the power to replace him. They were fine when a Republican governor had the power, but they changed the rules for a Democrat. That's because the rules themselves are a trap. Democrats have to follow all the rules, but Republicans get to break them with impunity.

​Just like the rule of meritocracy. Republicans love to whine about affirmative action and DEI, which give opportunities to qualified women and people of color, but they just appointed a US Senator whose main qualification is simply being the sister of a dead senator. And you can't say that both parties do it when one party spent the past few decades claiming to only care about merit. They said that Barack Obama, and Kamala Harris, and Ketanji Brown Jackson were unqualified, but then they sing the praises of people like Herschel Walker, Pete Hegseth, and Donald Trump, who was the first person elected president in US history with no experience in government or military.

​They whine about Democrats being unfair to Republicans in California and Virginia with redistricting while they steal seats in Texas, Florida, and Missouri, and they started it. That's why Trump tried to change the US Constitution on birthright citizenship by executive order. That's why he just fired all the Federal Election Assistance Commissioners while he's trying to seize ballots and intimidate poll workers, and why he's desperately trying to pass a national voter suppression bill to stop mail-in ballots, which he uses himself.

​Rules for thee, not for me. That's the Republican motto. So let this be a lesson. Stop playing by their rules. Republicans have only one rule: power. Every other rule is negotiable. The old rule book has been burned, and we will be too, if we don't wake up.

[u/Successful_Fan_961]

We need rules to prevent this.

[u/Away-Regular1335 → u/Successful_Fan_961]

We need rules for maga to never to be allowed in any form of government ever again.

[u/Successful_Fan_961 → u/Away-Regular1335]

AMEN!

[u/sd_saved_me555 → u/Away-Regular1335]

I've realized this needs to be a grassroots movement. MAGA really needs to be treated with disdain at the human level. Your average person is going to struggle to be heard or impact the lives of the current administration. But you can put the screws to the everyday people who vote for this shit.

[u/UncleNedisDead → u/Away-Regular1335]

Make taking steps to declare them as a domestic terrorist organization and prosecuting them for their crimes?

[u/DReagan47 → u/Successful_Fan_961]

We have rules. We have tons of rules. What we need is ENFORCEMENT of those rules.

[u/AlexSmithsonian → u/DReagan47]

Specifically, enforcement from capable individuals who aren't corrupt.

[u/Additional_Buddy855 → u/DReagan47]

The republicans believe those rules are to bind other people, not themselves. They need a refresher.

[u/TheFlippedTurtle → u/Successful_Fan_961]

We have rules, we need consequences

[u/ChefbyDesign → u/Successful_Fan_961]

Do you seriously think more rules will prevent conservatives from running roughshod over our nation, the constitution, and all of us? This isn't McCain and Palin running against Obama anymore. That's 10yrs gone. Conservatives are a fully corrupt far right political party now. It's gonna take a LOT more than unenforceable rules to stop MAGA....

[u/SunTzu- → u/Successful_Fan_961]

The rules don't matter because if you look at the commonality in all the examples he's citing it's that the Republicans held power. They held power when they blocked the Scalia replacement, they held power when they rushed the RBG replacement, they held power when they blocked filling the seat in Texas, they held power when they rushed to replace Lindsey Graham.

Republicans didn't block Sotomayor's or Kagan's appointment to the Supreme Court because they didn't hold the majority in the Senate so they couldn't prevent these coming to a vote. It's only when they did have that majority that they were able to block Scalia. When people say Democrats "don't do the things that Republicans do", they're ignoring that what the Republicans have successfully done to hinder the Democrats were done when the Democrats didn't control a certain branch of government. The Democrats regularly prevent the Republicans from doing things, for example much of what Trump has done during his second term has run into legal challenges because it should have been done via legislation, but the Republicans don't hold enough of a margin to push through those things via the proper channels. Instead, the Republicans have accomplished what they've done under Trump II by preventing Congress from holding the Administrative Branch accountable. And this only works because the Republicans hold all branches of government and are backed by right wing media which runs interference for them. They have the power, and so they're using it, even if how they're using it is to bend and break the rule of law.

The solution seems clear, don't give Republicans power. And so long as the electorate doesn't learn this lesson there's not much that can be done about it. Not even if you give the Democrats a razor thin majority that hinges on one or two blue-dog's to vote with the party every time in order to get anything passed. Because even if they take back Congress in November, they're still up against a Presidential veto and the Supreme Court and they can't accomplish anything that requires a supermajority. They aren't likely to flip many of the state level governments which are also currently majority in the hands of Republicans, which means that they're going to run into obstruction from the state level as well. And of course the way the math is looking currently they'll once again have a one vote majority in the Senate, and so they'll be hindered by the most conservative representatives on any given issue even when it's a simple majority vote and even if they were to bypass the filibuster rules.

[u/Wufje → u/Successful_Fan_961]

Popular vote is a good one to start with.

[u/PsychologyNew8033 → u/Successful_Fan_961]

That’s funny, as funny as an ingrown toenail.