There are two conflicting narratives about why Senate Democrats have blocked the police reform bill introduced in the Senate by South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. Sen. Scott expresses one of those narratives, quoted here at RealClearPolitics:
“The actual problem is not what is being offered. It is who is offering it. Took me a long time to figure out the most obvious thing in the room. It’s not they what,” Scott said.
“What I missed in this issue is that the stereotyping of Republicans is just as toxic and poison to the outcomes of the most vulnerable communities in this nation. That’s the issue. When Speaker Pelosi says one of the most heinous things I can imagine: that the Republicans are actually trying to cover up murder, the murder of Feorge Floyd with our legislation, that’s not politics. That’s not a game to win. That’s you lose. You will sooner or later lose. But immediately every kid around the nation that heard that nonsense lost that moment.”
while the other is expressed in this piece at Vox.com by Li Zhou in a quote from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer along with Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker:
Senate Democrats have officially rejected Republicans’ police reform bill, tanking the legislation, which needed 60 votes to advance, in a 55-45 vote on Wednesday. In a letter earlier this week, Democrats noted that the bill — which does little to ensure legal accountability in cases of police misconduct — fell far short of the policies they’re interested in implementing.
“This bill is not salvageable and we need bipartisan talks to get to a constructive starting point,†Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker said in the letter. For now, the two parties have yet to make inroads on a compromise: The House is set to pass Democrats’ police reform bill on Thursday, but Republicans in the Senate have already dismissed it.
I suspect there’s a kernel of truth in both narratives and I’m in no position to adjudicate between them. It looks to me as though there were a compromise to be had here by strengthening the Senate bill and stripping some of the excess from the House bill but that can only be true if there’s a compromise to be had. Not only are the two parties at daggers drawn at this point but it’s an election year. Compromise is always hard to reach in an election year.
The perfect is the enemy of the good. Especially when the good isn’t what your side proposed. Then it’s irredeemably evil.
If you believe perfection is an achievable goal, you’re dwelling in the wrong plane of existence.
Why should the D’s let the Rs win one? They need to drag this out for electoral advantage.
I think you are overanalyzing it. Nancy told us what the problem is: “the republicans are trying to get away with murder.” And we can’t have that.
So there you have it.
Walt has it right. Everything and anything producing a cloud around this administration will be dragged out as long as possible. Any legislation where sides could meet in the middle, compromise on the extremes, will be met with disdain by the opposition. Burn it down rather than make it right will be the defining cattle call to action by the obnoxious left.
Consequently, IMO, we are heading for 2 possible outcomes: complete chaos brought on by unrestricted anarchy, or a totalitarian state arising out of fears from the current out-of-control bedlam, where an authoritarian body will emerge promising people safety with an enormous price tag involving relinquishing their constitutional freedoms.
or everybody just gets tired and goes home without changing anything or accomplishing anything.
“..or everybody just gets tired and goes home without changing anything or accomplishing anything.”
That’s my bet, and no doubt the Democrats bet, but with costs to the country and perceived political gain as a feature of the event.
“Get tired and go home….â€.
That would be a non disturbing exit to the political havoc being experienced throughout the country. However, I think BLM has gotten too powerful, has had too many donations to their cause to let their disruptive successes just evaporate and sunset into a yesterday movement.