VA: Bills advance out of committee

Allen65 said:

What I see coming from the current Dem scorched earth tactics and revenge politics is retaliation in kind when the Reps take back over, and gut everything the Dems did and then some. And then Dems win back the state, and the cycle continues.

The end result is possible decades of statutory anarchy, not just with guns, but all "hot button" issues. A

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Tungsten said:

Hopefully it is different than on the national level where Democrats throw out the rule of law and do anything they want, then the Republicans take back control and do nothing.

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Occam said:

It's really an attempt to make Virginia a place that conservatives/constitutionalists can't stand to live. Leaving the state to permanent ownership of those with a statist/collectivist frame of mind. When you make one of the hallmarks of the individualist ethos (the ability to defend oneself) away, those people don't suddenly become collectivists. They either hold their noses and stick around, or they get up and leave. The lefties love the "that's it, I'm moving to WV!" sentiment, because it just boosts their immovable hold on power. As they flip more states, so will they eventually flip the country. It's a deliberate, considered, long-term strategy.

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FeelTheNoise said:

Agreed. It's disappointing to hear a lot of people respond to people fighting in a non-free state with things like, "Easy, just move to <FREE STATE>; Maryland is a lost cause." What exactly do they think will happen once Maryland has been gutted of its freedom? It just empowers anti-2A groups to take down the next state in line. It's happening now in Virginia, Washington and from what I've heard it's starting in places like PA and AZ as well. It's a band-aid solution that doesn't get after the root cause of the problem, but I hear things like that all the time.

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Occam said:

Though, Maryland actually IS a lost cause, unlike Virginia, which might be able to claw back the legislature if the non-lefty residents could trouble themselves to vote. In MD, the all-blue status would persist even if every single conservative did actually vote. The deep blue central counties completely eclipse their sparse rural counterparts.

Which is why in MD, it’s now all about court battles, not any real expectation of flipping the General Assembly or ever again seeing an even luke-warm GOP governor. But VA can grasp at those red straws at least one or two more times until they are permanently owned by Lord Fairfax.

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Occam said:

Though, Maryland actually IS a lost cause, unlike Virginia, which might be able to claw back the legislature if the non-lefty residents could trouble themselves to vote. In MD, the all-blue status would persist even if every single conservative did actually vote. The deep blue central counties completely eclipse their sparse rural counterparts.



Which is why in MD, it’s now all about court battles, not any real expectation of flipping the General Assembly or ever again seeing an even luke-warm GOP governor. But VA can grasp at those red straws at least one or two more times until they are permanently owned by Lord Fairfax.

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Occam said:

When, since Gingrich’s ascent to speaker a quarter of a century ago, have we had legislative control? Not once. The Dems - whether only the slim majority or minority - have been in a position to block every single thing we want in the senate. We’d need to win another ten or a dozen seats there to even see a situation where we could experience what you describe.

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rbird7282 said:

Dems could’ve blocked legislation in the Senate back in the 103rd Congress.

We had as much legislative control during Trumps first two years. Problem is Republicans have no balls. They couldn’t even vote on repealing Obamacare, which was what got them elected to the majority in the first place.
They should’ve shot for the stars and tried to put everything they wanted through. My guess is they could’ve sold some Dems on something instead of not even trying.

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Occam said:

The problem is that in the senate, when it comes to legislative matters, having a majority doesn’t mean squat unless you have 60 seats and 100% unity among those 60. Trump hasn’t had such a functioning majority, and it’s as simple as that. We have less than sixty seats. Having a simple majority means having control of the legislative agenda, but there’s no point adding to that agenda things that literally cannot and will not pass.

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whistlersmother said:

At least the Repukes could've tried. They rolled over as they always do. They are beyond worthless.

This sounds just like McClellan.

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Occam said:

There are reasons, when you know there is literally no way that Schumer will allow a bill to pass with the required 60 votes, to keep it from being voted on, and then it being on the books as having been defeated.

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Allen65 said:

There's a way around that. The majority party controls the committees, where the language can be added to another "must pass" bill, one that would cost Dems dearly if they vote against or block it.

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