If/when Biden is elected...

[Whateverman]

Yeah, and we're back to that discussion on the route to take if the republicans do decide to spend their time simply stonewalling everything put in front of them. The high or low road?

High road, ideally, but whichever road gets the job done.

I do think it is important to shore up the loopholes Trump and the republicans have shown over the last 4 years so that they don't happen again under a more competent president.

Those loopholes are Constitutional, and are thus going to take a long time to shore up. We'd need serious Republican support to get it done, and given their "judgement" over the last decade, I doubt they'd be willing to do anything the Democrats wanted.

[EvoUK]

Those loopholes are Constitutional, and are thus going to take a long time to shore up. We'd need serious Republican support to get it done, and given their "judgement" over the last decade, I doubt they'd be willing to do anything the Democrats wanted.

Yes, I was unintentionally making it sound easier than it would be in practice..!

[Mountain Man]

How can we fix any problems when both sides just want to claim superiority over the other?

The problem is that they don't. Washington Republicans and Democrats agree far more than they let on. Do you think they care who the majority party is? Not really, because in the end, they both stay in power. They'll put on a good show for the voting public, but behind closed doors, they're smiling and shaking hands. It's basically a game to them. One of the reason Trump is hated by members of both parties is because he doesn't play by their rules and has upset the status quo.

[shunyadragon]

... he's going to do a poor job.

I say this because of the challenges this country currently faces. No president is going to be able to emerge with popular support from one or two terms of having to deal with the pandemic, crushing economic forced, racial injustice/protests, and a virtually-deleted international reputation/credibility.

If Trump wants to avoid getting lynched, he'll lose this next election and quietly sink back into whatever obscurity he can muster (yes, I know that's against his character). Biden is going to be pummeled because of the pile of crap left-behind by #45.

And here, I'm not even counting the rank partisanship which is (dare I say) the real problem. Some Republicans are going to hate Biden no matter what he does, just as some Democrats hate Trump - but that's going to pale in comparison to the controversy Biden will face just working to get this country out from behind the eight-ball. I suspect that Biden will only last a single term (having nothing to do with the hysterical health/cognitive alarmism coming from the right side of the fence).

I never cared for Joe Biden, but the best I can say is yes it will be an improvement over the Trump disaster. It is good he has Harris as VP, though she was not my first choice either.

[Maranatha]

I doubt they'd be willing to do anything the Democrats wanted.

Packing the court. Removing the filibuster. Green deals. Energy slavery to middle east energy leading to more war.

I think you are correct.

[Thoughtful Monk]

I think Biden should announce that all investigations into Trump are over. Similar to how Ford pardoned Nixon so the country could move on. If Biden does this, I think there's a chance some bipartisanship and lowering of anger levels will occur. If he doesn't do it, the significant number of Trump supporters will get angrier and the country will move further apart.

[Whateverman]

I think Biden should announce that all investigations into Trump are over. Similar to how Ford pardoned Nixon so the country could move on. If Biden does this, I think there's a chance some bipartisanship and lowering of anger levels will occur. If he doesn't do it, the significant number of Trump supporters will get angrier and the country will move further apart.

There's no chance of that happening. None whatsoever.

The first reason is that it would be fundamentally unjust and unAmerican. This claim could be a thread all by itself, but I'll just put it out there and let people respond as they like.

Instead, I'd like to raise the second and actually-more-important point, which is that it would do literally nothing to lower anger levels. Nor would it bring about an ounce of bipartisanship. I respectfully suggest that your idea is exclusive to the conservative POV, and would be offset by the reaction from the liberal - which would be extraordinary.

Republicans are waging a full-scale culture war on American society today. Even if (as they might claim) it was preceded by a Democrat/liberal culture war, the fact is that "pardoning" a single man wouldn't be seen by anyone as a justification to stop.

If partisan peace is a possibility, it's going to take at least a decade for it to come about (barring some event which galvanizes the American citizenry)

ps. and I doubt 300,000 pandemic deaths is going to be that event

[Thoughtful Monk]

Guess I might as well make my peace with God because civil war is coming. I don't give myself a high chance of survival. The death toll will make Covid look like a statistical error.

[seanD]

Guess I might as well make my peace with God because civil war is coming. I don't give myself a high chance of survival. The death toll will make Covid look like a statistical error.

I wouldn't say it's coming. I'd say it's already here. It's obviously not going to look like a coordinated civil war of the past because it's a totally different era. The question is not even whether what we're seeing now will increase because there's no scenario I see that will allow it to decrease. I guess the only thing we can argue is how intense it will get and that dynamic might be affected by the election outcome, but I doubt it.

[Thoughtful Monk]

I wouldn't say it's coming. I'd say it's already here. It's obviously not going to look like a coordinated civil war of the past because it's a totally different era. The question is not even whether what we're seeing now will increase because there's no scenario I see that will allow it to decrease. I guess the only thing we can argue is how intense it will get and that dynamic might be affected by the election outcome, but I doubt it.

Civil War isn't here yet. We're just in some degree of civil unrest. The best analogy I can come up with is it's 1913 in Europe and the sides are still reluctant to pull the trigger, Unfortunately I think we're getting very close to something stupid happens and war starts. I agree the election isn't going to affect the dynamic any. We need all sides to take a deep breath, look into the abyss, decide it's really bad down there, and step back. Unfortunately, I think some parties (and their numbers are growing) think they will come out ahead in a civil war and the aftermath.

[Maranatha]

I wouldn't say it's coming. I'd say it's already here. It's obviously not going to look like a coordinated civil war of the past because it's a totally different era. The question is not even whether what we're seeing now will increase because there's no scenario I see that will allow it to decrease. I guess the only thing we can argue is how intense it will get and that dynamic might be affected by the election outcome, but I doubt it.

Like a cold civil war. If a real one breaks out, I will likely side with whatever side the US Military is on. A self preservation thing.

[seanD]

Civil War isn't here yet. We're just in some degree of civil unrest. The best analogy I can come up with is it's 1913 in Europe and the sides are still reluctant to pull the trigger, Unfortunately I think we're getting very close to something stupid happens and war starts. I agree the election isn't going to affect the dynamic any. We need all sides to take a deep breath, look into the abyss, decide it's really bad down there, and step back. Unfortunately, I think some parties (and their numbers are growing) think they will come out ahead in a civil war and the aftermath.

Definitely civil unrest, but I think we're in a stage of civil war right now based on what we're seeing in Washington. I mean Pelosi calling Republicans "enemies of the state" just reflects the type of civil war rhetoric we've been seeing for the past four years. Groups of political factions of both sides walking through American streets carrying arms. Political groups engaging in "war game" scenarios about the election outcome and possible military involvement. When have we ever seen anything like what we're seeing now in America? I don't think stuff like this even happened in the 60s. The past civil war didn't just begin with north and south shooting at each other on the ground. The political rhetoric and animosity had built up to that point like it's happening now.

Like a cold civil war. If a real one breaks out, I will likely side with whatever side the US Military is on. A self preservation thing.

It's not really cold though. We're seeing violence, mob fights, vehicles running down folks, folks getting shot in the streets for their politics now. How it escalates is the question.

[Thoughtful Monk]

Like a cold civil war. If a real one breaks out, I will likely side with whatever side the US Military is on. A self preservation thing.

I would not count on the US Military acting as a body. I think they're probably as badly split as the country. Also the US Civil War showed the military going to both sides of the conflict.

[Stoic]

I think Biden should announce that all investigations into Trump are over. Similar to how Ford pardoned Nixon so the country could move on. If Biden does this, I think there's a chance some bipartisanship and lowering of anger levels will occur. If he doesn't do it, the significant number of Trump supporters will get angrier and the country will move further apart.

You'll have to get the state of New York on board if you want to end investigations into Trump.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardon-information-and-instructions#:~:text=Under%20the%20Constitution%2C%20only%20federal,be%20pardoned%20by%20the%20President.&text=However%2C%20the%20President%20cannot%20pardon%20a%20state%20criminal%20offense.

Under the Constitution, only federal criminal convictions, such as those adjudicated in the United States District Courts, may be pardoned by the President. In addition, the President's pardon power extends to convictions adjudicated in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and military court-martial proceedings. However, the President cannot pardon a state criminal offense.

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[Maranatha]

I would not count on the US Military acting as a body. I think they're probably as badly split as the country. Also the US Civil War showed the military going to both sides of the conflict.

I would not count on a civil war, nor the US Miltary backing your leftist chaos either.

I wouldn't worry too much though, defeating the axis forces of antifa and blm only takes a platoon or two.