Mendel the Wonderdog doesn’t know or care about the Constitution, but if he did, he’d know what it takes to override a veto.
Democracy is harder than it looks, especially when ignorance among voters is as widespread as it now appears. Consider the reason for the rise of Trump, as expressed in this Facebook post: “The Republican Rinos in Washington can team up against Donald Trump in a matter of days… but can’t stop Barack Obama and liberal policies in 7 years?”
So, lots of people among the rank and file are fed up with the “Republican establishment,” so-called, because it hasn’t been able to stop Obama. The Republicans in Congress haven’t been able to repeal Obamacare. That seems to be the main complaint.
Hey, people, read the Constitution. If you want to overturn something a president got a previous Congress to enact, you can’t do it just because your party now has a majority in the Senate and the House. The House has voted to kill Obamacare or revise it more than 30 times, without effect. Why? Because it takes a majority of two-thirds to overcome a veto by the president, and that the Republicans do not have.
In the House, the Republicans would need at least 290 votes to override a presidential veto or otherwise exert their will against the president and his party. But all they have is 246. In the Senate, they would need at least 67 votes, instead of the mere majority of 54 they have.
So who should get the blame or the credit for whatever happens or doesn’t happen in Washington, and especially in Congress? The electorate, that’s who. If conservatives are angry because the Republican majorities in the Senate and House have not been effective enough, let them get organized and elect majorities that are big enough. Or quit bitching if they can’t. (hh)
Who could refute your ‘blame the voters’ argument after witnessing what the voters have done so far in the primaries of the two establishment parties?
The electorate in one party is getting ready to nominate a vulgar, billionaire narcissist. The other party’s electorate is backing an untrustworthy person who is the focus of an ongoing FBI criminal investigation.
Looking into my crystal ball it looks like no matter what happens, the next four years will be even more contentious than the past four.
It’s true. We deserve the government we elect.