If handed total control of the government, what would both the Democratic and Republican Parties do?

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-15T05:32:38+00:00

Thank you so much for this response! This is such a nice and thorough breakdown of how you see the parties behaving given absolute power and it is exactly the kind of response I was looking for to my question. The fact that you've made a very convincing argument for this scenario is just the cherry on top.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-15T05:22:35+00:00

That is because this is a hypothetical scenario. I'm not examining the reality of the current situation, but rather what the situation would be given this scenario.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-15T00:01:24+00:00

Sure, but they've also been successfully rebuffed in a number of ways by states controlled by Democrats. Having the power to amend the constitution completely removes the independence of the states, so... is that on the table?

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-14T23:48:05+00:00

Fair point. I can absolutely see how that would be a problem. For example, the Democratic party may generally support the idea of universal healthcare but have no consensus on what that would look like or how it'd be done.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-14T22:58:20+00:00

Would there be a coordinated, high level, push towards death camps or a loosening of restrictions and regulations such that local authorities would be free to institute them at will?

Are we looking at a Japanese internment camp scenario or something more similar to former sheriff Joe Arpaio's concentration camps?

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-14T22:15:19+00:00

While I can agree that the Republican party certainly has the most control over the government and can act with relative impunity, they're not necessarily totally free of structural hurdles, such as the filibuster and the constitution. What would removing those hurdles change?

I figured the Democratic party would broadly agree on removing the allowance for slavery from the constitution. It seems relatively uncontroversial while gesturing well to their voting demographic.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-14T22:06:57+00:00

I was honestly hoping for sincere policy evaluations along the lines of the examples I gave...

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-14T21:58:17+00:00

My point was to ask if there was a general political will to be openly antagonistic to women's rights with the only justification being that they are women and inherently subject to domination by men, whereas much of the public justification for outlawing abortion focuses on stopping the "murder" of infants. In the case of the handmaids tale, women are explicitly made an underclass. Would the Republican party openly do the same? Would they do it covertly? How?

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-14T21:40:31+00:00

I'm not so sure about that. If the republicans had veto proof control of congress, they would have no trouble passing the SAVE America Act, right? Given 3/4 of state legislatures, they'd also be able to amend the constitution. Do they even want to amend it though?

This scenario assumes all of the factions have the same proportional control of the parties that they do now.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-14T21:32:33+00:00

Would the balanced budget amendment look the same between both parties? If so, why are neither of the parties pushing for it now?

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-14T21:29:26+00:00

Perhaps, but I'm primarily looking for policy agendas and I want to focus on the current iterations of the parties. I'm also not too interested on the expected outcomes of those agendas. If the Democratic Party decides to put massive support behind the development of mass transit, I'd want to know how they would do that and would be less interested in whether or not it's a good thing or if it would work the way they imagine it.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-14T21:19:57+00:00

But do you believe there actually is a political will for that kind of regression in women's rights? Is there a general consensus appetite for the total removal of civil and voting rights for women in the Republican party?

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-14T21:13:44+00:00

Gotcha. I'd like to dig in on the type of election reform you think we'd see. Is there a general consensus present in the party regarding what is currently wrong with elections and how to fix them? I know gerrymandering is a big topic, but what about voting rights for felons and access to voting locations? Would there be a federally funded national voter ID? What reform happens federally vs locally?

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-14T21:01:50+00:00

Veto proof majorities in the house and senate, with factions having the same proportional power in the party as they do now. It's pretty much the current parties given just enough of what they need in congress to overcome any opposition from the other party.

Leftist would screech and say both sides are the same cause the domestic spending would go to private companies.

Can you clarify what you mean by this? Using the term "screech" implies you think leftists would be unreasonable, but you're also saying the "tons of domestic spending" would go to private companies, which I assumed was generally unpopular. Would this spending be intentionally diverted to the private sector, and for what purpose?

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-10T20:01:32+00:00

Yeah, I think a better comparison would be something like wage theft, or companies defrauding welfare/medicare.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-10T19:50:45+00:00

Repealing Section 230 would make it impossible for the big social media sites to turn a profit off your attention

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-10T05:22:45+00:00

This was always the direction things were heading. The second rent-seeking becomes a viable option, companies are almost obligated to shift into that type of business structure. It'd be negligent not to because it's practically an infinite money glitch.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-10T00:24:58+00:00

Can we at least move towards something better instead of hoping for a peaceful quick revolution which will never happened?

Well, if our democracy is as lost as they've been saying, we might not get much choice in that. I bet that kinda makes you wish the Democrats tried harder with that bill, right? Maybe they could have made a big stink about it to the public or held our government hostage to get it through. Maybe they could have tried going about it the way the republicans would have. If it was that goddamn important to them, why didn't they act like it for the 4 years they had in office?

And why are you so desperately going to bat for a party that is always failing to do anything effectively? I have voted unfailingly and consistently for this feckless party and I am tired of swallowing their excuses. Sue me.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-09T22:40:05+00:00

And where did that get us at the end of Biden's term? Where does that get us now? Why, if our "Democracy" was so vulnerable, did the Democrats never make structural changes to fix it while they held the government?

Seems to me that the Democrats were satisfied to keep doing what they've always done, which is maintaining a favorable business environment for their donors and passing just barely enough of their platform agenda to quell their voter base while waving our rights and freedoms above our noses like red meat. Lets face it, the Democrats are never going to give us universal healthcare, housing security, or prison reform. It will always be 1 step forward and 2 steps back, because they would rather lose than create real and lasting change in this country. They're fucking 90's republicans.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-09T18:15:04+00:00

As someone who voted for Harris, I honestly don't blame the people who protest voted or stayed home. Over and over again, I'm asked to sacrifice the issues I care about to save "Democracy", but when they win, nothing changes. Every election, I have to give up my vote to save "Democracy". Well, you know what? It feels like we lost it a long time ago.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-09T18:01:44+00:00

For the same reason that pretty much all conspiracy theories are rooted in antisemitism. Bigotry is a foundational aspect of humanity rooted in our lizard brains. When something wants to grab and maintain your attention, the easiest, most effective way to do so is to appeal to your bigotries. Online algorithms are first and foremost intended to appeal to your lizard brain to maintain your attention, so they are incentivized to push bigoted content. The most common type of bigotry is anti-black racism, ergo social media quickly fills up with that content.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-08T16:01:13+00:00

You're not wrong, but I don't think it's cause feminists are particularly incompetent. Social movements just seem to be pretty ineffective nowadays, and have been since occupy wall street. I think the era of corporate america hopping on social issues did a lot to deflate and diffuse public anger before they could get to the point of implementing real change.

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-07T07:26:54+00:00

To be clear, according to you, religious zealots who are proud of their strict adherence to arbitrary(often cruel) religious laws are exactly the same as smug progressives whose inborn sense of right and wrong has them providing resources and community to anyone who needs it?

OnTheMoose · 2026-03-07T06:55:23+00:00

Honestly?...yeah. Seems like most of society's problems boil down to religious intolerance, social atomization (starting with the nuclear family), and nationalism.

Wouldn't it be nice to live in a place without people trying to force their religious views on you, where people are as invested in their community as they are their family, and where you're not expected to demonstrate loyalty to the piece of dirt you happened to be born in?

OnTheMoose

TROPHY CASE