Theoretically each candidate can vote however they like for each vote.

The leaders of each party in each house of Congress can do things with committee assignments that increase or decrease a senator/representatives influence. Buck the party line too often and you can be neutered as far as influence over writing laws. Leadership is elected by the lawmakers of their party though, so if they lean too hard or force too many unpopular votes they can be removed from leadership.

In practice they tend to want to work with each other and get along. Inter party fights are embarrassing. Some lawmakers from states outside the norm ideologically can get away with voting against the party by pointing to their constituents and usually leadership takes this into account before deciding whether to hold a vote.

Joe manchin was a Democrat from West Virginia. He famously voted against several of Bidens environmental bills to favor coal mining. John Tester was a Democrat from Montana who neutered parts of the ACA under Obama. In both cases the Democratic president needed every single democratic senator to agree or the vote wouldn’t pass because their was no chance of Republicans crossing the isle.

Republicans allow much less ideological diversity through their primaries, so even a Republican like Scott Brown from Massachusetts was a solid conservative.

No country has increased birth rates sustainably without major coersion. China is still using soft coercion and offering incentives.

That’s definitely where my mind goes.

I thought it was native to wealthy families from Jersey/Virginia/Maryland. People that grew up in Martha’s vineyard.

Then vote in the fucking primary. I. The general you sit up and back the better candidate no matter how shit.

Yep, Biden, frail as he was, would have been better than trump, Hillary would have been better than trump, Biden was better than trump in 2020, Kamala would have been better than trump. If American refused to elect a Republican there would be room for a debate between a leftist and a liberal.

Zelenski worked out pretty well for Ukraine.

He’s not a saint, but he’s been pretty damn good by understanding.

I didn’t mean “when they lose to Republicans, it needs to be because they weren’t left enough” I meant “when they lose an election, it needs to be because there was a farther left candidate that won”

Conservatives need to never win an election again in my lifetime. Maybe if the Republican party moved left of the Democratic party, or if a third party gained popularity and was left if the Democrats.

But realistically, it has to happen in primaries.

When they lose it needs to be cause they were not left enough they need to lose I. Primaries when they fail to support the leftist positions we need.

If that’s not workable, then it’s not going to work, and eventually it will break. I don’t like it but I didn’t design this system.

That’s called a dummymander and it has happened in the past.

Yep, this is what they want. All cost of college but for an extra 12 years.

Possibly possible is redundant, but possibly doable might convey what you mean to say.

Necessarily needful might work as a synonym.

If you think your church is doing good work, you give.

The church I grew up in closed for lack of funds. The preacher never lived large, they weren’t taking more than people wanted to give.

I would never give money to a mega church, but I have donated to UU churches as an adult.

Ameancow said it better, but I wanted to add that new York could be hit with a hurricane next year. Or a terrorist attack like 9/11. Neither of those are likely, but if it happens, Mamdani wants help from the feds and if trump is threatening to kill him every week that becomes harder.

Average maga voter wants to deport 15 to 30 million people. Yeah, there are nowhere near getting what they want.

True, my apologies to Charlottesville and VA.

We thought the same thing with Bush and the reublicans in his day, and then the Tea party happened. We thought it again with the Tea Party. Then Trump happened. I think the tiki torch guys from Charlottesville are more likely to take over the party than to slink back into the shadows.

Republican politicians aren’t leading their base into the crazy, they are holding the crazy back from the rest of us.

Well off working man warns the capitalist class the consequences of stiffing the working class.

We will see if the guardrails hold again.

All the good will in the world would collapse before the mathematical reality of single member districts.

Ranked choice voting can be done without amendments, and it might move the needle, but a true multiparty system cannot survive single member districts for representation.

Canada and Britain both have single member districts and functionally 2 party systems. Britain is in flux right now due to the collapse of the conservatives and Labor, but they will shake out with a 2 horse race just like Canada does.