I think a lot of us are no longer convinced traditional two-party partisanship is a useful lens through which to understand politics. Regardless of party, the politicians pushing this bill are overwhelmingly pro-surveillance state and pro-big government as well as being invested in perpetuating the two-party machine. Personally, I now see things more through a lens of those who perpetuate the two-party machine and big federal government on one side and those who are skeptical of both the eternally growing central government for it's own sake and the reduction of local and individual autonomy.
Neither big party really represents many of my viewpoints as much in recent years. Even when I do agree with one of them on something, I now suspect many of the inter-party battles are as staged as pro-wrestling where the eventual prevailing side was already predetermined by special interests, lobbyists and the party machines. It's weird how many votes on something I care about fail to survive committee or amendment by just one vote. And the politicians who voted "against" the thing in the 'losing' party, all happen to be in very 'safe' districts or not facing reelection soon and those facing reelection in 'unsafe' districts happen to be the ones who voted "for" it.
This happens far too often to statistically be random chance. I hate that this possibly makes me sound like a conspiracy nutjob but the math here says something's definitely going on behind the scenes.
> It's weird how many votes on something I care about fail to survive committee or amendment by just one vote. And the politicians who voted "against" the thing in the 'losing' party, all happen to be in very 'safe' districts or not facing reelection soon and those facing reelection in 'unsafe' districts happen to be the ones who voted "for" it.
This concept has been identified before, and popularized by Glenn Greenwald, dubbing it the “rotating villain,” which is a delightfully apt turn of phrase.
Neither big party really represents many of my viewpoints as much in recent years. Even when I do agree with one of them on something, I now suspect many of the inter-party battles are as staged as pro-wrestling where the eventual prevailing side was already predetermined by special interests, lobbyists and the party machines. It's weird how many votes on something I care about fail to survive committee or amendment by just one vote. And the politicians who voted "against" the thing in the 'losing' party, all happen to be in very 'safe' districts or not facing reelection soon and those facing reelection in 'unsafe' districts happen to be the ones who voted "for" it.
This happens far too often to statistically be random chance. I hate that this possibly makes me sound like a conspiracy nutjob but the math here says something's definitely going on behind the scenes.