Help needed from Fellow DUers

[DemUnleashed]

I have been in a back and forth tweeting conversation with a MAGA guy for the past week or so. Pretty quickly, he started calling me "dumb dumb." I asked him why he was acting like he's 12. And then I said "I know why...because your role model, Trump, acts like a 12 year old when he calls people childish names." After that, he stopped calling me dumb dumb, so there's that!

Anyway, he's a typical Republican who likes to blame both sides when it's only Republicans that are guilty of something. So he was saying that we need to get dark money out of politics and said both parties are guilty of receiving this money. I said Dems are the only ones proposing a constitutional amendment to get rid of Citizens United. He said Dems had full control for 2 years...why didn't we do anything about CU?

So Fellow DUers, how do I answer that? Even though we had full control, we still had Manchin and Sinema. Plus, it requires more people to get this done than just the # of Dems we had wanting this to happen, right?

I was able to hold my own with him for a week but when it gets more into the weeds, that's when I need help. Please help me in my response to him

Thank you!

[Tetrachloride]

1. Full control is not true from the point of view

of the Senate. i believe the Senate Republicans would block any Citizens United changes.

[brush]

2. There's no full control in a 50-50 Senate with the filibuster...

in place which requires 60 votes to pass a bill, and the republicans are a hard no on ditching the filibuster.

[niyad]

4. Why are you spending time and energy and stress on this idiot?

[werdna]

7. I second this comment. n/t

[MerryHolidays]

5. Citizens United was a SCOTUS decision

The only way to overturn it is for SCOTUS itself to overturn it (unlikely unless the current composition of the Court changes substantially) or via a constitutional amendment.

Both are extremely unlikely in the near future.

[usonian]

6. Would campaign finance reform help?

I am kind of clueless in these matters, especially if PAC's fall outside campaign finance. (Wasn't that their purpose?)
Didn't John McCain co-sponsor some kind of campaign finance reform?
Asking the more knowledgeable people here.

[MerryHolidays]

9. Citizens United is a huge problem

Even remarkably intelligent folks like Adam Schiff think it can only be solved by a Constitutional amendment, which is extraordinarily difficult to implement.

The problem with Citizens United is that SCOTUS, for the first time ever, found that companies have a First Amendment right to give unlimited amounts of cash to certain PACs.

Here's an excellent article that summarizes the problem and suggests some solutions:

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained

However, the net point from your original question is that your MAGA acquaintance is wrong in that it is close to impossible for Congress to solve this mess on its own as an amendment.

[LuckyCharms]

8. Conversing with a MAGAT will drive you insane.

Seriously.

[GoodRaisin]

10. We don't have the votes for a legislative fix to the Citizens United decision.

You are arguing with an ignorant person, or he would know that. Move on from the ignoramus, you’re wasting your time.

[DemUnleashed]

11. Thank you...

Thank you everyone!

To those asking why I'm engaging with this guy, I feel like if I can make even the tiniest dent in this MAGAt's "brain" it'll be worth it

[fightforfreedom]

12. I engage with Trump voters all the time. I feel it is my duty to call them out to their faces.

It is real easy to point out facts that leave them speechless. I have no problem with you engaging with a Trump voter. What are we supposed to do, live in fear of the them? Let their lies go unchallenged? Fuck that. You don't have to insult them, just nail them with facts. They cannot handle facts.

The Trump voter you talked to showed his ignorance when he asked you why the Democrats did not act when they had control. That's when you can respond by saying you obviously don't know how Congress works. They didn't have enough votes, they needed Republicans to vote with them.

[DemUnleashed]

13. Thank you...

Thank you for getting where I'm coming from. There are some Republicans that I have not been able to sustain a conversation with because they have driven me insane but so far, this guy seems to be able to converse with me without either of us angering each other too much!

[IbogaProject]

14. Just remind him of the 2017 tax giveaway

The wealthy and real estate tax cuts are permanent but there were a bunch of middle class and small business stopgap breaks that are slowly sunsetting on odd tax years. This is a direct result of citizen united, as well as the capture of a few corrupt senators like Sinema and Manchin on top of the slaveholder protecting filibuster rule that isn't even a law. Citizen's United says money is speech and can't be restricted in politics and the mess we see is its culmination. If that guy is wealthy he is selfish and will harm the economy in the long run by stunting economic growth. If he isn't wealthy he is a dupe and a sucker for supporting the GOP.

[DemUnleashed]

17. I...

I did bring up to him in a separate thread about the tax cuts to the rich and how Trump added 7.8 trillion to the debt. He hadn't commented on that at all. So I sent him another message about it and I said "So, no comment about Trump cutting taxes to the wealthy and no comment for him adding 7.8 trillion to the debt? Why aren't you outraged by that? Do you know why you're not outraged by it? Because Fox News was not outraged by it. And do you know why FN was not outraged? Because it was a Republican that did that, not a Democrat! If a Dem had done that, FN would have talked about it 24/7/365 and then you would have been outraged! You guys need someone to tell you when to be outraged about something!"

I wasn't able to say that word for word on Twitter since I was limited in # of characters allowed but I got the gist of it out. Didn't have space to get my last sentence out at all though but I put that in above because it's what I wanted to say. I should have sent 2 tweets to him on this so I would have been able to have sent the above message to him, word for word!

[brooklynite]

15. Answer: 2/3 of the the House and Senate and 3/4 of the States required.

Requires Republican support under any situation.

[FakeNoose]

16. We can't even count on Manchin and Sinema half the time