CPAC And The Broader Republican Party Agree: It's Trump's Party For Now. l FiveThirtyEight

In this episode of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, the crew looks to the past weekend's Conservative Political Action Conference for indications of where the Republican party is headed. They also discuss divisions among Democratic lawmakers on how to approach Senate rules and the filibuster.

[LiquorWithJazz]

"We should do more hard-pants."

What a phrase for 2021.

[ethanmackler]

My only surprise from CPAC was that they only paraded the Golden Trump statue and didn't bow down and make animal sacrifices to it.

[jjbode]

Thank you Galen, for listening to Trump's speech for me. When I try, I get heartburn.

[sandeesandwich]

I think most people really don't understand what the filibuster is about. Most possibly got their impressions of it from the movies, where a principled politician believes so strongly in his position that he will stand on the floor for many many hours pleading his case without a break. The fact that as it is currently used, a Senator can just email his objection, and that is the end of a bill, unless it can get 60 votes. The reality is more infuriating than romantic.

[buddylee]

Perry is right. I hate to say it smh... we need a Q&A with Perry

[viclapira]

Hard pants! Oh god I’ve heard that a lot in the past two months.

[inscrutableone]

I missed you all! Bizarre how much I enjoy these conversations, given how overdosed on politics that I generally feel. Perhaps it is because you are all so analytic and resolutely non-partisan in your approach. Keep it up.

[tylerhackner]

It’s been Trump’s party for the past five years

[paytonmcdermott]

I live in Arizona and don't think Sinema will ever vote to get rid of the filibuster, unfortunately. We probably have to pick up 3 or 4 senators in 2022 for that to happen. Sinema is pretty much captured by wealthy interests. She was a green party activist and now she's unrecognizable. The first thing she did when she got to the senate was start a caucus on pharmaceuticals so she could raise more money from the pharmaceutical industry. She doesn't want the power to do certain things.

[sandeesandwich]

Apparently, the last time the minimum wage was increased, it was slid into a defense bill. So there is some discussion about putting it into a bill the Republicans must pass.

[harvey]

From Australia: your democracy seems so crazy unwieldy!

[opsynths]

I hope you'll do an entire podcast just on Hard Pants.

[jakem]

I like everyone on today, but I hope we get as regular Tia Mitchell as possible.

[joannawarrens]

I enjoyed this podcast group! Nice conversation. Please keep Micah on the podcast.

[jbradleymusic]

"Why are we covering Trump?" It's not that hard--coverage of him sells ad space. He's an immediate draw for attention/clicks/whatever, regardless of one's opinion.

[IanZainea]

While I support eliminating the filibuster, I don't think there is a path for that in the senate. However, there might be a path toward reforming the filibuster to make it harder to prevent votes. For example. 60-votes to carryout a filibuster. Or 40-votes in favor of continuing a filibuster. The rules were reformed in the... 80s? I think, which ended up causing the 60-vote majority requirement. It was an inadvertent side-effect of the reforms. It can be reformed again, and that might be doable.

[ohnonomorenames]

If anyone from 538 sees this can the let Sarah know that when she knocks or hits her desk it comes through on both the webcam and the mic that are supported by the desk. It's only mildly distracting but it's relatively simple to fix.

[juliandonahue]

Mikah interrupted Sarah a lot, let him know to cut that out! We love Sarah!

[ThatEgghead]

For eliminating the filibuster, there might also be a political calculation that the senate is structurally advantaged to Republicans and they're worried about if/when they lose control of the senate, possibly at the midterms.

[WanDeLay]

that cold open is the perfect example of what i think of these podcasts when nate isn't here