The title says it all. Can you write a bill in such a way that those who vote against it will not benefit from it if it should pass anyway?

  • Helldiver_M@kbin.social
    2·
    1 year ago

    Firstly, a law shouldn’t need to be written so black-and-white. A pretty famous example is how the EU uses targeted sanctions/tariffs to impact the opposition. Like when the Trump admin was threatening a trade war with Europe, the EU responded by threatening new tariffs on specific US products. Said tariffs would hurt trade goods from Republican states more often than not.

    So the EU didn’t just come out and say, “we’re going to punish the Republican admin by targeting Republican states”. But that’s what they did effectively. Here’s a NYC article that covers the situation. To quote the relevant line:

    A provisional list of items being targeted ranges from steel to T-shirts, also including bed linen, chewing tobacco, cranberries and orange juice, among other products.

    ^ That’s all stuff that typically comes more from Republican states.

    What I’m getting at is the way a bill is written can hurt the opposition, without needing to spell it out “If you don’t vote yes you lose” style. Spelling it out would just cost unnecessary political capital.

    As far as the broader concept of writing laws that hurt the opposition, I would just use it as a tactical consideration. Maybe using the threat of a less favorable bill could get the opposition to compromise faster. But it’s absolutely a tactic that can backfire, and there are policies that I should hope we never use such tactics with. Like, in the context of the US, imagine only giving public healthcare to states that supported it. That would be terrible. Last I checked, Texas is the state with the 2nd most Democrats in the country. So tons of people who would want that healthcare, and would have voted for it, wouldn’t be receiving it.

    And for what? Out of some kind of desire for revenge or some feeling of fairness? That’s not going to go down well in the long run. Any governing party should be trying to better the entire country. If this kind of tactic was used too much, then you risk galvanizing the opposition and pissing off Independents. Which is a surefire way to lose next election season.