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>Currently you see many conservatives repeating the meme that losing the Senate means a Republican will never win the White House again. The belief being that D

>Currently you see many conservatives repeating the meme that losing the Senate means a Republican will never win the White House again. The belief being that Democrats will change voting laws, open borders and amnesty to Dem-leaning immigrants, and possibly even pack the Supreme Court and add DC and Puerto Rico as new states. It is an open secret that they will do all of these things given the opportunity. There's probably one or two D senators in the way of that right now.

freeone3000 6y ago
It's not a secret at all. Several democratic senators are in favor of Puerto Rico statehood. (As is the territory of Puerto Rico, but putting that aside...) Several democratic senators are in favor of immigration amnesty, usually in the form of "squatter's rights" or DREAM. Several democratic senators are in favor of less-restrictive immigration policies, essentially to reduce illegal immigration by making legal immigration easier and at capacity: Legalizing the status quo, in other words. These are all defensible policy positions on their own merits. I'm too cynical to believe that these aren't favored in part because they would help their chances are re-election, but it's also not necessary, as a republican government and a majority of republican state legislatures could not stop the entire federal government flipping democrat.
Hnrobert42 6y ago
I want to understand you correctly. Do you believe that but for one or two Democratic Senators, all of these things would transpire?
- Acrobatic_Road 6y ago
  Yes I do. 1. The democratic platform endorses "restructuring" (packing) of the lower courts. 2. A large number of democrats including Kamala Harris have endorsed court packing or other schemes to change the balance of the supreme court. Joe Biden refused to tell the american public what he thinks about court packing. He later promised to create a commission to study court packing. 3. Chuck Schumer has made it a priority to eliminate the legislative filibuster so they can pass laws with 51 votes instead of 60. 4. Democrats believe the senate unfairly benefits republicans. They want to make D.C. and Puerto Rico into states to give them an advantage. Some democrats want to make states out of every american territory. This would lock republicans out of the senate permanently. They will do all of these things given the opportunity. Republicans are already pretty fucked due to demographic change, but democrats very openly want a one party state. https://reason.com/volokh/2020/09/19/regardless-of-what-trump-and-mitch-do-the-democrats-will-1-eliminate-the-filibuster-2-grant-statehood-to-d-c-and-maybe-p-r-3-expand-the-lower-courts-and-4-expand-the-supreme-court/ https://reason.com/volokh/2020/09/19/regardless-of-what-trum...
  - Hnrobert42 6y ago
    I don’t see the court restructuring point in the platform, but I just read the table of contents. Can you help me find it? https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/2020-Democratic-Party-Platform.pdf https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/202... Also, my question wasn’t whether you believe that’s what the Democrats want. Of course the Democrats want it to be a one party state. Everyone wants their side to win. My question was whether you believe if Joe Manchin was more liberal (for example) that by 2020 we would have two more states, a packed judiciary, etc. Because that is GP’s point. That this election is not an existential threat to either party.
    - Acrobatic_Road 6y ago
      https://reason.com/volokh/2020/08/20/does-the-democratic-platform-endorse-court-packing/ https://reason.com/volokh/2020/08/20/does-the-democratic-pla... >My question was whether you believe if Joe Manchin was more liberal (for example) that by 2020 we would have two more states, a packed judiciary, etc. It's a simple matter of whether they have the votes to do it. All they need is a simple majority to accomplish all of the things I listed. You said it yourself - everybody wants to have a one party state, right? So who, besides Joe Manchin and perhaps Kyrsten Sinema stands in the way of adding new states, abolishing the filibuster, packing the courts, or any other part of the democrat agenda? There are no shortage of voices for these things. Where are the voices against them? If Joe Biden, who is supposed to be some kind of moderate, can't tell the American public whether he's for or against packing the supreme court, what does that say about the state of the democratic party?
  - 8note 6y ago
    This uhh packing the courts thing. Isn't it what mcconnel has already done by denying all of Obama's appoints and delaying them so that they could be trump appointments instead? Especially given the odd appoints trump made like folks who'd never talked in a court before It's highly unlikely that the US becomes a one party state, but instead, the politics of the two parties changes. The most obvious change being that the republicans stop being the party of racists? They can easily draw more votes from minority conservatives if they drop the racism

freeone3000 6y ago

It's not a secret at all. Several democratic senators are in favor of Puerto Rico statehood. (As is the territory of Puerto Rico, but putting that aside...) Several democratic senators are in favor of immigration amnesty, usually in the form of "squatter's rights" or DREAM. Several democratic senators are in favor of less-restrictive immigration policies, essentially to reduce illegal immigration by making legal immigration easier and at capacity: Legalizing the status quo, in other words. These are all defensible policy positions on their own merits. I'm too cynical to believe that these aren't favored in part because they would help their chances are re-election, but it's also not necessary, as a republican government and a majority of republican state legislatures could not stop the entire federal government flipping democrat.

Hnrobert42 6y ago

I want to understand you correctly. Do you believe that but for one or two Democratic Senators, all of these things would transpire?

Acrobatic_Road 6y ago
Yes I do. 1. The democratic platform endorses "restructuring" (packing) of the lower courts. 2. A large number of democrats including Kamala Harris have endorsed court packing or other schemes to change the balance of the supreme court. Joe Biden refused to tell the american public what he thinks about court packing. He later promised to create a commission to study court packing. 3. Chuck Schumer has made it a priority to eliminate the legislative filibuster so they can pass laws with 51 votes instead of 60. 4. Democrats believe the senate unfairly benefits republicans. They want to make D.C. and Puerto Rico into states to give them an advantage. Some democrats want to make states out of every american territory. This would lock republicans out of the senate permanently. They will do all of these things given the opportunity. Republicans are already pretty fucked due to demographic change, but democrats very openly want a one party state. https://reason.com/volokh/2020/09/19/regardless-of-what-trump-and-mitch-do-the-democrats-will-1-eliminate-the-filibuster-2-grant-statehood-to-d-c-and-maybe-p-r-3-expand-the-lower-courts-and-4-expand-the-supreme-court/ https://reason.com/volokh/2020/09/19/regardless-of-what-trum...
- Hnrobert42 6y ago
  I don’t see the court restructuring point in the platform, but I just read the table of contents. Can you help me find it? https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/2020-Democratic-Party-Platform.pdf https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/202... Also, my question wasn’t whether you believe that’s what the Democrats want. Of course the Democrats want it to be a one party state. Everyone wants their side to win. My question was whether you believe if Joe Manchin was more liberal (for example) that by 2020 we would have two more states, a packed judiciary, etc. Because that is GP’s point. That this election is not an existential threat to either party.
  - Acrobatic_Road 6y ago
    https://reason.com/volokh/2020/08/20/does-the-democratic-platform-endorse-court-packing/ https://reason.com/volokh/2020/08/20/does-the-democratic-pla... >My question was whether you believe if Joe Manchin was more liberal (for example) that by 2020 we would have two more states, a packed judiciary, etc. It's a simple matter of whether they have the votes to do it. All they need is a simple majority to accomplish all of the things I listed. You said it yourself - everybody wants to have a one party state, right? So who, besides Joe Manchin and perhaps Kyrsten Sinema stands in the way of adding new states, abolishing the filibuster, packing the courts, or any other part of the democrat agenda? There are no shortage of voices for these things. Where are the voices against them? If Joe Biden, who is supposed to be some kind of moderate, can't tell the American public whether he's for or against packing the supreme court, what does that say about the state of the democratic party?
- 8note 6y ago
  This uhh packing the courts thing. Isn't it what mcconnel has already done by denying all of Obama's appoints and delaying them so that they could be trump appointments instead? Especially given the odd appoints trump made like folks who'd never talked in a court before It's highly unlikely that the US becomes a one party state, but instead, the politics of the two parties changes. The most obvious change being that the republicans stop being the party of racists? They can easily draw more votes from minority conservatives if they drop the racism