4 ms·

When they get power again they need to challenge the court's extremism. I've seen ideas like term limits or packing the court with more than 9 judges.

by guelo 1y ago

nerdsniper 1y ago
Ideally there will be enough representation in congress to remove justices like Thomas for blatant corruption / conflict of interest.
- exoverito 1y ago
  It'd be nice if we could remove congress members for blatant corruption too, e.g. Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell. Or prevent further Weekend at Bernie's politicians like Diane Feinstein and Joe Biden.
loeg 1y ago
> When they get power again Hard to see a path to Dems winning a Senate majority.
- burnt-resistor 1y ago
  Yep. And the House is functionally irrelevant and basically a passive onlooker. SCOTUS legislate from the bench as instructed and POTUS decrees from a throne.
  - galangalalgol 1y ago
    A majority isn't impossible, but they would have to remove the filibuster. Ideally I'd want the filibuster removed right this instant, but reinstated for judicial and really any confirmations. Let the party in power make their laws and remove old ones, but keep the judiciary independent. Edit: When the democrats removed the filibuster for judicial confirmations they started us on this path. Predictably the Republicans responded by including the scotus. That was the end of an independent judiciary. It just took a while for it to be sufficient to kill democracy. And to be clear, no ratings agency in the world still considers the US a democracy. At years end it will be an official downgrade from flawed democracy to electoral autocracy or competitive authoritarian state.
    - SwamyM 1y ago
      > Edit: When the democrats removed the filibuster for judicial confirmations they started us on this path. Predictably the Republicans responded by including the scotus. That was the end of an independent judiciary. It just took a while for it to be sufficient to kill democracy. And to be clear, no ratings agency in the world still considers the US a democracy. At years end it will be an official downgrade from flawed democracy to electoral autocracy or competitive authoritarian state. While this is technically true, it conveniently ignores why the democrats removed the filibuster which is that: “In the history of the Republic, there have been 168 filibusters of executive and judicial nominees. Half of them have occurred during the Obama administration — during the last four and a half years,” Reid said. Source: https://apnews.com/united-states-government-united-states-congress-758404261694445eb50917294c260c73 https://apnews.com/united-states-government-united-states-co... As always Republicans cause a crisis and then take it to the extreme and Democrats usually end up taking the blame. Not that they are blame free but they are also usually inept and they defer too much to 'rules and order' when the other party is not playing by the same rules.
      - burnt-resistor 1y ago
        Yep. R are using every dirty trick by treating politics like love and war, and D are treating it like a purity contest. Ultimately, though both are serving, as Gore Vidal put it, the Property party. I want fair and equal accountability, no one to be above the law, and no politician to engage in even the appearance of inappropriate, unethical behavior, or corrupt behavior; and them to get things done that advance the collective good without steamrolling over groups with sudden, huge surprises. But I want more of the good parts of a culture like Japan where people are decent and conscientious and Europe where other people are cared for besides oneself. The US is currently far, far away from anything remotely resembling healthy, long-term sustainable socioeconomic attitudes, policies, and actions.
        deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
      - galangalalgol 1y ago
tmountain 1y ago
They won’t get power again in a meaningful way. The last election was their “last stand”. The U.S. has a rigged court and gerrymandered senate. Kamala was right about one thing, “we’re not going back”. Unfortunately, the context was wrong. In this case, it’s, “we’re not going back to being a functional democracy”.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- yareally 1y ago
  How is the Senate gerrymandered? They're elected statewide.
  - overfeed 1y ago
    As an example: in Texas, there are laws and processes that discourage voting in high-population-density areas that trend less conservative. Can you think of benign reason for a law that bams providing water for people waiting in line to vote in a state that gets really hot?
  - guelo 1y ago
    The state borders themselves were gerrymandered in the 19th century to influence the electoral college. That's why for example there's all these very empty northern states like the two Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming that collectively have fewer people than LA but between them they get 8 senators.
pjmlp 1y ago
That is being naive, the way it is going, elections will be as free as in any other authoritarian country.

When they get power again they need to challenge the court's extremism. I've seen ideas like term limits or packing the court with more than 9 judges.

by guelo 1y ago

When they get power again they need to challenge the court's extremism. I've seen ideas like term limits or packing the court with more than 9 judges.

nerdsniper 1y ago

Ideally there will be enough representation in congress to remove justices like Thomas for blatant corruption / conflict of interest.

exoverito 1y ago
It'd be nice if we could remove congress members for blatant corruption too, e.g. Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell. Or prevent further Weekend at Bernie's politicians like Diane Feinstein and Joe Biden.

loeg 1y ago

> When they get power again Hard to see a path to Dems winning a Senate majority.

burnt-resistor 1y ago
Yep. And the House is functionally irrelevant and basically a passive onlooker. SCOTUS legislate from the bench as instructed and POTUS decrees from a throne.
- galangalalgol 1y ago
  A majority isn't impossible, but they would have to remove the filibuster. Ideally I'd want the filibuster removed right this instant, but reinstated for judicial and really any confirmations. Let the party in power make their laws and remove old ones, but keep the judiciary independent. Edit: When the democrats removed the filibuster for judicial confirmations they started us on this path. Predictably the Republicans responded by including the scotus. That was the end of an independent judiciary. It just took a while for it to be sufficient to kill democracy. And to be clear, no ratings agency in the world still considers the US a democracy. At years end it will be an official downgrade from flawed democracy to electoral autocracy or competitive authoritarian state.
  - SwamyM 1y ago
    > Edit: When the democrats removed the filibuster for judicial confirmations they started us on this path. Predictably the Republicans responded by including the scotus. That was the end of an independent judiciary. It just took a while for it to be sufficient to kill democracy. And to be clear, no ratings agency in the world still considers the US a democracy. At years end it will be an official downgrade from flawed democracy to electoral autocracy or competitive authoritarian state. While this is technically true, it conveniently ignores why the democrats removed the filibuster which is that: “In the history of the Republic, there have been 168 filibusters of executive and judicial nominees. Half of them have occurred during the Obama administration — during the last four and a half years,” Reid said. Source: https://apnews.com/united-states-government-united-states-congress-758404261694445eb50917294c260c73 https://apnews.com/united-states-government-united-states-co... As always Republicans cause a crisis and then take it to the extreme and Democrats usually end up taking the blame. Not that they are blame free but they are also usually inept and they defer too much to 'rules and order' when the other party is not playing by the same rules.
    - burnt-resistor 1y ago
      Yep. R are using every dirty trick by treating politics like love and war, and D are treating it like a purity contest. Ultimately, though both are serving, as Gore Vidal put it, the Property party. I want fair and equal accountability, no one to be above the law, and no politician to engage in even the appearance of inappropriate, unethical behavior, or corrupt behavior; and them to get things done that advance the collective good without steamrolling over groups with sudden, huge surprises. But I want more of the good parts of a culture like Japan where people are decent and conscientious and Europe where other people are cared for besides oneself. The US is currently far, far away from anything remotely resembling healthy, long-term sustainable socioeconomic attitudes, policies, and actions.
      - deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
    - galangalalgol 1y ago

tmountain 1y ago

They won’t get power again in a meaningful way. The last election was their “last stand”. The U.S. has a rigged court and gerrymandered senate. Kamala was right about one thing, “we’re not going back”. Unfortunately, the context was wrong. In this case, it’s, “we’re not going back to being a functional democracy”.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
yareally 1y ago
How is the Senate gerrymandered? They're elected statewide.
- overfeed 1y ago
  As an example: in Texas, there are laws and processes that discourage voting in high-population-density areas that trend less conservative. Can you think of benign reason for a law that bams providing water for people waiting in line to vote in a state that gets really hot?
- guelo 1y ago
  The state borders themselves were gerrymandered in the 19th century to influence the electoral college. That's why for example there's all these very empty northern states like the two Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming that collectively have fewer people than LA but between them they get 8 senators.

pjmlp 1y ago

That is being naive, the way it is going, elections will be as free as in any other authoritarian country.