Adam Gurri: This should have been the priority of the 2021 Trifecta. They did not take the threat seriously and now here we all are again

This should have been the priority of the 2021 Trifecta. They did not take the threat seriously and now here we all are again

really cannot emphasize enough how plainly all this proves that the first priority of the next Democratic administration needs to be democracy reform --filibuster --electoral college --court reform --dc and pr statehood --new voting rights act --gerrymandering

It is very hard to convince a winning party that they should not expect to win again

Also, that trifecta was built on a pretty broad coalition. Kinda makes it hard to take swift dynamic action

Should have never sat the insurrectionists and / or immediately impeached them. If J6 doesn’t shake up the status quo norms appreciation society I don’t what does. Wild shit.

Spent so much time trying to placate Manchin/Sinema... Meanwhile Manchin couldn't even deliver his own VRA when he insisted he could.

That not taking the threat seriously and the short window and limitation (e.g., Baucus, Sinema, Manchin) does highlight just how precarious things were/are that make it seem like willfully missed opportunities. And should spur us on against that stranglehold.

Manchin and Sinema blocked these priorities

None of that stuff would have had the votes to pass, because the median voter simply does not care about it, and yelling at them about how they are betraying their responsibility to liberal democracy will not make them care.

But if we're dreaming, here's one for the if-we-ever-get-a-next-time wishlist: a statutory rule that judges must, without exception, recuse themselves in cases where the defendant appointed them.

If the median voter doesn’t care then the median member of Congress doesn’t have a reason not to support it 🤷‍♂️ the reason they didn’t is because they believe the opposite, that the median voter does care and would in fact take it as being a power grab or too radical or something

If that's your model of their reasoning, do you think that belief (that the med. voter opposes reform) is mistaken? If so, why would pols be more systematically mistaken about that than about other questions of what is popular/unpopular?

By “they” do you mean two specific senators in the narrowest legislative majority in American history?

By and large yes but court reform was something that the bulk of the coalition and Biden himself would not even seriously consider, for example

Biden gave every signal that he would be led to it by the coalition, and undertake it if that was the consensus (as with student loans) but that he would not lead them to it himself. Buttigieg was the young energetic Biden who would do court reform.

💯 Event after all the madness of Trump’s years and Covid, Biden still didn’t really get how bad it is. I hope he sees now that court reform is no longer up for debate.

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