The thing I can't stop thinking about is this: I'm 48, and in my adult lifetime there has been one Republican who won the popular vote. But I will probably spend the rest of my life under the authority of a Supreme Court dominated by hard right conservatives. How is that democracy?
I know we have a counter majoritarian system. I am familiar with the constitution and our history. I know why this is technically possible. I am asking whether it is tenable to keep thinking of our country as a democracy when it works out like this.
Senate situation is going to only get worse. With rural states furthering losing ground population, the counter majoritarian problem will only get worse.
If the Dems uncapped the House prior to the 2022 midterms, wouldn't have this problem. California should not be losing a Rep while gaining 18M in population since the 2010 census.
This would have immediately changed the EC math as well. Pretty much guaranteeing a Dem Pres and House for 20 years.
They're here, lots of RWers are but they're the extreme minority and a healthy respect for blocking as a protective tool will help minimize your exposure. Has mine
The Framers were deeply distrustful of direct democracy. They attacked it again and again at the Convention. They saw it fail several times elsewhere, believing it ultimately leads to mob rule. In the end, they chose representative democracy, where people vote for people who vote on their behalf.
I think that's a good thing. Imagine if any group of people decided to do a referendum. Our country would consist of thousands of small Bantustans, each with its own peculiar and contradictory laws. There is wisdom in giving greater powers to minorities so majorities can't wreak havoc.
Sure, sounds great -- and extremely familiar, because this is the explanation that every American primary school system offers. The only problem is that it's myth. The founders were primarily concerned with limiting democracy in order to preserve the ruling class.
It's also irrelevant because we're not talking here about counter-majoritarianism, but the direct rule of a minority over a majority. No "minority rights" being protected here, especially since the "majority" is a coalition of minorities. The protection entire accrues to: the ruling class. Shocking.
Literally no one is talking about referendums.
The weak federal system was an attempt to preserve localities making their own laws... which you seem to dislike.
Counter-majoritarianism also created a 2 party system that they saw as a failure and that we see as a bane.
So what's your point again?
Kinda sounds like we need to take the state legislatures and use this constitutional convention the Kochs et al have been working on to actually fix things
Yep. I'm 42. The first election I was old enough to vote in was decided by 5 Supreme Court Justices leaping in to stop a state recount, admitting their legal analysis was a one-off, then never analyzing any future case the same way.
And it will be like this until I die.
Or, and here me out, maybe when two Republican apparatchiks on the court are openly taking bribes and a third openly perjured himself to Congress, we could just prosecute that
I'm still going to crawl across broken glass and worse to vote, even in my solidly blue state. I'm just feeling a lot of despair - not that things won't ever get better, but that they're going to get a lot worse first, and that I don't know if I'll get to survive to see things improve.
Don't just vote, then. Volunteer. Phone or text bank, travel to neighboring states to knock doors, whatever it takes.
I was out knocking doors this Saturday in Philly, and we had a guy up from DC helping out. DC will vote blue, but PA is a battleground. You can do that, too.
This. It's not a spectator sport. Gotta do what you can, for any worthy down ticket candidates.
(I canvassed for the state Senate and Assembly candidates on Saturday. Hotter than hell out but we made an impression. I'm ready to do more this week.)
Umm…no. That would also require the Democrats to control the Senate, and no conservative judges, let alone 2, will just not retire while Democrats control both the White House and the Senate.
Again, these people are going to hold onto those seats until they physically can’t (dead) or there’s a GOP President/Senate. Banking on “well they are pretty old” is more of a Hail Mary than a sure thing. I could see it maybe being 5-4 conservative but not both Alito and Thomas leaving.
They might die or they might not 🤷♂️
Oliver Wendell Holmes stayed until he was 90
Jack B. Weinstein kept a full docket on E.D.N.Y. until he died in 2021 at 99
When Obama took the bench in 2009 there was still one Eisenhower appointee left with a full docket
FYI of the 15 justices appointed since Kennedy, not including the current court, only one (Fortas) died before the age of 80; Scalia, at 80, was the second-youngest to die, followed by Rehnquist (81) and Goldberg (82). The remaining 11/15 lived to the age of 85, and at least four made it to 90
With modern medicine what it is, the likelihood that two men in their 70s drop dead without some type of protracted battle with a terminal illness are almost 0. Much more likely one of them survives into their 90s to witness with glee what havoc their SCOTUS tenure has reaped on the US.
No, that would arguably be an unofficial act.
He'd have to order Seal Team 6 to rendition them to an undisclosed location for enhanced interrogation to be immune from prosecution.
Both Thomas and Alito have mothers who made it into their 90s. I'd say the odds of them getting to be 80 are good.
I don't know. I can sort of see one of them resigning, but the second one will hang on for dear life to maintain the court (im)balance.
