"Here are two very concrete things that should become, today, immediately, the standard position of any progressive: Getting rid of the filibuster, which allows a minority to thwart the will of the majority in the Senate; and either expanding the Supreme Court (best) or putting term limits on the Supreme Court (not as good, but better th…
"Here are two very concrete things that should become, today, immediately, the standard position of any progressive: Getting rid of the filibuster, which allows a minority to thwart the will of the majority in the Senate; and either expanding the Supreme Court (best) or putting term limits on the Supreme Court (not as good, but better than nothing). There should not be a single day’s extra discussion about these things."
I've been turning this over in my head over-and-over today. I agree with it. Truly, I do.
Here's the thing I'm struggling with. And I cannot stress enough this is all anecdotal so take that fwiw...
In my lefty crank Facebook days, I was friends with a wide political range of folks. This is the nature of my job where you truly have to work with all persons (clergy). I had sanded down my page enough so by 2018, the only people left I would argue with were mealy-mouth centrists and white boomer libs.
I've kind of made my peace with the white boomer lib worldview. I hate it but I get where it comes from, how it's evolved. Rebecca Traister's piece on Dianne Feinstein is so critical to understanding how movements grow, become stagnant, die and are reborn into something else, usually bad.
I'd argue with them over a lot of things but I cannot emphasize enough: the Supreme Court is the most sacred of institutions. Disagreements became personal. People dismissed my suggestions (expanded court, voting for judges, rotating randomly through DC circuit), as "stupid," "implausible," "non-American." One of them condescended me relentlessly when I used the term countermajoritarian, treating me like I was a nine-year old saying a ten-dollar word.
I ditched Facebook in 2021 and am all the better for it. But...
These are the people showing up to the polls right now. These are the people who have an outsized say in the Democratic Party because they are reliable voters. And I think changing their views on SCOTUS is going to be hard.
Now it's impossible to deny the Left has won major gains, even if it's hard to see. Bernie Sanders' two campaigns changed the party permanently. By default, Biden might be the best President of my lifetime.
But I would love to know a strategy for convincing older liberals that the Supreme Court needs to be changed in any way.
Maybe this ruling, or Dobbs, or whatever else is a wake up call for them (like I said, I got off FB in 2021 and my in-person conversations with boomer libs don't really exist outside of my church and mom). I agree with the strategy, the sentiment. I worry about it being an uphill climb, perhaps too steep.
Agree with the sentiment, am on board for it. Just hoping it can yield good fruit with the libs who for better and worse are a big part of this coalition.
I think the argument is just that absent reforming the Supreme Court there is no avenue for progressive (legal) change in America for potentially decades. Either or.
"Here are two very concrete things that should become, today, immediately, the standard position of any progressive: Getting rid of the filibuster, which allows a minority to thwart the will of the majority in the Senate; and either expanding the Supreme Court (best) or putting term limits on the Supreme Court (not as good, but better than nothing). There should not be a single day’s extra discussion about these things."
I've been turning this over in my head over-and-over today. I agree with it. Truly, I do.
Here's the thing I'm struggling with. And I cannot stress enough this is all anecdotal so take that fwiw...
In my lefty crank Facebook days, I was friends with a wide political range of folks. This is the nature of my job where you truly have to work with all persons (clergy). I had sanded down my page enough so by 2018, the only people left I would argue with were mealy-mouth centrists and white boomer libs.
I've kind of made my peace with the white boomer lib worldview. I hate it but I get where it comes from, how it's evolved. Rebecca Traister's piece on Dianne Feinstein is so critical to understanding how movements grow, become stagnant, die and are reborn into something else, usually bad.
I'd argue with them over a lot of things but I cannot emphasize enough: the Supreme Court is the most sacred of institutions. Disagreements became personal. People dismissed my suggestions (expanded court, voting for judges, rotating randomly through DC circuit), as "stupid," "implausible," "non-American." One of them condescended me relentlessly when I used the term countermajoritarian, treating me like I was a nine-year old saying a ten-dollar word.
I ditched Facebook in 2021 and am all the better for it. But...
These are the people showing up to the polls right now. These are the people who have an outsized say in the Democratic Party because they are reliable voters. And I think changing their views on SCOTUS is going to be hard.
Now it's impossible to deny the Left has won major gains, even if it's hard to see. Bernie Sanders' two campaigns changed the party permanently. By default, Biden might be the best President of my lifetime.
But I would love to know a strategy for convincing older liberals that the Supreme Court needs to be changed in any way.
Maybe this ruling, or Dobbs, or whatever else is a wake up call for them (like I said, I got off FB in 2021 and my in-person conversations with boomer libs don't really exist outside of my church and mom). I agree with the strategy, the sentiment. I worry about it being an uphill climb, perhaps too steep.
Agree with the sentiment, am on board for it. Just hoping it can yield good fruit with the libs who for better and worse are a big part of this coalition.
I think the argument is just that absent reforming the Supreme Court there is no avenue for progressive (legal) change in America for potentially decades. Either or.