Altering the Court

[kairos12]

For all the hand wringing by folks in D.C. about institutional norms, here is the reality, at least as I see it.

If the number of justices is not changed when or if, the Dems have power this is the horrific reality. Despite demographic and attitude changes in the country a 6-3 SCOTUS will strike down every piece of progressive legislation for the next, at least, 2 decades. The Reich Wing has long planned for the eventuality they can't win a democratic election.

The Republican "Commanders" have long understood that the most contentious of issues will be settled, not by legislators, but by SCOTUS.

This is not about retribution, although I like that, it's about the very survival of all long-term progressive goals.

[AleksS]

1. And as I keep telling people:

There is evidence supporting you:

Look at Wisconsin. As soon as the GOP owned the Supreme Court, they didn’t even bother with a charade of separation of powers. Anything the GOP wanted, they sued for, got their WISC puppets to fast-track it to the WISC, and then deliver whatever verdict the GOP asked for.

Now they have the chance to do it at a national level, and there’s no reason to think they won’t follow the same game plan.

[Roland99]

2. 13 - 15 seats will help prevent "packing of the courts" by any future president

2 seats now can sway the makeup one way or another

less likely with several more on the bench

[FBaggins]

3. It's a really big deal... but not that catestrophic

Remember that, prior to Ginsburg, republicans had appointed 11 straight SCOTUS justices. They didn't sweep in and overturn everything in six months.

[Statistical]

5. Different caliber of justices though.

Gorsuch while a conservative is at least sane. Keg boy and handmaid lady are not.

Justices are being appointed younger and living longer and becoming more radically conservative.

[Moostache]

4. If the government cannot enact the will of the people, then the system goes and restart...

PERIOD.

Our existing system is already broken and I believe the time for tinkering and wishful thinking is over. The fact is that the GOP is a minority party using the levers of power to enforce an agenda and a vision of America that is NOT shared by a majority of the population.

POTUS numbers are Democrats winning the popular vote in 4 of the last 5 elections and holding the presidency exactly TWICE during that 20 year stretch (2008 and 2012 under Obama, even though both Gore and Clinton FUCKING WON MORE VOTES)...that is the machinations of the goddamn Electoral College, a bastardization that was agreed to only to protect the interests of SLAVE HOLDERS IN THE FUCKING 18th century...it has NO VALUE in 21st century America, none.

The Senate?
The 46 Democratic caucus members in the 114th Congress received a total of 67.8 million votes in winning their seats, while the 54 Republican caucus members received 47.1 million votes. 20 MILLION fewer votes and ALL THE POWER? In the more recent 2018 mid-terms prior to the current Congress, Democrats had more than 12 MILLION votes than Republicans. In states with lots of land and low population density, the GOP holds sway, but land does not fucking vote, although the current system grants it disproportional power.

Take California versus Wyoming...each get 2 senators but one has 60X more people and an economy that is among the GLOBAL top 10 by itself... In what fucking universe is that a "free country"? It is if you are A) rich, B) white and C) male...and for everyone else, it is "let them eat cake" or "hurry up and die already".

The Supreme Court of the United States?
Setting aside the packing of the federal judiciary by McConnell over the last 7 years (thwarting Obama nominees of actual qualification and rubber stamping Trump's brigade of morons, fools and thieves)...the current state of the Supreme Court is that of a body with ZERO LEGITIMACY REMAINING. The only way to even SLIGHTLY remedy this would to seat Merrick Garland immediately and continue with a 5-4 split in the court's ideological make-up...even if that means 3 Trump zealots on the bench for decades to come. Fact is the theft of the seat that should be Garland has destroyed the legitimacy of the court and it is now a purely political body when the founders intended it to be ANYTHING BUT that.

Restructuring the court is not going to make that stain of Garland's stolen seat go away. Fact is this - McConnell broke the entire judiciary and has gotten away with it while our fucking media covers the latest outlandish tweet from the imbecile.

So there it is...three branches of government, meant to be co-equals converted to a compromised court, a fallacious 'unitary executive' and a compromised, gerrymandered and non-representative legislature.

Why should I pledge allegiance to this mish-mash of chicanery and graft? Where is MY REPRESENTATION as a citizen of a red state theocracy in waiting?

I suggest more people begin familiarizing themselves with the concept of a new American nation, divorced from the failed initial attempt. The nation make need to split into territories of non-competing alliances or a new federation of like-minded states, but the current system of government is not democratic, it is not representative and it is not sustainable.

The tyrannical minority, clinging to power and rigging the system will be thrown off as the shackles ALWAYS are...the only question is when, not if.

[kairos12]

7. Perfectly explained.

[DFW]

6. A man named Thomas said it best

Thomas JEFFERSON, that is. He was 33 years old, and he was writing a document now known as the Declaration of Independence:

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The Republicans, a minority, WOULD INDEED reduce the country "under absolute despotism" if given the chance, and it IS our right AND OUR DUTY "to throw off such government, and provide new guards for" the future security--not only of ourselves, but of our children and their children. Muskets and bayonets can be done away with if we can put on six additional Supreme Court justices. But we MUST provide for our future security, and that is not done by putting wannabe Ayatollahs on the Supreme Court.

Drastic? Hell yeah! But it was not our idea to prevent a sitting president from fulfilling his constitutional duty to nominate a Supreme Court Justice. And it SURE AS HELL wasn't our idea to reverse their own arbitrary rules, making it suddenly possible to do so for the next president, when it suited the Republicans.

The Republican Party has choked and constricted the freedom of the people of this country certainly to the extent King George III of England did. The may not wear red coats, but their enforcers rob and kill civilians with just as much arbitrary whim, and nearly as much impunity. Their agents, elected, selected, and appointed, attempt to deprive the majority from their right to vote wherever they can.

Subjugation by any other name stinks as badly, and mark my words, they WILL cry foul when we try to liberate ourselves from their subjugation. They will cry that THEY are the "patriots," just as those who wished to continue under British rule were called "loyalists." The selective use of labels is nothing new. Today's radical rightist wannabe-dictators call themselves "conservatives." Since there hasn't been a monarchy or an outright dictatorship on the North American Continent in over two centuries, they obviously aren't looking to "conserve" anything that Thomas Jefferson had in mind. But just let them read anything Jefferson wrote, without telling them who wrote it. They'll tell you it was written by a "kommanist," rather than the man whose wisdom permitted them to say so, despite a lack of any wisdom of their own.

[jcgoldie]

8. They are filling the seat because they can

Norms are out the window and the GOP is setting the precedent of unfettered political expediency... lets see how that works for them if they lose both houses and the presidency.