It is exhausting, but what is truly dispiriting and defeating is the realization that the map to authoritarianism goes straight through the US Constitution, and short of scrapping the document or amending it, the blueprint is known, we can see it coming, and there doesn't seem to be a damned thing we can do about it. Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act; getting everyone to the polls is not going to matter when state legislatures decide they're going to pick the winners instead. And the US Constitution not only doesn't prevent this, it positively states this is OK. People erroneously think the US Constitution is a democratic document; it is far from it, and scholars have argued it was created in part because of an excess of democracy floating around in the states that wealthy elites found distasteful.
There have been many indicators of the GOP's disdain for democracy, but I'll remind us all of this tactic they have used. In both Wisconsin and in North Carolina, state houses have been wildly Republican despite the rather moderate complexion of the overall electorate. When WI elected Scott Walker and when NC elected Pat McCrory, in both cases the state houses greatly enhanced the powers of the governor. When each lost reelection, and a Democrat was due to assume office, during the lame duck session before they lost their supermajorities they stripped the powers of the governor down to even less than they were before.
Methinks we're doomed. If it doesn't happen in 2024, it will still be a live possibility in 2028, and every four years after that; it's really not if, but when. We're only a democracy by norms, not by laws, and Republicans' guiding principle is not, "Should we?", it's "Why can't we?" The Constitution is flawed, the SCOTUS is 6-3, and there is no chance of amending the Constitution.
We have lived under a gentlemen's agreement that no one is going to push this nuclear button and blow up the whole thing. These rules were written in the days where this made sense.
What if is there is a massive natural disaster, or an inability to deliver the actual votes for certification? The state legislatures would take over to make sure that *a* vote is made.
That was in the pre-shame world, where everyone understood the consequences of doing the unthinkable. Republicans have pretty much decided that the system has run its course. They *want* to end it.
The U.S. Constitution does a good job of assuming the imperfectness of men, but the Founders never let their imagination go deep into the gutter, where we are.
It is exhausting, but what is truly dispiriting and defeating is the realization that the map to authoritarianism goes straight through the US Constitution, and short of scrapping the document or amending it, the blueprint is known, we can see it coming, and there doesn't seem to be a damned thing we can do about it. Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act; getting everyone to the polls is not going to matter when state legislatures decide they're going to pick the winners instead. And the US Constitution not only doesn't prevent this, it positively states this is OK. People erroneously think the US Constitution is a democratic document; it is far from it, and scholars have argued it was created in part because of an excess of democracy floating around in the states that wealthy elites found distasteful.
There have been many indicators of the GOP's disdain for democracy, but I'll remind us all of this tactic they have used. In both Wisconsin and in North Carolina, state houses have been wildly Republican despite the rather moderate complexion of the overall electorate. When WI elected Scott Walker and when NC elected Pat McCrory, in both cases the state houses greatly enhanced the powers of the governor. When each lost reelection, and a Democrat was due to assume office, during the lame duck session before they lost their supermajorities they stripped the powers of the governor down to even less than they were before.
Methinks we're doomed. If it doesn't happen in 2024, it will still be a live possibility in 2028, and every four years after that; it's really not if, but when. We're only a democracy by norms, not by laws, and Republicans' guiding principle is not, "Should we?", it's "Why can't we?" The Constitution is flawed, the SCOTUS is 6-3, and there is no chance of amending the Constitution.
We have lived under a gentlemen's agreement that no one is going to push this nuclear button and blow up the whole thing. These rules were written in the days where this made sense.
What if is there is a massive natural disaster, or an inability to deliver the actual votes for certification? The state legislatures would take over to make sure that *a* vote is made.
That was in the pre-shame world, where everyone understood the consequences of doing the unthinkable. Republicans have pretty much decided that the system has run its course. They *want* to end it.
The U.S. Constitution does a good job of assuming the imperfectness of men, but the Founders never let their imagination go deep into the gutter, where we are.