5980

If that insanity is the new normal then the process might never work again.

5981

Even before one party went insane it was basically a dead process.

Scalia pointed out how 2% of the population can stop an Amendment back in 2014 and it wasn’t like that was something that just became a thing. He was pointing out a long-standing fact.

The last Amendment to pass was in 1992 and was a pointless feel-good Amendment that didn’t matter at all.

The last Amendment about something that remotely mattered was in 1971 and it took shitloads of people dying in Vietnam to make it happen.

Remember at one point we made alcohol illegal by Amendment. Alcohol.
That wouldn’t pass in any legislature in the union, but it got an Amendment.
Meanwhile we can’t pass Amendments to do stuff that 80% of the population wants today.

5982

I suppose the question here is, can bigotry be enough to align poor whites with a party that is opposed to the interests of the poor forever? Are the people of e.g. West Virginia truly content to wallow eternally in misery so long as they can look down on someone else? Given that there have been broad coalitions for progress that transcended bigotry before now, I have to believe there can be again. And places like Georgia and Texas — filled both with young urban people and substantial numbers of black and hispanic people — seem to be on the verge of a sea change.

I dunno, I go back and forth between seeing signs of hope and thinking the whole thing is hopeless. But in the near term, I think Dems have no choice but to expand the court by 4 seats (to align with the historic model of 1 per judicial district) and fill those seats with reasonable people. Otherwise they will not be permitted to govern no matter how many elections they win.

5983

Is that the one woman show that was on Broadway for a while and featured on This American Life? I wanted to see that! Thanks, we’ll look it up on Amazon!

5984

That’s the one! I heard about it from Marc Maron. I too was happy to see it show up for streaming during a pandemic where we can’t go to live theater right before a big election.

5985

Maybe the issue isn’t that the amendment process has gotten harder, but Carrie Nation was just that badass.

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5986

Yes amending the constitution is harder, but still there have been five amendments to the constitution in my lifetime some like 27th took a long time 200 years, but lower the voting age to 18 only took 100 days and giving DC 3 electoral vote took 10 months to get finished.

If the GOP gets wiped out in this next election many things are possible. If Trumpism remains popular in the base one of the thing that could happen is a significant number of defections to the Democrats.
If you are a traditional Republican elected official and believe in free trade, pro-immigration, strong national defense, believe in allies, there really isn’t a reason to remain in the Republican party, if they have no power.

We saw it a bit under Obama, Senator Spectors switching. But it is a lot more common in basically one party states like California. For instance, Tulsa Gabbards dad is far more conservative than his daughter or me and switched to the Democratic party more than decade ago, because it’s pointless to be a Republican in Hawaii. I estimate that 1/4 of Democratic elected officials are to my right in the state.

I agree that the obstructionist Republican party of Mitch McConnell makes passing amendment very hard, but it doesn’t have to be that way if Mitch is out of the picture and the guy is 78 he won’t live forever.

5987

Murkowski will always disappoint anyone thinking she might not be shit this time. Always.

5988

Well we gotta find his phylactery first.

5989
5990

I wonder how and why Murkowski arrived at this bizarre kabuki theater? If she wants a pass on this for political reasons, Mitch has the votes to let her vote no. If she doesn’t want a pass on it, why bother with the song and dance? Is he telling her she can’t vote no? That’s the only thing that makes sense, but I don’t know see why he needs to do that other than pure meanness.

5991

There’s a theory Republicans are afraid of other no votes. McCain saving the ACA scared them.

5992

I think the point is to show that she doesn’t reject the candidate, just the procedure by which she was appointed.

5993

Could be, but that makes the whole thing performance art IMO.

5994

I feel like they have the same few idiots do this song and dance to give everyone else cover to not talk about it. Everyone focuses on Collins and Murkowski and no one writes an articles about the other vulnerable Senators who should be pressured.

5995

Die in pain.

5996

There are a lot of people who are unnecessarily dead and will die due to these people in charge. We won’t ever be able to undo that, no matter how much time passes.

5997

This is why we have to make sure they are defeated, and every one of their accomplishments gets destroyed. We need to damnatio memoriae Trump.

5998

And it’s done. The only way forward is to win next week.

5999

Yeah, about that whole winning thing…

I’m really starting to freak out about this now.