{"id":4981,"date":"2021-04-18T18:23:36","date_gmt":"2021-04-18T18:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=4981"},"modified":"2021-04-18T18:23:36","modified_gmt":"2021-04-18T18:23:36","slug":"democrats-are-split-over-how-much-the-party-and-american-democracy-itself-are-in-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=4981","title":{"rendered":"Democrats Are Split Over How Much The Party And American Democracy Itself Are In Danger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“Here\u2019s the Democratic nightmare: Biden and congressional Democrats pass a few major bills over the next two years but leave the filibuster in place, preventing the passage of major reforms to America\u2019s electoral system. A federal judiciary stacked with Trump appointees<\/a> strikes down all or parts of many of the laws the Democrats do pass as well as many of Biden\u2019s executive actions<\/a>, leaving Democrats few permanent policy victories and driving down the president\u2019s approval ratings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Republicans use their control of most state legislatures<\/a> to draw state legislative and U.S. House district lines<\/a> in ways that are even more favorable to the GOP than the current ones and enact laws that make it harder<\/a> for liberal-leaning voting blocs to cast ballots. Combine gerrymandering, voting limitations, lackluster poll numbers for Biden and the historic trend of voters<\/a> rejecting the party of the incumbent president in a midterm election, and it results in the Republicans winning control of the House and the Senate and making even more gains at the state legislative level in November 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post-2022, Republicans in Congress block everything Biden tries to do, further driving down his approval ratings. Meanwhile, Republicans use their enhanced power at the state level to continue to adopt laws<\/a> that make it harder for people in liberal-leaning constituencies to vote and harder for Democrats to win in swing states<\/a>. Then, these laws are upheld by lower courts and a U.S. Supreme Court still packed with Trump appointees. In 2024, Biden (or whomever the Democrats nominate) wins the popular vote but still loses the Electoral College \u2014 in part because Republicans have limited Democratic votes in some swing states. A GOP with control of the White House, Senate, House and most state governments in 2025 then effectively creates a system of \u201cminority rule\u201d<\/a> in which Republicans can keep control of America\u2019s government for decades even if the majority of voters favor Democrats as well as liberal and left-of-center policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this scenario, the Democratic Party is in peril, but in some ways so is American democracy more broadly. So to this camp, Democrats must act aggressively and quickly over the next two years to forestall this outcome, by getting rid of the filibuster<\/a> as it currently operates (most legislation requires 60 votes to pass in the Senate) and enacting an aggressive \u201cdemocracy agenda.<\/a>\u201d This is a pro-democratic (small \u201cd\u201d) agenda in many ways, particularly in giving residents of Washington, D.C., representation in Congress and enhancing protections of the right to vote for Black Americans who live in GOP-dominated states. But it\u2019s also clearly a pro-Democratic agenda (big \u201cD\u201d) in that it would, for example, add the two senators from D.C., who would almost certainly be Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pfeiffer describes whether the Democrats get rid of the filibuster in the next two years as \u201cthe decision that will decide the next decade.\u201d He argues that keeping the filibuster may be effectively \u201ca decision to return to the minority and stay there for at least a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe door is closing quickly in terms of us staying a functioning democracy. We have no time to waste,\u201d said Meagan Hatcher-Mays<\/a>, director of democracy policy at Indivisible. \u201cDemocrats have been handed this power to save it. We don\u2019t have two years. We have a year. The window to actually get things done is really closer to 10 months.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Democrats would need every Democratic senator on board to get rid of the filibuster, so these members are super-important. And over the last few months, Manchin<\/a> and Sinema<\/a> have said they are strongly opposed to getting rid of the filibuster. Longtime senators like Feinstein have hinted in the past that they are wary of such a move too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of this opposition to getting rid of the filibuster reflects ideological differences \u2014 Manchin in particular is more conservative<\/a> than most (if not all) congressional Democrats. So he probably isn\u2019t dying to get rid of the filibuster to vote for a $15 federal minimum wage, for example, because it\u2019s not clear he favors that idea anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this bloc also disagrees with the this-is-an-emergency camp about the state of American politics right now. Feinstein is fairly liberal on policy issues.<\/a> But she, like Manchin and Sinema, has suggested she wants to work in a Senate<\/a> that is not hyperpartisan and seems to believe that is possible<\/a>. In the view of people in this camp, the Republican Party is not completely dominated by an anti-democratic wing that won\u2019t work with Democrats. So members in this camp view getting rid of the filibuster and other more aggressive moves as not only unnecessary but potentially really bad<\/a> \u2014 making the Senate and Washington overall even more gridlocked and polarized than they already are.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Democrats Are Split Over How Much The Party And American Democracy Itself Are In Danger<\/a><\/blockquote>