It depends on what you want to plan. And whether or not you “need answer fast”.
The Right Wing worked for two generations within the rules of the game (sometimes just at the edge of them) to place themselves in the position of power to finally break through and do what they wanted.
Some in their opposition now want something, anything, to happen before 2024 that will just stop the Right dead in their tracks and make it impossible for them to resume their platform. Coming up with a plan for that in a hurry may not be strictly “impossible” but it’s stupefyingly harder and very easy to screw up.
When a bomb or a hurricane brings down a building, it’s not getting un-blown-up and running as normal by next week. Same with law and institutions. So steel yourselves for a whole generation trying to build back what was torn down.
There is a difference between constructive criticism and complaint. The former has value, the latter, none.
No, you are not the only one that just complains and whines.
Yes, it does. By doing so, you are working alongside Fox and Pravda to dissillision voters, to make them think there is no point in coming out to vote, that both sides are the same. If your complaints are limited to this messageboard, then whatever, but given your passion about how the US conducts its affairs, I doubt that they are.
Just complaining in general does not. But your specific complaints indicate that you do not. You complain that they are not doing the things that they are in fact doing, and you complain that they are not doing things that they are in fact, not able to do. Hence, my accurate observation that you don’t have a clue as to what you are talking about.
The Speaker of the House assigned {Shirley} Chisholm to serve on the House Agriculture Committee. Given her urban district, she felt the placement was irrelevant to her constituents. When Chisholm confided to Rebbe Menachem M. Schneerson that she was upset and insulted by her assignment, Schneerson suggested that she use the surplus food to help the poor and hungry. Chisholm subsequently met Bob Dole and worked to expand the food stamp program. She later played a critical role in the creation of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. Chisholm would credit Schneerson for the fact that so many “poor babies [now] have milk and poor children have food”. {…} Shirley Chisholm - Wikipedia
If you don’t understand how the game is played don’t be surprised when you constantly lose.
…but its not like nobody saw this coming, right? People have been warning that this has been coming for years. The Roe vs Wade decision was even leaked. Everyone knew it was going to happen.
People like AOC haven’t demanded a plan to “stop the Right dead in their tracks.” They want to know what the plan is. What is the strategy. What actionable steps do the leadership want their party to do in the lead-up to the midterms. I’m not seeing the issue with that.
Are you even reading my posts?
Wow.
Okay then. Perhaps feel free to take it to the pit.But if that is how you feel about me, then I don’t really know what else to say.
The plan is to make gains in the midterms that will break the political gridlock in the Senate. This requires two miracles. First, the Democrats must retain control of the House. That’s miracle one. Second, the Democrats must gain at least two Senate seats, so that 50 Senators are willing to weaken the filibuster and enact meaningful policy. That’s miracle two. There is no backup plan and none is possible.
There are some on the progressive wing among the Democrats who believe there is a hidden and nearly willing supermajority who will come out to vote in huge numbers if the national Party simply makes these big moves. That getting them excited will be the magic bullet that after decades and decades will get them to actually come out to the polls and to do so consistently.
I suppose that’s a plan of sorts. But it’s really more of a comforting pipe dream. But one that allows them to hold onto their delusions.
The reality is it takes years of work and Democrats are better at undercutting each other at the first sign of adversity than sustaining effort for more than 1 or 2 election cycles. And that’s the plan that would work - sustained efforts over several cycles combined with a voter base that doesn’t just ditch them at the first sign of trouble or because they want instant gratification. At the national level, there are still several who can do the first part. The latter part is mostly out of their control. It’s hard to sustain interest when the only demand is “now, now, now”.
Progressives: We need abortion legislation right now! Why don’t we have abortion legislation! Moderates: We don’t have 60 votes to get past the filibuster. Progressives: Well then get rid of the filibuster! Moderates: We can’t because Sinema and Manchin won’t go for it. Progressives: Well then get rid of Sinema and Manchin!
A few years later…
Moderates: OK we got rid of Sinema and Manchin. Progressives: So is the filibuster gone? Moderates: Yup Progressives: And has abortion legislation been passed? Moderates: That too, both went through on party lines 52-48. Progressives: See I told you all that was need to break the gridlock was an agressive move to the left. Moderates: Well credit where credit’s due. You were right. Thanks those two additional Republican Senators the gridlock was broken, the filibuster is gone and abortion is now illegal in all 50 states.
PROGRESSIVES: Right boss! What we saw coming a long time ago has finally happened. What is the plan going forward to help us win the mid-terms?
MODERATES: We aren’t going to tell you.
PROGRESSIVES: I’m sorry…what?
MODERATES: We aren’t going to tell you. Because we don’t actually have a plan. Now, if you will excuse me for a minute, I’m off to make a deal with Mitch McConnell to give them yet another life-time appointment for an anti-abortion federal judge.
PROGRESSIVES: What…are you doing?
MODERATES: Stop complaining. By doing so, you are working alongside Fox and Pravda to dissillision voters, to make them think there is no point in coming out to vote, that both sides are the same. If your complaints are limited to this forum, then whatever, but given your passion about how the US conducts its affairs, I doubt that they are.
PROGRESSIVES: What?
A few years later…
MODERATES: So we lost the midterms.
PROGRESSIVES: Yeah, we know.
MODERATES: And it’s all your fault.
PROGRESSIVES: Wait. What?
MODERATES: Well credit where credit’s due. All you had to do was not say anything. But you went and said something. And now the filibuster is gone and abortion is now illegal in all 50 states.
The Supreme Court cannot make laws. They can only interpret them. The privacy aspect of R v W was the route the court used to construct the ruling. You’ll even hear President Biden talk about the right to privacy in recent press conferences. This is what he is referring to.
There was a really good PBS documentary on the issue many years ago that went through all of this.
I think the op is right. This needs to be done legislatively. Possibly through a States Convention which allows States to force the issue to a vote.
Exactly so. And there were attempts at counter-measures. President Obama, for one, asked Justice Ginsberg to resign when the Democrats had ~59 votes in the Senate due to her age and illnesses. She refused and she ended up passing away during the Trump Administration. If Ginsberg did what Breyer has done, Roe would be still in place (though the line of viability would be able to be 15 weeks rather than later).
I guess that depends on whether “In exchange, McConnell will allow Biden to nominate and confirm two U.S. Attorneys to Kentucky.” is a reasonable trade or not to you. Also I’ve read that Biden will get to nominate other judges as a result of this deal, though I can’t find that information right now.
…I think “What…are you doing?” is a perfectly reasonable question to ask about an arrangement that happened behind the Governors back who had every intention of submitting his own nominees, about an exchange of a lifetime appointment for a couple of relatively short-term ones. About a deal with Mitch McConnell who knows exactly what he is doing,
I thought about making a separate thread for this, but the only reason they needed to make a deal in the first place is that democratic senate leadership is continuing to honor the ridiculous “blue slip” process that essentially means the senate judiciary chair allows any individual senator to block a judicial nomination (of certain types of judges) to a federal court in their home state.
There’s no way any such legislation could have passed after 1994. IMHO the best chances would have been during the Carter years or the first two years of Clinton’s term. I admit to not knowing enough about Nixon’s and Ford’s position on the issue. Maybe one of them might have signed such a law, but that seems unlikely. Post 1994 there was almost no chance of it happening. Maybe in the first two years of Obama’s term, but even that would have been extremely difficult. Given that, such attacks are against legislators long since retired and likely dead, and seem to be pointless.
What they might have passed was a definition of human life. Ultimately it’s going to come down to that in court. If I remember correctly the court looked at this as a quantifiable issue. What is it that makes us human? is it a heartbeat? No, we couldn’t do heart transplants if that was the case.
What makes us human was already described by Descartes. “I think, therefore I am”. So the definition of brainwaves with human characteristics becomes the metric. And that’s a minefield unto itself depending on how you frame the question. But that argument will probably fall between 15 weeks and 24 weeks of gestation.
Once that is established it will cement the legal right to abortion.
