How are the Clinton hating dems feeling now?

[Max_S]

@Banquet_Bear

This isn’t a national strategy. There is no plan on how to protect reproductive rights or trans people in republican states.

Didn’t I explain this to you months ago, before the midterms?

@Max_S

@Banquet_Bear

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.

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.

~Max

Since the Democrats did not manage to secure both miracles, the only possible national plan is to make these gains in 2024, plus keep hold of the Presidency. That pushes the fastest possible timetable for sweeping federal legislation into late January of 2025.

There are half measures in the form of unilateral executive actions such as Title IX regulations (binding upon federally funded schools). But such measures may be blocked or even struck down in court. A comprehensive solution remains firmly out of reach until Democrats accumulate more political power.

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New Zealand doesn’t seem to have this problem, probably because y’all have a totally different form of government. We still have first past the post in the U.S., and when it comes to our executive and upper chamber, it’s purposely designed not to reflect population (cannot be stressed enough - the U.S. is anti-democratic by design, for better or worse). An effective national progressive coalition in the U.S. looks like 60%, maybe 70% of the gross national population, even more if the filibuster remains intact. An effective national conservative coalition in the U.S. needs maybe 10% less popular support, a consequence of the undemocratic form of government we have and the current political geography of Republicans. There have only been four months this century where the U.S. had a working political coalition at the national level. Obama enjoyed one for about four months in 2009-2010, during which the Affordable Care Act was passed. At all other times we have been without a ruling party.

We also can’t change the national law with a binding referendum as New Zealand did to get a mixed member proportional system in the '90s. There is an option to have another constitutional convention, but the exercise of this option requires the consensus of thirty-four of the fifty State legislatures which is quite impossible; any amendment requires the assent of thirty-eight State conventions which is even more impossible; and, any amendment making Senate representation proportional to population requires the assent of all 50 states, which will never happen.

~Max