The “having to do something” criticism would apply to an attempt to pack the court that is guaranteed to fail, not a legitimate attempt with a path to success.
I think your righteous indignation is getting in the way of your reading what I’ve been saying.
Quick question: Do you think that it is good or bad strategy for the Democrats to hold a vote to pack the supreme court right now knowing that it will fail?
If your answer to this question is no, then you and I are in agreement.
That was the question I was addressing, no more no less.
All Court’s “legislate from the bench” (or no courts do, depending on how you define it). Legislating from the bench isn’t the objection. Getting it wrong is the objection.
The starting point has to be to eliminate the Republican Party from existence and place its assets in a conservancy of some sort. Only then will it be safe to let the Democratic Party implode (as we all know will inevitably happen).
It’s a sin to vote for a Republican.
Pound on that, please.
…he isn’t reading the question correctly. 
(…) good or bad (…)
(…) answer is no (…)
Please clarify.
Grumble grumble, stupid habit editing part way through changing question formation without final proof read for clarity, grumble grumble…
Quick question: Do you think that it is good strategy for the Democrats to hold a vote to pack the supreme court right now knowing that it will fail?
If your answer to this question is no, then you and I are in agreement.
…the question has nothing to do with what I said.
The first question the Democrats should be asking is “what other options are there to rebalance the courts.” If they decided that packing the courts was the only way to redress the rebalance, then the goal would be to move forward with a plan to pack the courts that had the greatest chance of success.
And that plan would include changing the narrative. It would include Biden and Pelosi coming out in favour of it, it would include spending millions of dollars campaigning in its favour.
What it wouldn’t involve is just deciding to do it tomorrow and hope for the best.
There is no “vote to pack the supreme court right now knowing that it will fail” option. That isn’t on the table.
My point remains the same. Unpopular ideas are only unpopular until people change their minds. If the only option to bring balance back to the courts is to pack the courts and then keep the Republicans from regaining power: the first step would be to start to change the narrative.
According to the poll you cited 62% of Democrats support expanding the courts. A majority support expansion right now even though the current Democrat leadership want nothing to do with it.
“Getting it wrong” is a matter of opinion. For millions of people in America right now, the SCOTUS are getting everything right.
Exactly! And that’s why ‘packing the courts’ is a stupid idea.
One might at least try to think about what ‘packing the court’ would have meant to Civil Rights when it was conservatives wailing about the Warren court.
…I mean, sure.
You have an unelected council of wizards that will gather one day soon and decide that gay marriage is out-of-alignment with the opinion of a long-dead-white-owner-of-slaves and decide that gay marriage will no longer be allowed.
But “packing the courts” is the stupid idea.
All I can do in response is quote someone that actually understands the root of the problem,
…yep.
Millions of people think that SCOTUS are getting it right.
Millions more people think that SCOTUS are getting it wrong.
I unfortunately don’t think the Democrats are ultimately going to be willing to pack the court if/when push comes to shove and they have the ability to do it. However, there is an alternate strategy which is that you don’t tell anyone you’re going to pack the court, you win enough congressional races that you can actually nuke the filibuster and pass a court-packing bill, you do it and you just hang on and try to survive the fallout.
…oh, I’m under zero illusions that any of this is going to happen. So much more would need to happen before they made the move to expand the courts. And they aren’t doing any of that. As I said, this discussion is largely academic.
This alternate strategy needs to start with the Democrats being crystal clear on what congressional races need to be won, then putting money, resources and political capital into those races to make sure they win them.
Are you suggesting that the democrats aren’t advertising and canvassing in races they need to win in upcoming elections?
…I’m suggesting that they aren’t being crystal clear on what their strategy is going into the mid-terms.
Try to win a bunch of swing states and districts? I’m sure in 2022 there’s a way to find a pirate cable feed from a swing state and see all the political ads there. It’s not a mystery what they’re trying to do.
…what is the strategy, then? How exactly is it playing out?
Campaign in all the swing races. How is it playing out? Well current projections are that they lose the house.
…well that doesn’t sound like a very effective strategy to me.