The fear is that when President Cruz is sworn in, Jeff Sessions is nominated to the Supreme Court. At that point, we will wish we had the filibuster, but that’s not a good enough argument for interfering with democracy.
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Who could forget Green Eggs and Ham. Inspiring, that.
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I am thoroughly sick of the initiative process. Many that pass are overturned if the other side files a lawsuit. And I have seen first-hand the tremendous amount of time and other resources are used to determine the constitutionality of an initiative that has won. It can take many years. The California Legislature should be doing its job. Citizens do not have the time or knowledge to determine all the facets of many initiatives. The law of unexpected consequences often prevails.
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Yeah, that’s the only thing that scares me. If I had any damn faith that Democratic voters could actually be pushed to turn out for a midterm election, I’d have no problem with nuking the filibuster on SCOTUS appointments. But Lord knows how badly we’ll fuck up 2018 and Republicans will then be looking for retribution.
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don’t forget the Senate itself. Wyoming has 2 votes, California has 2 votes. What is FSM’s name is less democratic.
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I would like to see Pelosi and maybe even Schumer out of leadership if the Democrats take back the House and Senate. Then consider altering the filibuster rule. Democratic leadership failed the country by moving to bring relief to the middle class in 2008 and even now, they gave the house and Senate back to the pond scum that then proceeded to destroy our democracy.We must strengthen our position before we throw out an important tool.
The Senate’s 46 Democrats got 20 million more votes than its 54 Republicans.
Nuking the filibuster, even for a simple majority, would still allow the minority to buffalo the Senate.
Thinly-populated red states have outrageously undue influence over the rest of America.
And they still whine about how unfair life is to poor, little them…
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Thanks for posting this video!!!
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Honestly, the way he does not take care of his health and the amount of stress he’s going to be under because of the post-election litigation, I don’t think he’ll be around in 2020.
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Not only should they remove the filibuster rule, they should require Ted Cruz hop on one foot while rubbing his head and belly whenever he speaks…
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Why not both? Truly a “punchable” face.
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Agree 100%.
This. Twice.
When my family moved from Hawaii to California I was in the middle of my eighth grade year. I’m not sure how things work now, but there was a State-mandated test on the California Constitution that we had to pass in order to leave the eighth grade. I remember a few things that we were taught about the miraculous California Constitution. Among them: the Citizen Initiative, the Recall and the Referendum.
Of the three, the only one worth its salt in its current form is the referendum. The initiative has brought a host of Bad Ideas, including Prop 13, the anti-Latino Prop, the current marijuana initiative and many more I can’t think of right now.
The recall brought the Governator.
I think if the initiative was modified to require a supermajority (55%? 60%?) most of its ills would be fixed. The problem with initiatives is that they don’t go through the Legislative hearing process, and so voters often don’t really know what’s in them.
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Schumer? In a NY minute.
Yeah, I find the initiatives difficult and I’ve been a lawyer for 30 years and can read legalese.
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It would be useless if the dems don’t control the house. Then in 2018 when the GOP win back control of the senate they will be able to make a mockery of the Hillary presidency.
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I believe that was modeled after the Iroquois Confederacy: their functional equivalent of a legislature gave each tribe in the Confederation an equal vote. It made more sense when the (generally corrupt) State Legislatures picked Senators. In that case, they are there as representatives of the state legislature and I guess it makes more sense to weight the states equally.
With direct election, who the Senator represents gets pretty murky.
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The United States is a Republic, always has been…
Reps have never heard the phrase “What goes around, comes around.” They have obstructed Obama unjustly for the last 6 years. Should the Senate turn over, instead of having Obama appoint judges, now they will have Clinton appoint judges, and she is under no illusions as to who the Reps are these days. We have to get the Senate or it will be 2 more years of “Party of No.”
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Glad this is the focus now, and Obama with a double digit positive approval rating is just the one to be making this argument. Gridlock is the GOP’s fault, and we do not want them obstructing a President Clinton’s court nominees and policies like they did President Obama’s.
Gridlock not only blocks progress, it is dangerous and could cause a constitutional crisis. For example if this election winds up in the Supreme Court, there are only 8 to decide thanks to extremist Republicans in the Senate. Time to move forward with a Dem Senate and House because when Republicans say vote for “checks and balances” on Hillary, they are really saying “Block progress and make the President look bad, the nation’s wellbeing be damned.”
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