Discussion for article #240362
Such efforts are, by any standard, an undisguised power grab by the GOP to insulate themselves from decisions they donāt like. And if democracy falls apart in the meantime, what do they care? They know they are right. End of discussion.
Of course, in a real democracy the media should and would be screaming about what is happening in Kansas and elsewhere. We should be screaming. But, crickets.
I will say this of the GOP, they are simply too stupid to know they are wrong; and we as a people are too weak to stand up to their bullying.
Not sure about the āHopeā part; but unless we embrace āChangeā we are done as a country, as a democracy.
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Yeppers. That ship may have already sailed, actually.
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āPartisanā court-bashing should read āRepublicanā court-bashing. The mediaās genteel mincing of words is half the problem.
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Keep in mind that these are the guys that always rant about coequal branches of government. Until it goes against them. Really, it is strange to me that this would even work. If they passed a law that did something to the courts, couldnāt the state supreme court just strike it down?
The Wisconsin one switched power on the court so that would not occur but the other ones it seems that the court could just block it. The stuff in Wisconsin has surprised me really. I am not sure how a state like that suddenly elects a ton of conservative nuts.
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In North Carolina, Court of Appeals judges are also elected. And yet, somehow, which Iām sure has nothing to do with the fact that more Democrats than Republicans are up for reelection this year on the Court of Appeals races, the General Assembly didnāt see the need to extend its new election law to them. Also of note is that the constitutionality of that law under the state constitution is rather dubious, given that the state constitution uses the exact same words to describe judicial and gubenatorial elections. If retention elections are constitutional for judges, thereās no reason they wouldnāt be for governor. A thing that Iām sure Gov. Goodgrin wishes he could do.
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This is why the Democrats need to resurrect Dr. Deanās 50 State Strategy. Republicans MUST be contested at every election for every office no matter how small. Dean knew this. Obama abandoned it. Hillary and Bernie mustnāt make the same mistake.
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Thank you! Todayās Democrats and others may verbally express their disdain, dislike or outrage for certain decisions or even justices, but itās ALWAYS the Republicans (again current Republicans) who are scheming to take over the judiciary. The current GOP court power grabs started when the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality based upon the state constitutionās broad equality clauses. Hell, even after that stateās extremists successfully routed several of the high courtās justices to vote in the affirmative on marriage equality, even some of the new justices that replaced the old ones voted to affirm equality (in a newer marriage equality case) ā based on their constitution!
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This is blowback from Bush v Gore, Citizens United and Hobby Lobby. Courts no longer are considered non-partisan. A lot of the judges are just as bad as the legislators and governors.
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Iām sure most of these folks who have instigated and supported this judicial power grab were apoplectic when Hugo Chavez did essentially the same thing to the courts.
A lot of Koch money, and a heavily-funded offyear takeover of the legislature in 2010 just in time for the decennial redistricting. Thereās nothing organic about it.
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In Kansas, the legislature will simply defund the court as they are doing now.
Looks like even TPM is mirroring the approach of media outlets like CNN to blindly try to demonstrate non-bias. Hereās a couple suggestions for all news outletsā¦
- If 100% of a single party is taking these actions, then the word āpartisanā is inaccurate.
- If both parties are doing a thing, but the vehemence with which party A is doing it versus party B is akin to scolding a dog versus shooting a dog 20 times and then setting it on fireā¦ there are NOT you equal you blithering idiots.
The problem with Deanās 50 state strategy was one of opportunity cost. Money spent engaging in party building in utterly, completely unwinnable states like most of the deep South, is money that canāt be used winning winnable races. By the same token, Rahm Emmanuelās āspend money only on winnable races this cycle and donāt āwasteā it on long term projects like party building in states where demographic change favors Democrats or on state and local racesā was, not surprisingly, a short term winner and a long term disaster that laid the groundwork for 2010.
The key date right now is 2020. Democrats need to look, right now, at states Republicans flipped in 2010 because of our silly preoccupation with trying to keep the entire world from going up in flames or down the tubes against Republican dead-ender opposition and states that have changed from majority R to competitive or majority D and target the crap out of them.
They can do that, but it is not like that will have no ramifications on anything.
reminded of their duty
Treason post-its?
Biting the decisions that feed their SuperPACsā¦
dumbasses.