Blow up the filibuster.
Pass a cleaned up Court proof ACA fix.
Begin process of statehood for DC, PR, VI.
Re-write Voting Rights Act with federal requirement for
universal citizen access.
Raise Minimum Wage.
Add 250 judges to Circuit and Appellate Courts.
Across the board Agency Reform to restore
clean air, ground, water, workers safety and
rights, food safety and access.
Restore LGBT access to military.
Codify Roe v Wade.
A good start.
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I didn’t know that. Thanks
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What about eliminating the electoral college by forcing states to follow the national popular vote? Sort of like what was done in the 80’s to force states to raise the drinking age by threatening loss of highway funding.
Of course, it would end up in the Supreme Court but Dole vs. South Dakota at least provides a road map.
I would love that, but I very much doubt we’ll soon see the political will to legalize hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. Not because it’s a bad idea but because the ads write themselves and they would be particularly brutal.
Every item you listed is wonderful, but the future and all the rest should begin with this one. We cannot continue with one party attempting to pick and choose the other side’s voters.
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I agree with your meaning behind this statement, but to clarify, I’m not asking the Feds to legalize anything, just to relegate the regulation of drugs back to the states like alcohol. Though still a steep hill to climb, I think the “states rights” argument is more politically palatable then the “legalize it” argument in the context of this discussion.
I don’t believe we can address the racial issues of our current policing state if we don’t address the war on drugs though. The DEA should probably be relegated to the dustbin of history along with the Dept of Homeland Security and ICE for us to truly move forward.
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Yes, in the future it must be understood and laws need to be put in place that the president is not above the law. It’s for sure we can no longer trust nuance and tradition to guide the president. We must prevent another travesty like we’ve been experience in the last four years. We need to fix it but there will be no more Donald Trump‘s/types in the presidency.
We need to put term limits on supreme court justices, it is not fair for others to suffer A lifetime because a judge could stay is it on the Supreme Court for a lifetime it’s wrong. And we need to add at least three more judges because we’ve been robbed.
Congress needs to have their identity reinstated Innoway they can manage a check and balance system.
Things are broken they need to be fixed in such a way that the people Americans can once again trust in the government to do right for those who paid their wages.
Term limits on the Congress and on the Senate there’s term limits on the presidency and the other two branches needed as well. No more career politicians getting rich on the taxpayers back.
Big money must be removed from politics and stronger laws to prevent Outside influences to write our legislation.
Whistle blowers must be protected more vigorously to prevent the overage of this president and how we can arrest people out of their careers.
Our sign scientists need to be moved back to Washington DC And never again Cana president or a director demand people move without the approval of Congress.
Nice, but I am sick of NateSilver’s navel gazing. This isn’t 2016. The only way Trump wins is if he cheats and then it will be obvious to all and there will be marching in the streets.
As per the Portuguese model, it’s not legalization, it’s decriminalization. And the reason why, unlike Portugal, we’d ruin it, is because we have such a terrible track record with our health systems; Americans are just too immature and self-centered.
It’s still possible to have your case handled in criminal courts in Portugal, but you have to be a hard core serial offender, stealing or robbing to get your fix, etc. Sharing needles and shooting up in plain view are also verboten. Before that, there are layers of help and counseling and rehabilitation you have to shrug off. Only after you are judged incorrigible do you face the possibility of jail time, and you are given a lot of rope.
To help facilitate all the above, the State allowed for free no questions asked needle exchange, and mental and physical health care and rehabilitation. Public restrooms are equipped with needle drop boxes, and special blue lights that make it hard to see your veins.
This is what it takes to combat the issue; it requires adult thinking and planning, and a mature constituency willing to help their fellow citizens without and personal reward or political gamesmanship attached. Here in the US we can’t even agree on pandemic face masks without politics getting in the way.
You and I would not call it legalization, but I can guarantee Republicans would and that’s exactly how any vote to decriminalize all drugs at the federal level would be cast as. There would be ads across the country that go something like “Sen. (insert name) voted to legalize heroin and my son/daughter died of a heroin overdose. Sen. (insert name) killed my son/daughter!”
You said it all! I didn’t read your post before I wrote my response to the other poster above, yet we’re basically talking about the same immaturity and political gamesmanship. I would love to implement all the things you describe and truly treat the disease of addiction as the disease it is. The U.S. just isn’t mature enough, neither our citizens nor our politics are. We are the same dumbass country that not only elected Trump, but made a multiple day story over the fact that the prior president wore a tan suit once.
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This is a terrible idea. Part of the issue debilitating the house is the GOP has term limits on all of their committee chairs. As such there is no incentive for an elected pol to learn and become an expert on any one particular subject within their conference. Since they don’t learn the details they lean on lobbyists until their time in the hot seat is over and they move on. It’s why their conference rewards politics above all else.
Term limits on the presidency is a direct result of FDRs success, the GOP couldn’t abide loosing elections. We should encourage the professionalism of politics, all terms limits do is ensure we have a continuous stream of people with no incentive to learn the job they’ve been elected for. Voting is the solution to bad politicians.
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When Democrats won the White House and Congress in 2009, they embraced Cold War relics: the filibuster, the reluctance to add states, the abhorrence of constitutional amendments, the importance of moving slowly on judicial appointments
The filibuster allows Democrats to take public stances on issues the corporate sponsors won’t like without having to actually vote on those issues. Constitutional amendments are probably a no-go given the requirements and the number of insane red states that would need to be involved. I assumed it was GOP interference with judicial appointments, but if not its just the same pro-lobbyist shell game as the filibuster.
That’s more Trump than anything else. I can’t imagine even W Bush being such a failure on COVID.
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One of Harry Reid’s favorite words was “comity”. It’s a pleasant word, and concept, if good people with mature, logical and fair minded ideas are discussing outcomes. But when #moscowmitch is on the other side of the table, and relentlessly shoving comity where the opposing side’s sun don’t shine, then reality should be acknowledged, and comity should be, (and should have been), set aside to play the game in a much more serious and results oriented fashion. The r’s have doggedly, and malevolently pursued and protected their agenda. The Dem’s, not so much. There are rules, tools and personalities available, which could, and really must be, utilized far more effectively. Dem’s have amazingly powerful and attractive stuff to run on, and protect. It’s way past time to quit being intimidated in the political halls of power, and kick some ass for a change.
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Thanks, I was too lazy to look it up.
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Yes, my question was answered above. Article IV of the Constitution…and not going to happen. When has a political body ever voluntarily given up its power?
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One Dakota isn’t possible without the concurrence of both Dakotas’ legislatures, which won’t happen.
I don’t think splitting California would be a good move. Republicans would demand breaking up Texas and Florida, gerrymandered into a bunch of impregnably red states,
Democrats should strive to create five new states: DC, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam/North Marianas. Liquidate the last vestiges of American colonialism and end the shameful disfranchisement of the people of our Nation’s Capital. And stick it to the Republicans if they think that the VI, Samoa, and Guam/Marianas are smaller in population than even Wyoming. So what? We can do it. So do it.
Just do it once we have the power to do it. Yacking about it before the election will do no good and probably some harm, scaring the fainthearted and the finger-wagging pundits.
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No way to end the Electoral College except by amending the Constitution, and the small states have the power to block such an amendment. Better, I think, to add more states that can add to the Democratic column. So what if some of them (VI, American Samoa, Guam/North Marianas) have populations less than Wyoming’s?
Some of the changes folks have written are State and not
Federal issues: Electoral College requires Constitutional amendment
Decriminalizing drugs on Federal level would have little impact.
Dividing a state, amendment.
Dems tend to vastly overvalue manners, decorum, propriety and custom, over getting good shit done. Maybe it’s my background and nature, but I think that’s all bullshit. Manners are for when you’re either in a position of great strength and can afford to be nice, or when you’re in a position of great weakness and can’t afford not to be nice. Dems are in neither position right now. The mandate they’re likely to receive next year comes with a countdown clock that gives them only so much time to get things done, and wasting any of it on manners and decorum would be suicidal. They have to focus on what needs to be done and to hell with being liked. They’ll be liked enough when the reforms they put in benefit most Americans for decades to come. Politics isn’t about being liked. It’s about getting shit done. Period.
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