A political scientist argues that the Democratic Party must play "procedural hardball" too: The Republicans aren’t engaged in a policy fight. instead, they’re waging a “procedural war.”
There's been a lot of discussion about different ways of "sticking it to the other team" recently. From cutting people whose views one objects to, to essentially picketing politicians. Here's a...
There's been a lot of discussion about different ways of "sticking it to the other team" recently. From cutting people whose views one objects to, to essentially picketing politicians.
Here's a different "dirty" take: David Faris of Roosevelt University.
[He] argues that the Democratic Party must recognize that Republicans aren’t engaged in a policy fight; instead, they’re waging a “procedural war.”
What he means is that Republicans have spent the past two decades exploiting the vagueness of the Constitution to create structural advantages for their side — passing discriminatory voter ID laws, using the census to gerrymander districts, blocking Democratic Supreme Court nominees, and so on.
Some of Faris' proposed solutions:
Split California into 7 sates when there's a democratic governor in the state and congressional majority. Grant Puerto Rico and Washington DC statehood, and you're essentially flipping congress.
Stuff the Supreme court with more judges (Nowhere does it say we're supposed to have nine)
I'm not saying I agree with these things, but it's a different, and interesting perspective. A lot of people (not sure if it's just democrats) feel the current system strongly favors Republicans irrespective of election results.
Is that the case? How could it/has it happened? Should something be done, if so what?
Simply looking at the current state of affairs and the tactics that have been used by the Republicans, especially during Obama's tenure, I'd argue that the this country's governance has failed in...
Simply looking at the current state of affairs and the tactics that have been used by the Republicans, especially during Obama's tenure, I'd argue that the this country's governance has failed in a fundamental way.
Honest question: Has our economy really been great? I consistently hear nothing but doom and gloom from pretty much every source, and person. As I understood it, America's failing economy for the...
Honest question: Has our economy really been great? I consistently hear nothing but doom and gloom from pretty much every source, and person. As I understood it, America's failing economy for the past however many years has ascended to memehood. Dank memehood.
Depends on how rich you are. When you look at metrics like growth, unemployment, and the stock market, things are going swimmingly, especially compared to ten years ago. So naturally, if you own...
Depends on how rich you are. When you look at metrics like growth, unemployment, and the stock market, things are going swimmingly, especially compared to ten years ago. So naturally, if you own significant stock, you're probably doing well enough. But if you're part of the 90% of Americans who own less than 15% of the stocks in the country, the picture is less rosy. The unemployment numbers don't say anything about the issues of rampant underemployment (particularly in low-wage jobs) or a labor force participation rate that's the lowest it's been in 40 years and still falling. Inflation-adjusted incomes for all but the top 10% are still totally stagnant, as they have been since the 80's. Federal minimum wage hasn't been raised in almost ten years, it won't be raised under the Republicans, and the last raise wasn't exactly radical. Meanwhile the costs of things like health care are shooting up again at rates far exceeding inflation.
There's been a lot of discussion about different ways of "sticking it to the other team" recently. From cutting people whose views one objects to, to essentially picketing politicians.
Here's a different "dirty" take: David Faris of Roosevelt University.
Some of Faris' proposed solutions:
Split California into 7 sates when there's a democratic governor in the state and congressional majority. Grant Puerto Rico and Washington DC statehood, and you're essentially flipping congress.
Stuff the Supreme court with more judges (Nowhere does it say we're supposed to have nine)
I'm not saying I agree with these things, but it's a different, and interesting perspective. A lot of people (not sure if it's just democrats) feel the current system strongly favors Republicans irrespective of election results.
Is that the case? How could it/has it happened? Should something be done, if so what?
Simply looking at the current state of affairs and the tactics that have been used by the Republicans, especially during Obama's tenure, I'd argue that the this country's governance has failed in a fundamental way.
Honest question: Has our economy really been great? I consistently hear nothing but doom and gloom from pretty much every source, and person. As I understood it, America's failing economy for the past however many years has ascended to memehood. Dank memehood.
Depends on how rich you are. When you look at metrics like growth, unemployment, and the stock market, things are going swimmingly, especially compared to ten years ago. So naturally, if you own significant stock, you're probably doing well enough. But if you're part of the 90% of Americans who own less than 15% of the stocks in the country, the picture is less rosy. The unemployment numbers don't say anything about the issues of rampant underemployment (particularly in low-wage jobs) or a labor force participation rate that's the lowest it's been in 40 years and still falling. Inflation-adjusted incomes for all but the top 10% are still totally stagnant, as they have been since the 80's. Federal minimum wage hasn't been raised in almost ten years, it won't be raised under the Republicans, and the last raise wasn't exactly radical. Meanwhile the costs of things like health care are shooting up again at rates far exceeding inflation.