Democratic strategists and organizers are hoping that if 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris performs well in the November election, there will be a down-ballot effect in gubernatorial, U.S. Senate and U.S. House races. Democrats have a small majority in the Senate, while Republicans have a sing...
This is a consistent problem with Dem “majority” coalitions dating back to the '77 Carter coalition that cracked up while trying to pass a universal health care plan and fossil fuel exit strategy. Clinton’s '93 coalition also splintered due to conservative Democrat infighting. Lieberman famously killed a host of legislation in '09/'10 (although he was mostly a cat’s paw for other conservatives in the House and Senate). And then Manchin/Sinema upended Biden’s reforms in '17, before squandering the House majority the following year.
These failures aren’t accidental. They are the direct result of Democrats saying “We need to vote candidates who are electable” and then getting a bunch of shitty corporate flaks who bought their way through the primaries.
We just watched Cori Bush and Jamal Bowman lose their House seats to AIPAC lobbyists, while Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlahib had to muscle through enormously expensive primaries funded by the same far-right donor groups that favor the Republican Party.
The SCOTUS is a distraction, as they’ve got no real power to enforce their decisions. The real fight is between a liberal federal government and the assorted red state and municipal governments. We’ve seen this proven out with AGs like Ken Paxton and governors like DeSantis who routinely break laws in their quest to pump up the base with high profile acts of cruelty to their minority populations. They’ve discovered its easier to ask forgiveness than permission, and the Biden admin’s response has been to just kinda shrug its way through rather than risk open confrontation.
This is the same shit guys like Pierce and Buchanan did shortly before the federal system collapsed under their feet. But if you’re always trying to triangulate and get the opposition on board, its where your party and your country eventually end up when fascists at the lower levels of government realize they’ve got carte blanche and a partisan mandate to do evil.
This is something I’ve been thinking about more and more.
With our three branches of government, it’s up to the executive to enforce the laws, and by extension, the rulings of the judiciary.
What’s the failsafe mechanism for when the executive doesn’t like a ruling and has no respect of law, or for the system?
What happens after the supreme court says, “Hey President! What you’re doing is unconstitutional and you must stop immediately.”…and the president just goes, “Actually I don’t care what you say. I’m still doing it. Have a wonderful day and go fuck all nine of yourselves.”
This almost happened with Andrew Jackson. He is quoted as saying “now let’s see them enforce it” (or something like that, I don’t feel like looking it up) and he pretty much told the SCOTUS at the time they have no power. Congress has the purse, President has the sword, judiciary has nothing.
His cabinet ended up convincing him that the establishment of the USA depends on him following the orders of the court, and he ended up backing down.