A new Democratic majority on the state Supreme Court could give Democrats more muscle in drawing legislative districts, and Democrats could get even more say in drawing congressional districts if Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf wins a second term in 2018. “It’s just a great, great protection for the minority”.
Advertisement
He’s not alone in that opinion. Lindsey Graham of SC echoed the same thoughts on Tuesday, telling reporters that getting rid of it would be “a awful, terrible idea” and that he’d vote against any effort to do so “in a heartbeat”.
When the Republicans found themselves with minorities in both houses of Congress and a Democrat in the White House after the 2008 elections, they were anything but defeated and November 8’s results clearly show that political fortunes can be reversed. For another, each of those defeated candidates ended up running ahead of Trump in their states. Trump pulled off what many described as a stunning upset by winning numerous toss-up states, including several in the Great Lakes region that had voted for Democratic candidates in the past.
Amidst growing protests of young people against the election of Donald Trump, including high school walkouts throughout the country, leading Democrats are doubling down on their pledge to work closely with the president-elect once he assumes office in January. If the Senate confirms Garland, the seat is filled. They triggered the nuclear option which – over the objections of Republicans – lowered the threshold to overcome a filibuster from 60 to 51 votes. They were only tens of thousands of votes apart in MI. At the very least, we can be grateful to Trump for being perhaps the one presidential candidate in modern times to offer a glimmer of hope to so many disparate factions. Their attempt to nuke the filibuster will fail outright. “I will track your every move, and I will remind Americans, every day, of the actions you take that fail them”. McCain has criticized Trump’s remarks on torture. But from a group including Graham, Jeff Flake (Arizona), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia), Lamar Alexander (Tennessee), Bob Corker (Tennessee), John McCain (Arizona), Johnny Isakson (Georgia) and Ben Sasse (Nebraska), among others, there should be sufficient numbers to provide a check and balance against authoritarian and divisive rule. Donald Trump is going to be our president.
Trump’s election has renewed efforts at the Massachusetts Statehouse to pass legislation that would bar local law enforcement officers from detaining suspects for possible deportation unless they were charged with serious or violent crimes.
The statements from leading Democrats follow Obama’s press conference on Monday, when the outgoing president praised his “cordial” relationship with Trump and insisted that Americans must “reconcile themselves” to a Trump presidency.
After Garland gets his vote, Democrats should let other Trump nominees get a full hearing, too.
Nearly a third – 28 percent – of respondents said they expected Trump to become one of the best presidents in USA history.
Here’s Mitch the Knife in July 2013, a few months before Reid and the Democrats ended the filibuster for non-SCOTUS nominees, warning that a majority leader who takes the minority’s power away will have as his epitaph that he ended the Senate as we know it.
The opposition by Hatch and Graham is more than merely symbolic. The Democratic Party went insane for issues that appeal to the new Democratic base: campus leftists, affluent cosmopolitan whites and racial minorities. Instead, white liberals and progressives, we’ve got to grapple with the reality that we lost this election largely due to white privilege. “Just count on it.”…
It was Democrats who found that inconvenient in 2013, creating an exception for executive and judicial branch nominations apart from the Supreme Court. Some voiced strong reservations but said they would vote for him anyway, which amounted to an endorsement. And I quite frankly expect the same constitutional courtesy to this president. If you disagree with me, I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can do all the things the nominating process is about.
Advertisement
It was Bill Clinton, who after three Republican terms in office which had seen growing influence of the market mechanism, also made the Democratic Party a proponent of similar principles.
