those statistics are already gamed for political reasons—if they could literally get the ruling party extra votes, any relation to reality would quickly go out the window 
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I’m just hoping this spurs the other complacent Third-Way bumblers in the DNC and the state parties to finally wake the heck up and treat this issue with the urgency they haven’t for the past seven years. They wouldn’t listen when progressives in and out of the party said it, they wouldn’t listen when New Deal liberal Dems said it, but maybe – with only a couple of weeks to go until the midterms and only a couple of years to the next Presidential election – they’ll listen to one of their own.
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@chenille @DukeTrout @danimagoo
Thank you all, I appreciate the perspective.
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In my opinion, no, there isn’t. Maybe there was in 1789. Even in 1865. Life in New York presented different challenges than life in Kansas in 1865. But, as someone else said, it’s 2022. With online commerce, education, and work, the challenges people face in New York and Alaska are similar. And the only real differences have largely been created by politics rather than substantive differences between the two places. The rights I have as an American should not depend on what state within this country I choose to live. If a state wants to conduct its elections slightly differently (ranked choice vs. first past the post vs. whatever), fine. That doesn’t directly affect my fundamental rights. But whether or not I, as a trans woman, can use the restroom I need to use or marry the person I love should in no fucking way at all depend on what state I live in. That’s bullshit. Same goes for people who need or want an abortion. It’s 2022, for God’s sake. We sorted that one out in 1973. Fuck states rights. Are we one nation or not?
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Are we one nation or not?
At the moment, the answer seems to be “not”, which is kind of the problem. But I absolutely agree with you.
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The “laboratories of democracy” now resemble that of Dr. Frankenstein thanks to half a century of conservative corruption. Even in relatively sane states like California bad laws can come into being through the broken ballot proposition system. See the lasting and on-going damage done to public K-12 schools there by 1978’s Prop 13, and the near-disaster of 2008’s Prop H8).
This. Especially when it comes to human rights.
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That’s the thing, though. If we set aside the loud, obnoxious, tiny minority of assholes, we are definitley one nation; probably more than ever before. But the powerful few use that obnoxious bigot block to pummel our democracy into submission.
That doesn’t mean we always agree, but at least we agree on the process of decision-making; and that’s what we’re fighting for; what’s under threat.
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I don’t doubt it. Unlike a politician, though, the SC would eventually have to produce an opinion setting forth its reasoning. Those opinions tend to be silent on the authors’ agenda, and at least pretend to rely on logic. Where there is an agenda, the logic can be impossible to reconcile with established precedent. Here, it would be even more ridiculous given the court would be at odds with its own precedent rather than a previous court’s.
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Never mind. No point.
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Federal law overrides state law. So all the pros you list are things that could be achieved at the federal level. Marijuana still isn’t technically legal, the feds are just leaving people in states that have legalized it alone. But they make it incredibly difficult to actually run a legit marijuana business through banking regulations.
Today, we mostly see state’s rights used arbitrarily when it promotes racist, misogynistic, and bigoted policies (cf. “the federal government can’t regulate state election maps!” while also overriding state election decisions). It’s a cudgel used to beat back progressive policies when convenient.
Removing most of these decisions to the federal level would likely create a more consistent set of rules. (Not necessarily better but that’s a different fight. But it would place that fight in a more predictable venue with fewer random distractions thrown in.)
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That definition of Leninism that Bannon used is so idiotic that I want to defend Lenin whenever I see or hear it. It’s no surprise they ended up devotees of Qanon.
I can use the same anti-logic to argue that Kim Jong-un is a libertarian. It doesn’t make it true.
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As opposed to a Senate that gives disproportionate veto power to low population, poor states which are also the ones with the most regressive political ideas? Literally a citizen of Wyoming has many times the representation than a citizen of California.
I’d imagine if we had a progressive majority representation in the Senate that cannabis would’ve been legalized already back in the 1970s.
Taken in a vacuum this observation is true. But once again without the thorn of States’ Rights in our side to begin with, the far right Overton Window shift over the past 50 years would’ve been deeply curtailed and mitigated. Progressive coastal population centers would set the political tone. People would still have representation, but not the kind of disproportionate kind we see with Senatorial power.
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Agreed that’s crap, but is the cure for a lack of representation based on population to represent based on population?
ETA: I can see “representation in proportion to GDP” being one logical, dystopian end result of the thinking that led to Citizens United. But that doesn’t make it sound any better.
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I mean republicans have literally said that they can’t win without cheating. They blatantly and obviously stack the deck so they can win. They have spent decades building the infrastructure needed to ensure what they do is above board (even if this means having a corrupt puppet judiciary). They cynically go into politics and then weaponize the very governments they claim to serve against their constituents. They make no secret about any of this. And yet somehow people keep voting for them.
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I mean, they COULD look at their policies, see what doesn’t work, and rework them to attract voters… but it’s apparently easier just to try and cheat and then if that doesn’t work, overthrow the government the people do elect.
Hate is a hell of a powerful tool.
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