Um, exactly how will a Republican majority Senate do that with no House support? Likewise, a Supreme court could, but only if they get someone with standing to start a case and move it through the system. A system the new Justice Department can slow drag. It’s not like they’ll be able to just impeach on a whim.
I cannot be the only person to have thought of this. Assuming Biden wins, the last four years should be a roadmap of how to get things done. It will be terrible and devastating to the system, but it’s the only way. If it’s not done and the Republicans win the next time, they’ll do it anyway. If they keep the senate again, there will be no stopping them either.
The answer is to just do it. A massive expansion of executive power.
It’s what the Republicans will do next time. Assuming Biden wins, it needs to be done now. At which point, the House and Senate need to pass bills to reign it in with actual enforcement methods and real equal branches of government. And, here’s the trap, those same bills should include the things we want done, done in the proper manner not just through questionable expansion of executive power.
That will leave the a Republican majority Senate with two choices. They can continue be the party of “no” and just block everything. Which will include blocking reigning in executive power doing things they don’t like. Or, they can compromise to pass bills that both constrain executive power, create real checks, and do some smaller things they don’t like. It has to be the only way to constrain back the policies.
It’s going to hurt. It’s going to go against every Democrat’s thoughts on how government should work, but clearly doesn’t. The policies are going to have to be so far left to allow compromise back to what’s really wanted. There can be no starting at the perceived middle and then compromising from that as happens to often today or used to in the past.
It has to make being the party of “no” worse than the compromise.
What a shame Asheville area can’t elect anyone other than Tea Party types (Mark Meadows) or neo-nazis (Madison Cawthorn) to represent them in Congress.
Assuming Biden wins, the last four years should be a roadmap of how to get things done.
The last four years, the President’s party had a Senate majority. The odds of a Democratic Senate are dwindling (we’re pretty much down to “win both Georgia runoffs” at this point).
What Biden can do is reverse Trump’s executive orders and drop various lawsuits. How far he’s going to be able to get on nominations is very much an open question, but at least Trump’s cabinet will be gone and the Federalist Society-to-court firehose will be shut off.
But that’s about it. I didn’t have much hope that he’d get much done with a Democratic senate. With Majority Leader McConnell, whatever slim hope I had is pretty much gone. Biden’s still an improvement over Trump, but there’s only so much he can do with only one branch of government.
He just got out of the hospital for covid like what, 2 years ago? Or was that 2 weeks ago? hard to keep track. But he had a bad case of covid that required tons and tons of drugs and experimental treatments (and who knows what else during that quiet couple of days that we did not hear a peep out of him). Everything I’ve read about covid indicates that people with bad cases have long-term damage caused by it.
That’s the point of the rest of the post. With a Democratic Senate, things could be done the way we think they should be done. The message of the last four years was that norms mean nothing.
Set higher sites. Not just reverse Trump’s executive orders, create new ones. Vast, expansive, extensions, everything ever on the wish list. Just do it.
Federal judges is an issue. But, he doesn’t need to ever get any nomination approved where an acting one can fill the role. Just ignore that it’s supposed to be time limited. That’s the lesson, there is no enforcement of this. Just do it.
The lesson from the last four years is to just executive order whatever you want. Want to reduce a defense budget to pay for DACA applicants to take civics classes and take citizenship classes? Just do it.
Just like a Democratic party that didn’t control both the Senate and House couldn’t reign in Trump’s executive orders and couldn’t enforce acting rules, a Republican party that only controls the Senate cannot do anything either.
The Democratic Senate minority and House majority can offer to reign in, control, and create enforcement mechanisms to stop the executive overreach as compromises to get the things they want through the Senate majority.
If we’ve haven’t learned the last four years that norms have no force of control and provide no restriction on action, we’re doomed. The rules are clear, if it’s not written or not enforceable it’s possible.
To quote myself:
Yet, it will be the only way. And, it’s what the next Republican president will do.
This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder if voting should require a short “critical thinking” test. Just being able to identify when statements are logically inconsistent, even if you agree with both. Could just take it out of the SAT, you’re filling in bubbles anyway.
It’s voting restriction, so very likely a bad idea, but still…
I think it’s simpler. What Biden can do is pull the right resources (national and international) together to end the pandemic. The House funds it, the Senate approves or they look like unelectable assholes for withholding, and we get Covid behind us. That really is job #1. The only job, right now.
