A Contrary View

Democrats couldn't pass health care.  And they think they can change the Constitution???

Guest Post comment by Thad Guyer

"Earth to Salem Massachusetts"

It is fun reading a well reasoned post from a Democratic committeeman in deep blue Massachusetts warning us that the sky is falling. It is reverberations from inside a blue bubble reflecting contemporary Democratic dissatisfaction with the foundational rules of the Republic. It engenders our sore loser orientation not just that the rules must be changed in our favor, but that failing to do so threatens democracy itself. Always we cry that democracy is crumbling. This is the cost.

Our party is the majority of the electorate, hence the Senate is supposed to protect Republicans from us. This is the constitution's explicit design both with the electoral college and with the Senate to protect the Republic from the popular will. That is our democracy. The founders decisively decided they did not want "one-man one-vote" direct popular election for any of the three branches of government. It cannot be changed statutorily or by Senate rules, but only by constitutional amendment. 

It is also fun reading Profession Kessler's piece because it is so fringe and fanciful, i.e. the hallmark of our blue punditry. It is as though Democratic insiders cannot remember the first term of the Obama presidency in which our party controlled the White House, the Senate and the House. As Mark Twain or Will Rogers quipped (we can't even agree who said it first), "I am not a member of any organized party I am a Democrat". Democrats have a storied history of not sticking together and of infighting. Because our range of constituencies is so broad, and because holding onto election wins is imperative, Democrats never have and never will muster the required unity to pack the Supreme Court much less create "new states" (LOL). 

We are a party that could barely get anything passed on Obamacare.  We had to threaten and coerce enough yes votes, we denounced moderate and conservative Democratic senators and House members as traitors because they would not support the grand design of Obamacare. Only a flawed and insurance company controlled Obamacare survived that was easily picked apart by the judiciary and GOP governors and state legislatures. Thereafter nothing could pass, DACA could not even be brought to the floor as Hispanics decried Obama and Biden as"Deporter in Chief". Our moderate and conservative lawmakers were wiped out in the 2014 mid term elections in the House, and Obama effectively served six more years as a lame duck. 

Harry Reid in desperation barely got Senate rules changed to eliminate the filibuster for lower court judges, and paved the way for the GOP to install three Supreme Court justices by extending Reid's rule to the high court. But only legislation can increase the number of justices for us to pack, and no leader in the House or Senate thinks the votes will be there for that during Biden's single term in office.

In reaction to Obama, our best female democratic standard bearer, former senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton lost to a reality show huckster named Donald J Trump. Yes, when Democrats field our grand visions, the electorate gets scared. Repeat it to yourself-- Donald J Trump is the president in reaction to, if not in spite of, what Democrats historically do to each other.

While I am enthusiastic about Trump being ejected, the profound lack of unity and support for Joe Biden within our party guarantees that his win will be met by political chaos, media spectacle and vicious democratic infighting over the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, economic stimulus, infrastructure and racial equality legislation. Barack Obama explained that historically, a first term president can get one big thing passed and only one if he controls Congress. That takes two years and then comes the midterms. 

I hate to burst your bubble Professor Kessler, but neither Joe Biden nor the Democratic center is going to waste that first two years with the dream agenda of the grand systemic reform that you hope for. 

Back here on earth fundamental reform of the levers of government will not be on the agenda. Environmental, healthcare and economic bread and butter legislation will.