If we take the Senate/Presidency, shouldn't DC/Puerto Rico statehood should be top of the agenda?

[AdamGG]

The Republicans shamelessly stall judicial nominations when there's a Democratic president to stack the courts in their favor. Some people propose expanding the Supreme Court to compensate, but if the Republicans regain control of the Senate/Presidency, they will just retaliate and expand the court further.

I think that a more effective option might be to grant DC/Puerto Rico statehood if Democrats control the government. It wouldn't change the problem with the courts, but it would add 4 Democratic Senate seats that would help prevent future judicial manipulation and it's a legitimate issue. They're US citizens without representation.

Those 4 Senate seats would make it much harder for the Republicans to gain a majority and it would be difficult for them to retaliate. There aren't US territories full of uneducated white people that they could fabricate into new red states.

Wouldn't this be a good thing to try to get done in the 1st two years if we take back the Senate and the Presidency?

[elleng]

1. TOO MANY matters 'SHOULD' be top of the agenda,

we MUST repair the functioning of the GOVERNMENT.

Civil service is being destroyed, and the rule of law is tied for #1.

[Sherman A1]

11. Agreed

It comes down to which top priority is the top priority?

[JI7]

2. Not Really. We need to focus on winning State Governorships and LEgislatures First . It's an issue

for sure but probably not THE TOP considering so many other things that need to be done .

Also a lot of the work at the start will just be building things back up from what Trump destroyed.

[AdamGG]

4. I agree, but my point is that it kind of assures that we keep control fo the Senate

and therefore have more time to work out the other things. It seems like a strategic no brainer to get this done. The only negative I could see is if there's racist blowback from admitting two new states with majorities of brown/black people. But, I think most people would see it as reasonable that American citizens, especially in DC, deserve representation.

And, if we got it done, even if there was blowback, we'd have 4 more Senate seats to compensate for it.

[druidity33]

13. I think there would need to be...

a referendum in PR. Do Puerto Ricans really WANT to be a US State? I know several Puerto Ricans(albeit younger) who would rather maintain their distance, so to speak, from the mainland. DC is of course a no-brainer.

[elevator]

21. Polling has show that Puerto Ricans overwhelmingly favor

statehood.

[druidity33]

25. And yet...

I still think they should be able to vote for it.

[2naSalit]

3. I think it's on the agenda...

The top of the agenda will be dealing with a pandemic, the economy and healthcare. Somewhere in a reasonable time I can see where there will be movement on that issue. They should certainly be made states but it might not be in the first 100 days, and then again it might.

[TlalocW]

5. There is so much that needs to be done

Even without Covid and everything Trump did that put us so far into the shitter.

Just off the top of my head
National infrastructure repairs/upgrades
Protecting elections from foreign interference
Shifting the tax burden back onto the wealthy
Reversing all the environmental damage from Trump initiatives
Let's start some sort of specialized education/job-training program for coal miners because one, there's only 50,000 of them left; two, their jobs are going away, and three, I'm sick of their smug, "Well, my daddy was a coal-miner, and his daddy was a coal-miner..." BS - like that in itself is such a point of pride that it keeps you in a dead-end job that you think deserves praise
Violence Against Women Act reauthorization
The situation at the border
And so much more...

TlalocW

[diane in sf]

6. I think we need to do whatever allows continuous Democratic control of the Senate first.

The Democrats are capable of doing more than one thing at a time and hiring excellent, skilled, and honest people and delegating what needs to be done. But it is going to take a while to fix the damage and move forward. And if the Repugs get the Senate, they will stop and unravel any progress.

One of the first things needed is to pass a national right to vote act with harsh penalties for the various forms of voter suppression, computer fraud, and gerrymandering the Repugs have routinely been practicing. This must happen before the next round of elections in two years. The last legitimately elected Republican President was Bush, Sr. We may also need to end the filibuster to stop a minority Republican Party from monkey-wrenching whatever we want to do.

The other is to make the House of Representatives larger and properly apportioned. The Senate is non-representative enough with two Senators for every state, no matter how sparsely populated, but the House is meant to be fairly proportioned and needs to be updated to reflect where people actually live. Admitting Puerto Rico, Guam, and D.C. as states would also help make things more fair in the Senate. We’re headed to a vile condition where under-educated, conservative old white men in red states who are badly brainwashed by a media diet of conservative am radio, fox, and evangelical churches are vastly over-represented in Congress. We need to make sure these yobs are represented only proportionally, not over-represented.

If we take care of these structural issues, we could all enjoy a much better, more socialized standard of living. Something more like Canada or Northern Europe.

[trueblue2007]

7. I AGREE WITH THE OP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jmowreader]

8. Does Puerto Rico even want to be a state?

Right now, Puerto Rican residents don't pay federal income tax...which they would if they were a state.

Also, I think the GOP would be recalcitrant to sign off on PR/DC statehood unless they could find two GOP-heavy states (say, split Idaho and Kansas into two states) to admit, which would restore the balance of power in the Senate.

[diane in sf]

10. First, there is a huge imbalance in the Senate favouring Repugs. If they are a minority and we dump

the filibuster, they will just have to lump it. They have way too much power now proportionate to the actual population that supports their platform.

[jmowreader]

24. I know that.

Unfortunately I don’t see a way out of it. Anything we do requires either some GOP cooperation (adding 2 states) or a shitload of it (amending the Constitution to add senators).

[pnwmom]

9. Puerto Rico has a statehood referendum on the ballot.

So we could wait and see what they say.

[Wanderlust988]

12. The filibuster has to be FIRST or nothing gets done...period

If we don't get rid of the filibuster, there will not be 60 votes for ANYTHING Biden wants.

Now, should we get rid of the filibuster, statehood for DC and PR has to be #2 because if we don't get some more Democratic seantors, Manchin and Sinema will hold up everything...unless we run the tables in November. We need about 53-55 Democratic senators to allow for no-voters like Manchin, Sinema, and maybe rookie southern senators.

[Celerity]

14. Even ending the filibuster is going to be hard, there are at least 5 Dems who are completely against

it, and that is not even counting new ones like Hickenlooper, etc., who might also be against its downfall.

Expansion of the SCOTUS is an even longer shot. Around 11 to 12 Dems (counting some new ones) are against that atm.

I have posted on both these things (with lists and links) often on here. It is laborious to always bring the complete package.

here is the anti expand the SCOTUS list

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=14265188

[uponit7771]

19. This sucks, republicans have SHOWN by word and deed they're not longer interested in a liberal ...

... democracy where there's one person one vote and every eligible person should be included.

The current republican party needs to be started over again or start with a whole new opposition party that's interested in liberal democracy and not just saying the words of it.

[Celerity]

20. Biden and Schumer are going to have to sink the boot into many institutionalists

a lot depend on how large our majority is.

52, 51, and 50 seats are never going to cut it. Manchin, Sinema, and Feinstein are no, no, no's, and there are other ones who have said no as well, at least partially. Tester, Coons (Biden can change his mind), Warner, Murphy and some others, including some of the new ones, if they get elected.

I am trying (and have done a decent job) to stay focused on the elections, and simply getting Rump out is MASSIVE, but barely squeaking the Senate back by say 51-49 is going to end in crazy frustration I fear on many things. 51-49, even with no filibuster will never get the public passed for one. Same too for even a sort of large environment plan (forget the GD, it is never going to happen with these Senators) Same for student loan forgiveness other than maybe a token sum like 5K or 10K USD. I do think that we can get a 15 USD per hour minimum wage though, BUT (and this applies to everything) a 6-3 radical RW SCOTUS may start striking everything Democratic down (and have zero qualms about logic, overreach, and stare decisis whilst at it.)

Also, IF the filibuster ends up staying, and is down so becuase of centrists like Manchin, and Sinema, etc, then the 'most left centre left' and further left on down to the progressive wing in both the House and the Senate are going to go BONKERS, and so will many PoC House Members as well, especially when it come to civil rights laws that will then be blocked. It may likely be a shitshow.

IF we do not take back the Senate, but win POTUS and hold the House, then Biden is going to have to do Olympian-level heavy lifting with executive orders, as none of his major bills will get through the Senate. Moscow Mitch will be out to destroy him from day one. The hatred is going to reach new levels I fear, and the RW populace out on the fruited plain will also go into full rebellion mode. They will be insanely hard to control with COVID-related things especially, but will try to slash and burn any Democratic pushed laws and initiatives. The union, especially now with a 6-3 hard RW SCOTUS, is going to become unglued I fear, far more than it already has now. Toss on the human Swan Vesta in the form of a psychotic, defeated Trump with a new media network of seditious projections, and its a conflagration waiting to happen.

[uponit7771]

17. +1

[dawg day]

15. Absolutely first.

it is only fair.

[uponit7771]

16. YES !!!

[WhiteTara]

18. As I understand it, the Constitution prevents

DC from Statehood.
Maybe we could sub in VI for DC?

[former9thward]

22. Why do you think PR wants to become a state?

They would have to start paying federal income taxes. They don't want that. Instead, let's set them free. Why not?

[SlogginThroughIt]

23. Well we had better start running a ground game in PR

You KNOW there is going to be money spent to put propaganda in place against it.