Republicans have seen the enemy: Democracy

[dajoki]

Republicans have seen the enemy: Democracy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/13/republicans-have-seen-enemy-democracy/

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But Republicans see another threat, that a future Congress and president — perhaps even next year — might add more justices to the Supreme Court. Many liberals support this idea, not only because Republicans reduced the number to eight in 2016 and then increased it back to nine once President Trump took office, but also because the highly ideological conservative supermajority Barrett will solidify has been assembled even though Democrats won more votes in six of the past seven presidential elections.

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But there’s something more important going on than mere hypocrisy. Right now the bulwarks of Republican minority rule are under profound threat. This election they could lose both the presidency they won despite losing the popular vote, and the Senate which they control despite the fact that millions more Americans voted to be represented there by Democrats. Should that happen, the Supreme Court will be all they have left at the federal level.

Their minority rule has never been in more peril than it is right now.

And they’re counting on that Supreme Court to issue rulings that make it possible for them to retake power despite their minority status, by solidifying partisan gerrymandering, validating voter suppression and inhibiting the government’s ability to protect voting rights — and strike down laws passed by Democrats.

It’s all on the line for Republicans. Which is why they’re so freaked out about the idea of Democrats expanding the court.

Republicans know that they have a real advantage in that debate, which is that the elite media hold Democrats to a very different standard. Journalists simply accept that Republicans are shameless and ruthless — that they will trample any norm and break any tradition if it gives them an advantage — as the way things are.

On the other hand, when Democrats even contemplate playing hardball, they can expect to be hounded and scolded until the process question blocks out every other consideration. But here’s the problem: If one side breaks all the norms and the other side respects them, the norms lose all meaning. They don’t create a civil situation or a well-operating legislature. They’re just a shackle constraining one party but not the other.

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[ariadne0614]

1. If they believed in democracy, it wouldn't freak them out that. . .

. .women, brown, black, and lgbtq people are finally, en masse, demanding to be recognized as fully human citizens. Our patience with authoritarian patriarchy is over.