Powerful, inspiring and correct
I agree with this Dan Pfeifer short essay!!! Democrats need something to fight for and know Democrats will fight. It will be a long fight, a hard one, but necessary.
https://messagebox.substack.com/p/why-democrats-should-embrace-court?r=46w55&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I really do understand these sentiments; especially after so many Democrats guaranteed passage, but failed to deliver voting rights legislation and Biden’s climate and jobs agenda. Ultimately, there is no other option. In fact, convincing Democrats to disengage from politics is the primary strategic objective of the Republican Party. Sowing cynicism in the political process is how authoritarians all over the world seeded the ground for their eventual takeover.
If Democrats are going to once again turn to our weary voters and ask them to vote like their democracy depends on it, we must be specific and give them something to vote for. We need a plan and I believe that plan should include Supreme Court reform.
Mistaken Hesitancy and Risk Aversion
I have been a longtime advocate for Supreme Court reform, including expanding the number of seats on the court. I have worked with Take Back the Court, a leading court expansion advocacy organization, since 2020. In other words, I am far from an unbiased observer on these issues, but I came to believe in the necessity of reform after the Roberts Court deeply damaged our democracy with the Citizens United and Shelby County decisions followed by Mitch McConnell’s theft of a Supreme Court seat. Support for Court reform has grown dramatically in the last few years. Still, much of the Democratic leadership has kept it at arm’s length even though it is the only way to rebalance the Court. The Democratic hesitancy can be summed up in a Reuters article that suggested the Biden White House was unlikely to embrace the more aggressive responses to the Dobbs ruling. This is the ruling being proposed by some Democrats including Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Elizabeth Warren.