The Future Of The Democratic Party Will Be Decided By The Supreme Court
Think Progress
The Future Of The Democratic Party Will Be Decided By The Supreme Court
Matt Yglesias published a widely shared piece arguing that the Democratic Party is in “deep trouble” Monday morning. The piece is excellent and you should read it.
Yglesias’s piece, however, ignores what may be the greatest looming threat facing Democrats in the years following 2016. His central thesis is that, while Democrats control the White House and have at least a decent likelihood of retaining it after the upcoming election, Republicans dominate the other levers of American government. “The vast majority — 70 percent of state legislatures, more than 60 percent of governors, 55 percent of attorneys general and secretaries of state — are in Republicans hands,” Yglesias writes. “And, of course, Republicans control both chambers of Congress.” To solve this problem, Yglesias urges Democrats to shift focus away from “a slightly bizarre bidding war between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders to see whether Congress in 2017 will reject a legislative agenda that is somewhat to the left of Obama’s or drastically to its left” and towards tactics that are likely to achieve “down-ballot electoral success.”
Reading Yglesias’s piece, however, one comes away with the impression that there are only two branches of the federal government — the president and Congress. Granted, these are the only two elected branches, but the winner of 2016’s presidential election is likely to play an unusually large role in shaping the membership of the Supreme Court. And the Democratic Party’s best road to relevance in highly gerrymandered states begins with changing the makeup of the nation’s highest Court.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/10/19/3713681/if-democrats-ever-want-to-pass-a-law-again-they-need-to-control-the-supreme-court/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tptop3&utm_term=2&utm_content=5
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