MicroWaveGay Louisiana doctor says he’s leaving the state over its ‘discriminatory’ legislation
vzqThat’s a direct result of losing the Supreme Court. It was the only mechanism keeping minorities and women safe in red states. Now that it’s gone, the apparatus of state power is going to grind them up if they don’t have the resources to get out.
Next time someone says “democrats and republicans are the same” or “Clinton would have been just as bad”, think of the SC and federal district judges she would have appointed. Think of how different things would be for people in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas etc right now.
Then tell me again how your vote doesn’t matter.
No, the problem here is with the Senate, and it’s arcane traditions where unanimous consent is required to get anything substantial done, and if the outsize power it gives the Majority Leader and the committee chairs to set the agends, who are only selected by the majority members. With the normal rules it takes 60 votes to get anything done. But if the Majority Leader or the relevant committee chair doesn’t like a thing, they get a pocket veto to derail it.
Our current situation at the Supreme Court has everything to do with Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham deciding that the Senate’s “advise and consent” role includes being able to perpetually ignore the President by failing to schedule a vote. When RBG died, Republicans made clear that they would have voted down a progressive replacement. I think it was Graham that literally challenged Obama to name a more centrist judge, and gave Garland as an example by name. Then, when Obama nominated Garland, Graham pivoted and said that now that Obama nominated that centrist, the Senate still wouldn’t consider the nomination until after the election.
Make no mistake about it, the reason why Graham and McConnell never scheduled a vote is that they knew it would pass. So two Senators essentially vetoed Obama’s pick, which is in flagrant opposition to the Constitution, which says the whole Senate has to vote on it. (Then , of course, when the tables were turned 4 years later Mitch and Lindsaycame to different conclusions).
Even if Clinton won in 2020, there is no guarantee these Senate Republicans would have played fair and lived up to their commitments. They would have found new and novel ways to screw the country.
Let’s be clear. The normal rules are 50 votes to pass legislation. The fillibuster was never meant to be a permanent fixture and needs to be abolished immediately.
It’s more than just the Filibuster. The Senate rules are complex, on purpose, to make actually getting things done difficult, and revising those rules required unanimous consent.
Look at what “Coach” Tuberville is doing. There are a bunch of military promotions that require Senate confirmation. The normal process is to debate each one individually. Debating them and approving them together, in one batch, requires changing the rules, which requires Unanimous Consent. Coach is withholding that consent because the military is transporting women in their ranks who need health care that might require abortion to states that allow it. Which has nothing to do with the merits of the promotions.
He is using the Senate rules as a cudgel to hold Military Readiness hostage until he gets his way. And it’s the inane structure of the Senate rules that allow this.