Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Monday, September 21, 2020

Battle Plan

 I agree with everything Josh Marshall says here.

You use the threat of expanding the Court to prevent a corrupt seizure of judicial power by the GOP. "You can have a 5-4 Court, but if you try and get to 6-3, it will be 7-6 before you know it." Marshall is also right that this should not be Biden's position. It should be Schumer, Pelosi and Blumenthal - among others - who bring this message to the possible GOP Senators who need to hear it. I'm guessing the list is down to Romney, Toomey, Portman and maybe Grassley. You need two of those.

Marshall is also right that this is not about abortion rights alone, though the GOP would like to cast it that way to motivate evangelicals. It's about the survival - and potential expansion - of the ACA. It's about future voting rights and environmental legislation. A 6-3 Court packed with Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh and some other troglodyte potentially undermines the New Deal, much less the Great Society or any other new legislation. Chait is right to say that Biden's angle should be that if Trump appoints Ginsburg's successor, insurers will be allowed to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. Healthcare is still a winning issue for Democrats with working class white voters.

And, too, Marshall is right that eliminating the filibuster, adding DC and potentially Puerto Rico as states is a non-negotiable position. I would add that enlarging the House should also be a priority so that gerrymandering and the electoral college ratfuckery are harder to pull off.

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