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

Saturday, July 9, 2022

Strategy Post-Dobbs

Josh Marshall has been making some good points about how to address Dobbs via political means. First, he's trying to get 48 Democratic Senators on the record to end the filibuster to codify Roe. Right now, he's gotten affirmative answers from Dianne Feinstein and Bob Casey. Senators Tester and Coons were "out of office" on break, but the only one they heard nothing back from was Angus King. King and Coons, in particular, have fetishized "bipartisanship" to the point where it seems more important to them than actually making important changes. 

Biden has said, "give me two more Senators and I will codify Roe" so maybe he knows more than we do. 

Secondly, he's addressed concerns about whether codifying Roe would even work. The argument - and it's a sound one - is that the current Assembly of Religious Experts would overturn the pro-choice law using whatever bullshit rationale suited the moment. That's a real concern. 

Marshall's point is that first you codify Roe. If the Court strikes that down, then you expand the Court. That's an understanding of both process and pressure that "do something" Twitter doesn't seem to grok. You have to move people at a pace that reassures them, not sprint at breakneck speed into a brick wall that you could have avoided.

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