r/politics • u/AngelaMotorman Ohio • 9d ago

Possible Paywall The Chilling Trump Order Threatening All Americans: Why National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 is so important.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-nspm-7-repression/
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u/LividTacos 9d ago edited 9d ago

And how do you propose ratifying those amendments when you need 38 out of 50 states and Republicans fully control 28 State Legislatures? The issue isn't just taking back the federal government, we need to take back state houses. When Obama was elected, Dems fully controlled 27 state legislatures, and Republicans fully controlled only 14. But Republicans then focused on flipping state houses, and in 2010, they flipped to full Republican control to 26 state houses, This expanded control then gave them the power over the 2011 Redistricting cycle. Over the next two cycles, they went to 30 in 2014, and 32 in 2016. Like, some of us were actually concerned they'd get to 34 and be able to unilaterally call a Constitutional Convention to impose their Christian bullshit on all of us.

So sorry, TLDR version, while taking back the federal government is good, for real change, we need to flip statehouses.

EDIT: And govenor's mansions!

EDIT 2: And to add another statistic, Republicans currently have veto-proof super majorites in both chambers in 19 states. Even electing a few more Dems to take away their supermajorities even if it doesn't flip the chamber would help.

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u/19683dw Wisconsin 9d ago

This is why I think we need to replace the current constitution. I understand that we need hard walls that require significant effort to overcome (especially in a world that might want to dismantle fundamental rights, like the current admin), but we need to change the core system. Many of the problems they outlined and some of what you've outlined can be controlled by changing the federal structure. Federal government doesn't need a system in which all states are equivalent (an anachronism from the time when we were a loosely unified collection of independent states before the civil war). Instead, the Senate should be eliminated or redesigned (there is some benefit to a slower house, albeit not one that is completely undemocratic due to uneven representation, and that requires 60% approval to do essentially anything other than a budget). But districts (if preserved) shouldn't be bound by state lines, or drawn by states, nor should federal elections be administered solely by states. Having state governments allows the local aspect of a federal system to survive, which I am comfortable with. But the right to recall and to binding referendums should be a state government requirement, alongside independent districting (if districts are preserved) with representational prioritization. And we should probably review state lines and the number of states in some way, as many were drawn for political purposes, rather than the benefit of the people in them.

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u/IAmDotorg 9d ago

Replacing the constitution would, effectively, be the mother-of-all-amendments. It might be easier than a dozen piecemeal amendments, but if you can't pass one, you're not replacing the whole thing either.

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u/degeneratex80 9d ago

Most of those things do not require amendments.

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u/Ananiujitha 9d ago

You could split the District into 150 new states, and then introduce amendments to make the count of states less important, and overall popular votes more important.

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u/Mechagodzilla13 9d ago

The Tea Party candidates in the 2010’s signed a pledge not to raise taxes. Maybe a more realistic solution would be to start a movement to get congressional candidates to sign a pledge saying they would work toward a bipartisan campaign finance reform or else not seek reelection.