• ConsumptionOne
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    7 months ago

    She writes that many Democratic voters are “demoralized” about the Supreme Court and blame President Joe Biden for the abortion decision since it happened on his watch.

    What kind of moron thinks the sitting President has any say in how the supreme court decides? I mean maybe a bit if that President has appointed a new Justice, but even then, not really.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      It’s mostly idiots in the flyover states whose votes literally have more power due to the vagaries of the us electoral system. If that wasn’t a thing, and gerrymandering was declared unequivocally illegal, we would have a much better chance of rational leadership now and in the long run. But, infuriatingly, our system is intentionally designed to be undemocratic in a few very important ways.

    • Drusas@kbin.run
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      7 months ago

      It is unfortunately extremely common for the average American to think that the current president has direct and immediate control over quite a lot of things which they do not. Like inflation and gas prices. Or who the DOJ prosecutes and for what. And on and on.

      Sadly, most of them are adults who are beyond education because they are too stuck in the team-based mentality. Hopefully the younger ones can still learn.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I’ve seen bothsideser clowns on Lemmy write this. With 100% certainty they know better, but I assume they continue writing it because it fools some idiots some of the time.

    • reddig33@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Presidents can push to have decrepit old justices from their own party retire so he/she can replace them with a younger model before the next election.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      It was literally in his power to expand the court and appoint uncorrupt judges before Dobbs happened.

      There had been almost 30 years of warnings that right wing activist judges wanted to overturn Roe and several years of people suggesting ways within the power of him and the Congressional majority he leads to prevent it.

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        It was literally in his power to expand the court and appoint uncorrupt judges before Dobbs happened.

        It was not.

        Congress would first have to remove the cap set by the Judicial Act of 1969.

        That was in congressional Democrats’ hands. But in order to pass the Senate, we would have needed 60 Democrats, all of whom would need to actually vote with their party. Or we would need to have a simple majority, at least 50 of whom would be willing to get rid of the filibuster forever. We had the majority. Just enough Democrats preferred the return of coat hanger abortions to relegating a procedural relic of Jim Crow to the shitpile of history where it has always belonged.

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          the cap set by the Judicial Act of 1969.

          That cap was one supreme court judge per circuit court. As there are 13 circuits now, it’s precedent FOR expanding the court, not against.

          in order to pass the Senate, we would have needed 60 Democrats

          Ah, the eternal “we can’t do the obviously right thing because of the filibuster” Dem leadership excuse. Turns out that, like most of their other excuses, that’s complete hogwash

          Or we would need to have a simple majority, at least 50 of whom would be willing to get rid of the filibuster forever.

          Again, not true. That’s just another “we are powerless to change anything because the system won’t let us” copout from the party eternally protecting the status quo that is so lucrative for them.

          To quote the article linked above:

          Like Dorothy in Oz, they’ve always had the power to get home. Unlike Dorothy, they’ve always known. They’ve just chosen not to use it.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Again, not true. That’s just another “we are powerless to change anything because the system won’t let us” copout from the party eternally protecting the status quo that is so lucrative for them.

            Yes, this is exactly what I’m saying. Democrats could have ended the filibuster with a simple majority, but they didn’t want to. They preferred allowing Republicans to win on abortion to getting rid of their procedural excuse for inaction.

            • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              And I’m saying that they didn’t even have to do THAT, they could just suspend it temporarily any time they want. They don’t need 50 votes to permanently dismantle it when they can already do it at will on a case by case basis.

              • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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                7 months ago

                And I’m saying that they didn’t even have to do THAT, they could just suspend it temporarily any time they want.

                My reading of the law differs from yours on this, but I believe we agree more broadly that Democrats desperately need to stop making excuses and get out of their own way.