A historic number of Americans prefer neither President Biden nor former President Trump be elected president in 2024, according to a new CNN/SSRS poll. The survey found that 33 percent favored Tru…
Very well argued. This is quite unrelated but just out of interest, how realistic do you see constitutional reform in the US? Because to me as an outsider, that seems to me to be what US politics sorely needs rn. Is there appetite for it among the electorate? Among the Dems? Could it be conceivably carried out?
Right now? No I honestly don’t see a way for constitutional reform. I guess I would ask: what would the amendment be?
Things that would move the needle on helping this country move forward require nuance and compromise. None of our elected officials, at least publicly, have shown an appetite for that. Fairly simple things get highly polarized quickly. Even things that we overwhelmingly agree on as Americans: the overwhelming majority of Americans were pissed about overturning Roe v. Wade, but congress has done nothing to codify those rights.
There isn’t enough “working across the aisle” anymore. I saw a blog post that was showing previous election maps and famous congressional votes. It’s weird to see which states went to which party or how many Republicans voted for the Brady bill/assault weapons ban (63-37 in the Senate and 238 - 187 in the House–with quite a bit of bipartisan support). That would be a strictly party line vote. Hell, if it did a fraction of what that bill did, it would be a strictly party line vote.
I think we, as citizens, need to start demanding compromise from our representatives. We should expect nuanced discussions and reward representatives that change position when new information arises… but that requires us, as citizens, to do all of these things as well.
Very well argued. This is quite unrelated but just out of interest, how realistic do you see constitutional reform in the US? Because to me as an outsider, that seems to me to be what US politics sorely needs rn. Is there appetite for it among the electorate? Among the Dems? Could it be conceivably carried out?
Right now? No I honestly don’t see a way for constitutional reform. I guess I would ask: what would the amendment be?
Things that would move the needle on helping this country move forward require nuance and compromise. None of our elected officials, at least publicly, have shown an appetite for that. Fairly simple things get highly polarized quickly. Even things that we overwhelmingly agree on as Americans: the overwhelming majority of Americans were pissed about overturning Roe v. Wade, but congress has done nothing to codify those rights.
There isn’t enough “working across the aisle” anymore. I saw a blog post that was showing previous election maps and famous congressional votes. It’s weird to see which states went to which party or how many Republicans voted for the Brady bill/assault weapons ban (63-37 in the Senate and 238 - 187 in the House–with quite a bit of bipartisan support). That would be a strictly party line vote. Hell, if it did a fraction of what that bill did, it would be a strictly party line vote.
I think we, as citizens, need to start demanding compromise from our representatives. We should expect nuanced discussions and reward representatives that change position when new information arises… but that requires us, as citizens, to do all of these things as well.
We’re going to find out. Governor Newsom just initiated the 28th amendment to tackle the shortcomings of the 2nd.
Meanwhile the ERA is also creeping closer after decades, so my hope is sufficiently dampened.