This is one of the most accurate pieces I've read about the current @GOP. Encourage all to read as we think about how to heal our nation after 1/6. A few additional thoughts: nytimes.com/2021/01/09/mag…
1/ First, the overwhelming majority of Americans are good people who believe in Democracy, rule of law and equality for all. We are a fundamentally good people.
2/ The problem is that we do not have a majoritarian government. But for peculiarities of the electoral college, neither George W Bush nor Donald Trump would be president.
3/ But for the fact that the Senate - by design - represents land rather than people, there would be Democratic Super majorities. I represent more people than live in Wyoming, but WY gets 2 senators + 1 rep and #IL06 only gets me.
4/ And of course, even when the Dems win the Senate, as we just did the filibuster creates a massive block against the will of the majority. The 20 smallest states comprise just 10.2% of the US population. Control them and you control the Senate.
5/ There is no high-minded, wisdom-of-our-founders permanent moral theory of law to justify this. The only reason they exist is because our founders never figured out how to reconcile a representative democracy with the reality of slavery.
6/ This is the central failure of originalism as a theory of Constitutional interpretation, and the central failure of our nation. So long as we refuse to acknowledge and address our original sin, we remain blind to its consequences.
7/ This has not always skewed to the benefit of one party. Look back over our history and while the issues in any election are eerily consistent, the way they combine into a given parties platform varies with time.
8/ But in every election since reconstruction, there has been one party that implicitly or explicitly ran on a platform to suppress the will of the ethnically-diverse majority. Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, that has been the Republican party.
9/ Trump has of course made that more explicit, but the only reason it has been less obvious in prior elections is because they were cloaked in Constitutionally-created tools of suppression.
10/ There is a reason why democracies that have followed our example have not created anything so ridiculous as the electoral college or the filibuster. And there is no reason for us to keep them.
11/ But to remove them would be partisan so long as the alignment of the political parties consists of one that is broadly majoritarian and one that is a coalition of "gamers and breakers" as @TimothyDSnyder so accurately describes.
12/ That doesn't mean it's a bad thing of course. Partisanship in defense of democracy is no vice. By contrast, bipartisanship in defense of half-measures and soothing, baffling expedients sure is.
13/ But healing from 1/6 will require first a recognition that the majority of our fellow citizens are decent, loving, empathetic champions of democracy, and...
14/ ...second, that so long as we retain a structures of government that were *designed* to give great power to people who's views are at odds with the majority of the people they serve, that American decency will be suppressed. /fin
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Today I called on leadership of the @ILGOP to accept the results of the November election and condemn those in their party who are continuing to incite attacks against our democracy. m.facebook.com/story.php?stor…
Here in DuPage county, multiple candidates who lost in free and fair elections have continued to mount protests and use rhetoric directly linked to the attack on the US Capitol on January 6.
Before January 6, that was a nuisance, but could be written off as the efforts of frustrated political dead-enders. After January 6, this must be seen in a different light.
I'm glad 10 members of the @HouseGOP found their spines today, but the story of the last few weeks is that the @HouseGOP has become steadily more radicalized in the wake of these events. Some quick math:
1/ There are 211 Republicans in House in the 117th Congress.
On 12/10/20, 114 of them signed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court seeking to throw out the results of free and fair elections in 4 states.
A MAJORITY of them. 54% opposed democracy on 12/10/20
2/ On 1/6/21, terrorists, "summoned, assembled and inflamed" (per Liz Cheney) by Trump attacked the US House seeking to overturn the November 2020 election.
@TimAlberta, your framing here leaves off a critical point @RepJasonCrow made: "Welcome to the club." Rs are not the only ones getting threats. They are simply the only ones using that as an excuse for inaction.
1/ When the President of the United States and his allies are amping up threats of violence, every one of us with the courage to do what is right has to deal with those consequences. Not just members. Members' families. Members' staffs. It is frightening, despicable, horrible.
2/ But Jason and I, and several dozen others are all in office because we stood up to Trump in 2018 when our predecessor's didn't. The voters in our district did not change, but the leadership did.
I've said it before, but so much of what has led to the crisis of patriotism, decency, safety and security in today's @GOP is explained by this chart. H/T @LeadershipNP
1/ The left side of that chart represents a huge diversity of interests. You can't get elected to high office as a D unless you have a view of the country that encompasses all.
2/ And the right side: you can't get elected as an R unless you pledge fealty to gun-nuts. One side selects for intelligence and empathy. One side selects for obedience.
American citizens and businesses depend on the protections of the rule of law and our democracy. They also donate to candidates. Let's get a movement going to #DefundTheSeditionists. Thread follows to help you identify who pressure your employer to pull their support from:
1/ Here's a list of the Members of Congress who signed onto the Amicus Brief to throw out the results in GA, PA, WI, MI. projects.propublica.org/represent/memb…
2/ Here's the list of the 121 members who voted "Yea" to throw out the results of the Arizona election AFTER terrorists stormed the Capitol to do the same. clerk.house.gov/evs/2021/roll0…
126 members of the @HouseGOP asked SCOTUS to throw out the results of democratic elections in GA, PA, WI and MI. 121 members voted AFTER terrorists stormed the capital to throw out the results in AZ. Upon reflection, 138 voted to throw out the results in PA a few hours later.
This is not a small fringe. This is the majority of the @HouseGOP. They have consistently voted against democracy, even after terrorists stormed the capital, killing people to demand exactly the same thing.
In total, that is 173 members who signed onto at least one of those actions. 161 who are still seated in the 117th Congress.