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Dave Keating

Feb 19 • 8 tweets • 2 min read

An interesting discussion on The Weeds this week about the constitutional and electoral changes that are needed to save America's broken democracy, and whether a civilian government could push through those democratic changes.

It got me thinking. (🧵1/8)
open.spotify.com/episode/0Eoozr…

They talked about a much-derided Thomas Friedman column where he said a Biden-Cheney presidential ticket would save democracy

It's clear that any constitutional/electoral reform would need some kind of bipartisan alliance - but is this the right one?🧵2/8 nytimes.com/2022/01/11/opi…

In the podcast they discuss the problem: whoever proposes a change, the other party will resist it. It's a democratic system seemingly incapable of reforming itself democratically. (🧵3/8)

But who benefits from the current system? Far-right Republicans and center-right Democrats.

Who is most disadvantaged by the current system? center-right Republicans and Democrats on the left.

So isn't the better alliance Liz #Cheney and #AOC? Hear me out (🧵4/8)

I'm not talking about a presidential ticket, because as Drutman notes in the podcast, the thing that most urgently needs reform isn't the presidency but rather the congress, elections and the party system. (🧵5/8)

Drutman acknowledges that a proposal for electoral reform from the Democrats or Republicans seems doomed to failure

But, he posits, what if AOC teamed up with a Republican to propose reform? Fixing the system is in the interest of both the Cheneys and the AOCs right now. (🧵6/8)

The hurdles are extremely high and it's hard to see how meaningful change would be possible without constitutional changes, which require a currently impossible threshold of 2/3 of legislatures and states.

The only hope is some kind of Hail Mary pass, as Drutman notes. (🧵7/8)

But I think they're dancing around something in this podcast.

If a democratic system is no longer capable of making needed reforms democratically, there are other alternatives that are not democratic. Often times constitutions are changed under military administrations. (🧵8/8)

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@eucopresident

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