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My Advise to the Democratic Party Leadership [1]

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Date: 2023-05-28

“Democracy is out to sea.”

Said by one Vlad Vexler, a British philosopher who was born in Russia.

His meaning is clear to me.

The sea can be an extremely dangerous place, even for vessels designed to be out there in it. Storms can arise spawning huge waves. Unseen obstacles can cross a vessel's path. Waves several times larger than the local ones can arise without warning and inflict devastating damage.

But what I really get out of this line is that the real danger to democracy is that it is facing a serious credibility crises. I think this is very true, especially in this country.

For most of my adult life I have been aware that our representative government does not necessarily represent the people who vote for their representatives. Instead, it tends to mostly represent those who make large campaign contributions to the election campaigns of those representatives.

So, what we often witness is a huge rhetorical show about being in the corner of the average Joe, while behind the scenes, through action and often inaction, the opposite seems to always happen. The well-off, the wealthy, and above all of them, the grotesquely wealthy seem to always get their way.

Now, for the first time in living memory, the very concept of democracy is being directly challenged right here in the good ole USA. One of the two major political parties is now offering an alternative to any semblance of democracy. They are offering authoritarian rule that is beginning to look more and more totalitarian, with book banning and criminal penalties for any teacher who dare say anything outside the official line. Buttressing this vision, and even making it much more possible to come about, is a supreme court court that is becoming renown for its blatant corruption and its in-your-face bias in favor of not only the wealthy and the obscenely wealthy, but to would-be authoritarians as well.

This court, now dominated by a 6-3 super-majority, has now taken what can arguably be called a legislative role.

Meanwhile, as usual, Congress (you know, of those folks who are supposed to represent us) is dead-locked. It can't even raise the debt ceiling. And we have had to endure this fiasco time after time during the past few decades. Are we really a nation where half of its citizens want the government to default, if the wealthy and obscenely wealthy don't get their way? Hmm. Somehow, I don't think so. Maybe I'm just naive. Or maybe this is just a reflection of a democracy that simply can't work as it is presently set up. Maybe it is so skewered in favor of the wealthy mini-minority that it can really only effectively do its bidding.

And where does the Democratic Party really stand in all of this?

What is it really willing to do to even minimally change any of this?

I hear from it time and again how awful the Republicans are. I usually get this in my email, coupled with desperate pleas for contributions.

What I don't get is any commitment to actually do anything effective about it.

Now, I'm not expecting miracles here, in a political climate where even a slight wisp of actual democracy over late-stage capitalism has the stink of radioactive socialism. No. I'm not that naïve. I often wish I were.

But, after 67 trips around the Sun, I am painfully aware that I live in a democratic plutocracy, not a democracy. I am now even suspicious that this is what The Founders (those who wrote and ratified The Constitution) had intended all along.

So, let's start with some baby-steps here.

Suppose, during the campaign of 2024, the Democratic Party make a commitment to reform the Supreme Court, If we the voters vote in enough of their senate candidates.

I have my own ideas how to reform The Court and I have posted them on this site.

Some Democrats have proposed a reform that is as good as my idea or even better. Those are in proposed bill HR. 5140-2022, otherwise known as the Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointment Act.

In it:

Four new justices would be added to The Court and the total number of them would be fixed at 13 from this point on.

All new justices (appointed after this bill became law) would serve on The Court for 18 years. After which, they would serve as federal lower court judges for the rest of their lives.

All justices already on The Court would serve as Supreme Court justices for the rest of their lives, assuming they are not impeached and convicted.

There would be only a 120 day window of opportunity for The Senate to “Advise and Consent,” after such has passed, appointments would automatically be seated.

That's it. I believe this would do a lot toward ending the incentive for justices to become life-long, non-elected legislators.

Now, instead of telling us how bad The Republicans are, is the Democratic Party willing to campaign on this idea? Is its leadership willing to make a real, in-your-face commitment?

Don't get me wrong here. I will vote for them even if they do no such thing.

I am old enough to know that my best years are far behind me. And I am one of the sort that would throw snowballs at invading tanks once I ran out of Molotov cocktails.

But please, Democratic Leadership, just this once, give me something better than that this time.

After all, this may very well be your last chance.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/28/2171842/-My-Advise-to-the-Democratic-Party-Leadership

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