They aren’t, but also Biden himself does not want to expand the Supreme Court. He said so numerous times during the 2020 primary.
Absolutely. Republicans aren’t ever going to stop being assholes about abortion and it’s not going to become unpopular anytime soon.
Asking for the impossible. They are not getting 50 votes in the Senate for expansion over the past 4 years. You might as well claim presidential immunity and take out a couple of red justices. Better chance than getting to 50+Kamala.
To try and expand and fail is a suicide mission. You take that shot you best succeed.
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My point is that lets say that somehow Biden has a landslide victory and somehow a few normally red Senate seats flip and we get to 55 Dem senators. What is Biden going to do on abortion? He has already come out against removing the fillibuster and expanding the SC. Biden isn’t for doing the things that could actually fix the abortion situation. So again my cynical side says that Biden is using this issue to score political points rather than have any intention of fixing it.
I’m not sure how Biden doing everything in his power to do a very popular thing over the past 4 years would be political suicide either. He could have tried. He could publically be saying right now to relelect him and elect Dem Senators and abortion can be legal nationwide again. He isn’t doing that. He is saying orange man bad with no plan to fix it.
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"Biden told MSNBC in New York that the court “may do too much harm but I think if we start the process of trying to expand the court, we are going to politicize it maybe forever, in a way that is not healthy.”
You may not like it but norms is the reason Biden has not attempted to do anything about the SC and abortion. He publically says so.
Maybe in hindsight. But this was all theoretical until Dobbs at which point he hasn’t a prayer.
Also concur he probably doesn’t have the will.
Still don’t think it’s a reasonable expectation is as likely or more likely to blow up in the Dems faces.
If you do it, it’s gotta be a fait d’accompli—failure leaves you with an even more dug in SCOTUS and an electorate that has less faith than you have now.
Expanding the SCOTUS isn’t going to happen but Biden should be talking about it and he should absolutely be calling for Thomas to be expelled literally every day from now until election day. Impeaching a corrupt justice is a norm! It’s right there in the rulebook, it’s what people expect to happen!
The alternative is to likely spend the rest of our lives in the current situation.
FDR tried and failed to expand the SC in 1937 and was re-elected multiple times after. I see your point but disagree trying and failing to do something on this issue would be politically bad. Abortion is overwhelmingly popular. Being seen as using your power to actually do something would be good.
Trying before Dobbs was never going to happen. Abortion jumped way up in importance when something actually happened.
Do they need a pass a law to expand the court or just get the senate to confirm judges?
With 55 dems they still very likely don’t have the votes to pack the court.
With 55 dems they can reinstate a Roe standard on the states.
Plus to be a cynic, being pissed off wins elections. It worked on the other side for decades.
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You can be sure the SCOTUS will strike it down if they’re not on board.
How can they do this effectively without fixing the SC situation?
Look my point may have been a little over the top last night but Biden drives the Democratic party bus at this point. Without him on board to expand the Supreme Court the elections don’t really matter. No number of Dem congresscritters we elect will accomplish anything.
So yes my cynical side says a commercial like this is designed solely to score political points(which is also good because we do want Biden to win) not to make the point Biden will actually do anything on abortion. He won’t because norms.
I can agree that he should have tried, but how does he get it past the filibustering senate? Don’t think he could have done it.
I see that my pony should be filibustered.
Yeah, there was some NYT non-diner safari where some young woman thought exactly this.
OK, now turn this around. Would it be good for him to make the point that he will “actually do something” on abortion if it costs him political points? It might make you personally feel nice, but is it a good thing? You’re getting very close to a breakthrough here. Once you’ve answered the question, go see how court-packing polls.
Maybe virtue signaling vs. actually doing something polls better. Americans are pretty stupid on average. You might be right.
It’s not even virtue signaling vs doing anything, because he can’t do anything without more senators. It’s signaling popular virtues vs signaling unpopular virtues.
Would he do something if he did have more senators? Clearly no right? Can’t remove the filibuster can’t overhaul the supreme court. Norms are too powerful. Which is my point. Norms are more important than doing anything to Biden and most Dems.