Yes, I know. You are sooo done, at least for a while, with my lamenting around politics. Can’t we have a little break, you wonder? Some more memes, perhaps? Or a nice excursion into extraordinary art?

All in good time. First I had to get this off my chest, since I believe it is important to greet this new era with realistic expectations. (And you will get a break, I am taking the latter part of this week off. I need a break too!)

About a week ago, a consortium of scholars of democracy proposed some structural changes to our current political system. They see this as the only way to curb minority rule – a rule that increasingly spells the end of democracy given the number of voters who get overruled in these modern times. 50 Republican Senators can stop the legislation proposed by Democrats who represent 41 million more voters than their opponents.

The link contains their proposal in full, but here are the key suggestions:

“The Congress should take the following steps to enhance democratic equality and fairness:

• Defend and expand the right to vote for all Americans.
• Require nonpartisan commissions in each state to redraw congressional and state legislative districts, so that state legislatures can no longer gerrymander districts to advantage their party.
• End the ability of a small group of ultra-wealthy donors to secretly bankroll candidates and parties by requiring transparency in all political spending.
• Narrow the conditions under which the Senate filibuster can be used as a tool of legislative obstruction.
• Grant the people of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico the right to vote for statehood, which would provide full and equal representation to nearly four million Americans who are currently disenfranchised.
• Establish a nonpartisan, independent federal elections agency to ensure that the voting process is fair, consistent, secure, and legitimate.
• Study ways to reduce politicization of the federal courts.

Why are these efforts needed? The sad reality is that President Biden has much less power to combat minority rule than we wish he’d have. A fact that motivated today’s blog, given all of our expectations – even if I’ll be accused of spoiling the mood….. The opposition is at it already.

Yes, he can make federal agencies provide voter registration services via executive order. Yes, his DOD can enforce the Voting Rights Act and file lawsuits against voting discrimination. Yes, he can prop up the postal system and regulate the Census.

What he cannot do is pass a new Voting Rights Act or overrule Republican gerrymandering or change the nature of the Senate or the courts without Republican help. And that will arrive when the cows get home. (This is a summary of what I learned here.)

Here are the simple facts about minority rule:

New and improved laws? The filibuster requires 60 Senate votes to pass legislation. GOP senators from 21 small states who represent less than a quarter of the population can thwart bills supported by a clear majority of Americans.

Fight it in court?  234 Trump judicial appointments will happily hear your case, then nix it. Biden has now inherited fewer than 25 judicial openings. The Supreme Court has excelled in curbing voting rights, and so it will be from the top down.

Redistricting?

“Following the 2020 census, they’ll get to craft the maps again in 20 states where they control the redistricting process, compared to seven for Democrats. (The rest have divided governments or independent redistricting commissions.) As a result, Republicans will draw nearly three times as many US House districts as Democrats will, a disparity that could easily cost Democrats the House in 2022. The maps passed in 2021 will likely be even more extreme than in 2011 because the Supreme Court has said that federal courts cannot review maps drawn for a partisan advantage, and states with a long history of discrimination will no longer have to get federal approval for those maps under the Voting Rights Act.”

The temptation to give up is understandable. Alternatively, let’s role up our sleeves and tackle the next fight. I’ll enjoy your company. It helps if you think of the consequences…

Photographs are from cemeteries in Charleston, South Carolina, a state that was one of the Southern segregationists after Reconstruction using the Filibuster to stop civil rights laws.

Music is a piece that will cheer you to no end after all this doom and gloom reading: Mozart’s Sonata Nr. 17 in C major. (The movements are unfortunately separated by ads…) I DO try to provide some balance…