Dear Friends,
There are two broad goals that the Democrats must address in Project 2029 – improving the lives of working people and improving our democracy. There are, of course, many other goals, but if the changes are made to improve our democracy, many of the other goals can be achieved through normal democratic processes.
There are two prerequisites to achieve these broad goals – elimination of the filibuster in the Senate and significantly enlarging the Supreme Court. Other than legislation that can be shoehorned into a reconciliation bill, the filibuster will need to be eliminated to pass the legislation needed to accomplish the two broad goals. In addition, the concept of the unitary executive, currently in vogue with the radical right majority on the Supreme Court, will need to be defeated. Under the unitary executive theory, the President can do what Trump has done – ignore the legislation and the authorized spending and just do those things that (s)he wants.
So, every Democrat running for the Senate must be asked “what legislation will you fight for that will improve the lives of working people and will improve our democracy?”. The follow up question is “will you work to and vote for the elimination the filibuster and the enlargement of the Supreme Court?”. If the candidate is not willing to eliminate the filibuster and enlarge the Supreme Court, they are not serious about improving the lives of working people or improving our democracy. Without eliminating the filibuster, the legislation cannot become law; and without enlarging the Supreme Court, a President can avoid duly executing the law.
The goal is not to look like we are fighting but to take action that improves the lives of working people and improves our democracy.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
