Political Revolution in the Air

The filibuster is in trouble anyway; it’s a tradition, not in the Constitution. I expect the Ds to gut it further when they get power again with a Democratic prez. Whether that’s a good idea is another matter (I’m not sure it is), but it’s likely what going to happen down the road. And then we might have 15 SCOTUS judges and lots of extra others at the appellate levels. Or we might put term limits on federal judges through a constitutional change. The Democratic base will not accept anything less, and they will eventually outvote the Republican base.

Our political system is crashing, and we are probably going to have to rebuild it. The old political order is crumbling, and something new will emerge in its place. Revolution is in the air; reform’s time has passed. The Constitution will remain, but we will have to establish new traditions that work for a different era.

America will have to reinvent itself–as it did after the American Revolution, the Civil War, the great depression, and World War II. So will the old western order which has forgotten what most working people have to deal with in their lives. That’s the one good thing that Donald Trump has shown us in the U.S. and the world: the old ways are dying because they no longer work and have left working people in the dust. We will either collapse or transform ourselves. This is our time of reckoning in so many ways. Given the human instinct for survival, I always bet on transformation. But it will not be easy or painless. This is why those of us who resist are here. This is our moment when we can actually do something and help co-create the world we see faintly outlined in the darkness.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/us/politics/supreme-court-filibuster.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news