05-11-2023, 12:18 PM
(05-10-2023, 10:31 PM)pally Wrote: I honestly go back and forth about eliminating the filibuster. On one hand, it prevents good legislation from going through. On the other hand it also prevents bad legislation from going through. Both sides are so deeply entrenched in their corners of not letting the other side have a victory that the Senate is totally dysfunctional. They won't even legitimately sit down and actually negotiate. And while I might applaud what would be passed under the Democrats, I am equally certain I would be cringing if the Republicans had control without the filibuster.
I do think the Supreme Court as well as the Federal District Courts should be expanded but this belief is long-standing and has nothing to do with the current makeup of the court. There are simply too many people in this country and too many cases making their way too slowly through the federal court system. Expanding from 13 to 15 or so Federal Districts would spread out the workload and increase efficiency. Correspondingly. there should be at least 1 SCOTUS for each Federal District. The number of Justices on the court changed 5 times in the first 80 years of this country. It was set at 9 in 1869. The population is 100x bigger now. All politics aside, a larger court is not unreasonable.
I am also a firm believer in an expansion of the number of people in the House of Representatives. Constitutionally it was designed to increase as the population did. in 1929 the number was capped at 435, as a result of population growth proportionality of district sizes is no longer possible. If you simply made each district the size of the smallest state that would improve things. For instance, Wyoming has 1 congressman, and California has 50. But if you made California's districts the size of Wyoming's population...Wyoming would still have 1 congressman but now California would have 67.
And yeah, I believe that all US territories, including the District, should be made states or released to be their own countries Its 2023, colonial rule should be long over. No American citizen should be forced to pay taxes without voting representation in both Houses of Congress. Again this belief predates the current political situation.
First off, thank you for the detailed response. I would point out the obvious contradiction in your position on these issues and the change to a 60% majority needed, to which you pointed out the current system has been in place for over 100 years. Every single thing you want to change in this post have been in place longer than that. Consequently, you need to decide if something being in place for a long time is an argument for keeping it or is it not.
