[HN Gopher] A Time of Troubles
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A Time of Troubles
Author : jseliger
Score : 11 points
Date : 2022-07-04 20:47 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (noahpinion.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (noahpinion.substack.com)
| Smudge wrote:
| The ever-widening political divide, which I have observed both in
| the abstract and in family/friend relationships, is something
| that I could easily see spelling the end of US democracy. I'm
| dead serious, and this (well-reasoned) post does nothing to ease
| my concerns.
|
| I have been particularly anxious about one bit also mentioned in
| this post -- the upcoming Moore v. Harper ruling that the Supreme
| Court has added to their docket. It seems that the court's intent
| is to legitimize the "independent state legislature" theory,
| which would give state legislatures unchecked power to control
| the process (and, in turn, the outcomes) of their states' federal
| elections.
|
| And by unchecked I mean exactly that. It relies on some ambiguous
| wording in the federal constitution (and interprets it to imply
| the word "only" where that word is not actually present) to bar
| state courts from having a say over any of the state
| legislature's election laws, and it would bar the state's
| governors from vetoing any such laws. In effect, if a state
| legislature decides to overrule their state's federal election
| outcome and appoint their own electors, etc, it would be
| perfectly legal and entirely un-challengeable for them to do so.
|
| This, in effect, means that US democracy, at least in federal
| elections (this fringe legal theory does not apply to state laws
| dictating state elections), will have failed. It doesn't matter
| who you support - without free and fair elections, there is no
| democracy. (And of course, the winning side will just say "but
| there was fraud," and when that fails to be proven they can fall
| back on, "but actually we're a republic, not a democracy," and
| rely on their highly-polarized-and-then-gerrymandered states to
| continue backing them, because hey, we'd rather have single party
| rule than by ruled by the other side, right?)
|
| I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect that 2020 was the last time that
| we'll have even a semblance of a free and fair presidential
| election, at least for a generation or two. From here out, I
| expect to see the winning party continue to dismantle the engine
| of whatever remaining democratic processes stand in the way of
| being able to reap the rewards of controlling all three branches
| of federal government. Though I suspect they'd rather burn most
| of it down and keep only the parts that allow them to tighten
| their hold on power at the state level.
|
| I wish I could see a way out of this crisis. But all I see are a
| smokescreen of culture wars that distract everyone from what's
| really at stake.
| mrtesthah wrote:
| I wonder, without a functioning democracy, what kind of mandate
| they think they would have to assert authority over others.
| What would then stop the rest of the population from
| considering them tyrants and either ignoring their laws or
| overthrowing them by force? Americans living in heavily-
| gerrymandered states would seem to have a duty to openly reject
| any laws passed by such legislatures.
| metadat wrote:
| Probably one of the most tempered and even-keeled analysis of our
| predicament I've come across to date. Thank you jseliger.
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