(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Starting with Jamelle Bouie, A Repair Strategy for our Democracy is essential. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-04 Jamelle Bouie, a wonderful philosopher on the nature of democracy, among other things, has a terrific op-ed in the Times today: www.nytimes.com/... The Most Frightening Part of the Trump Indictment Co-Conspirator 4 spoke with Philbin, who told him that “there had not been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that if the defendant” — President Trump — “remained in office nonetheless, there would be ‘riots in every major city in the United States.’” To which Co-Conspirator 4 is said to have responded, “Well, that’s why there’s an Insurrection Act.” You may recall that Trump considered invoking the Insurrection Act — which enables the use of the military to suppress civil disorder, insurrection or rebellion — to quell the protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd. Trump wanted thousands of troops on the streets of Washington and other cities, and he had repeatedly urged top military and law enforcement officials to confront protesters. with force… If we truly hope to avoid another Jan. 6, or something worse, we have to deal with our undemocratic system as much as we do with the perpetrators of that particular incident. Whatever benefits our unusual rules and procedures are supposed to have are more than outweighed, at this point in our history, by the danger they pose to the entire American experiment. The threat to the integrity of the Republic is coming, as it often has, from inside the house. Bouie is terrific, as usual. HOWEVER, he also starts us down a path that he doesn't finish: The path, I think, starts with getting rid of the filibuster, and with fixing SCOTUS. Perhaps, after that, fixing the electoral college system that permits a minority to govern. And then, do some similar things at the state level to enable repair of gerrymandering, especially the race-based kind, and reduce opportunities for a minority to rule. We can't repair our undemocratic system without doing these, and perhaps a few more. It is important to note, as Bouie does, that the Roberts court did great damage to the Voting Rights Act, that now makes it easier for states to install and protect highly corrupt minority rule. That MUST be fixed, and that can’t be done without fixing SCOTUS. My hope is that the increasingly damaged Republican party creates opportunities for Dems to have majorities in both houses after the next national election, and then get to work. That isn't a given, but it's possible. Indeed, it is a rallying cry that those who wish to fight to protect and repair our democracy need to use as we prepare for 2024. 2024 isn’t just about Biden against Trump, or replacements for either. It’s about preparing to get to work to fix the severe damages, threats and structural insufficiencies our Democracy contains in its current form, and for making sure that enough voters are aware of the ways in which their rights are being trampled and threatened by the damages and insufficiencies. This gets a bit theoretical, but as Bouie does, I think we have to try. I also think that the weaknesses currently bubbling up in the Republican party may well give us opportunities to start down this path. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/4/2185216/-Starting-with-Jamelle-Bouie-A-Repair-Strategy-for-our-Democracy-is-essential Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/