Remember that this whole time biden could have packed the SCOTUS and turned the Republican majority into a Democrat majority. Nothing in our Constitution says only 9 supreme court appointees. He's just not willing to do it because he is a liberal and doesn't want to use his power to crush the Republicans like they need to be.
If it was trump he would have (and did) wielded the knife of political power with no hesitation but the moment Democrats have the knife they hold it with fear the Republicans would accuse them of being partisan.
Didn't they and Manchin and Sinema promised to block it?
Well now Biden can kill them, officially
He won’t though because he’s a spineless liberal.
Why couldn't Biden have gotten the fun kind of dementia instead of the Everywhere at the End of Time kind of dementia
That would be great. Surely making people into martyrs will definitely go well for the entire left.
I'm glad we're in agreement
It's possible but there was at least an opportunity to try putting forth some moderate judges which would have a chance to pull over center Republicans or Sinema/Manchin. Or at least force the issue. I believe they also had a chance after Roe V Wade before election time in November when the political will was more there to defend the abortion issue by getting a supreme court more favorable on the issue
He’s just not willing to do it because he is a liberal and doesn’t want to use his power to crush the Republicans like they need to be.
Liberals love to maintain the status quo with small, incremental changes.
Capitalism loves unfettered, infinite growth. This is such a small minded, short term mindset. I much prefer a "controlled and sustainable" growth approach. Liberals are trying to build an equitable country for all of us and our progeny, the other side is trying to cash out before it all comes crashing down. It's disgusting. But history repeats itself, because humans are the common factor and humans, broadly, suck.
You can’t say Liberals are trying to build an equitable country when they clearly are not, while trying to pin the blame on “humans”.
Humans are not the problem, capitalism is the problem. The capitalist system is working exactly as intended - putting all the wealth in the hands of a few men while making slaves of the rest of us.
You cannot build an equitable or sustainable society in the capitalist system. It will always lead to fascism and ruin.
The capitalism that the Liberals love is the same capitalism that the Republicans love. It doesn’t make much difference if you stick a rainbow flag on it. There is no nice version of capitalism. There’s nothing “controlled or sustainable” about neoliberal capitalism.
Please stop trying to blame humans for being forced with violence, homelessness, and starvation to try to survive in a cannibalistic system that forces people to become greedy. I’m tired of hearing the Malthusian untrue “humans suck” meme. Humans learn from the conditions they are raised in. There is nothing inherently greedy in humans. That is purely conditioning. If we lived in a society that rewarded cooperation and didn’t threaten us with homelessness and death for not being obedient slaves we would be cooperative and have the possibility to work toward building a sustainable society.
Humans are not the problem, capitalism is the problem.
Oh yes, that magical system that was created by ghosts or ghouls or something other than a human.
Humans are the problem and have always been the problem. Hell, we even invented the word problem to describe all of the problems we have, and cause!
He’s just not willing to do it because he is a liberal and doesn’t want to use his power to crush the Republicans like they need to be.
This is ABSOLUTELY wrong and /u/exanime pointed that out to you already. Manchin and Sinema said they would have blocked it. It would not have succeeded because they sold their souls NOT because biden is tOo LiBeRaL. Jesus christ.
The Biden admin has fought tooth and nail for things that are actually fucking possible and the average american has benefited. We all want to expand this illegitimate court but you simply CANNOT pin the blame on Biden's chest.
What about Obama?? Where was the packing of the court then? You know, that time in which he could have forced RBG out and chosen a pick but instead mitch pushed for the AmErIcAn PeOpLe to get the choice (and then did the exact opposite when it was trumps turn). Too much of a lib as well?
So much lib apologism holy shit. First of all I responded to the users comment. They are correct about that but just because the two said they would oppose doesn't mean biden did his best.
The biden admin fought tooth and nail? What did he fight for? You think I'm supposed to accept the one thing he fought for, student debt cancellation as some sort of pity policy? Trump came out all the time pushing the window to the right, fighting for his policy. You literally could not make him shut up about the border while Biden hardly ever used his platform meaningfully to bully others in the government into doing what needed to be done to build political power for the democrats. If you can't see that then I think you might not understand the full extent of the power of the presidency. Where's decriminalizing weed? When did he push for the minimum wage? Those were like his main campaign promises. The worst part is especially with weed he could have just descheduled it but instead he just lowered it by a single schedule to raise his approval rating.
I don't get why you have such a hard-on for biden. He did some good things but that doesn't excuse his negligent misuse of his political appointment at a time when our democracy depends on it.
With regards to Obama, do I have to complain about every politician I don't like whenever I criticize any other politician? Obama sucked at this too and this is in many ways more his fault than Biden's but do I really need to bring him up every time I go to criticize other democrats?!
And what would stop the next Republican president from packing the court further to have a conservative majority again?
And this goes back and forth until there are 100s on the Supreme Court
Biden not doing something out of principle is not a guarantee Trump won't do it. The contrary is often true.
Packing the court solves nothing as it can be immediately reversed as soon as a Republican is in office.
In the case they reverse it then we are back at square 1 except we had a more progressive supreme court for a bit. I don't see how this makes our situation worse. I guess we should also give up and never bother with executive orders since they can just be undone when the Republicans get in
It's moot, anyway, as the President doesn't have the power to add Justice vacancies. That's Congress's job.
The new surpreme court could chance the laws so that is no longer possible.
Undo the current surpreme court laws, and weaken the powers of the president before Trump gains power.
I hate this reasoning. They would do it anyway! They attempted a coup. You really think they would stop because there's some gentleman's agreement not to add more?
Trump and the GOP have always used these gentleman's agreements against the Democrats when they are in power and ignored them when it was their time. Obama did the same shit when he was in office not forcing through the supreme court appointee.
One thing that people seem to be missing is that the President cannot add SCOTUS vacancies. Only Congress can.
And it is the President's responsibility to nominate justices, so if the majority party just nullifies every single nominee until they can secure the presidency, we shouldn't pretend that they aren't obstructing the operation of government to try to seize power.
All of this "but the government actually works this one specific way" argument isn't much of a real argument when the issue is that bad faith actors are exploiting and weaponizing the way our government works in order to destroy it and to turn it into a dictatorship.
Dems had majority in the house and senate. If they managed to get all dems to agree (which is not guaranteed) in the Senate on the appointee) then in all likelihood they would be able to increase the size with congress
They'd have to have a supermajority in both, which is an impossibility with current gerrymandering. Really, I think the Judicial branch needs a serious overhaul from the bottom up. 9 unelected lifetime appointees getting to decide what the law means for over 300 million people is ridiculously easy to exploit, which we're seeing now.
They would have to do the nuclear option and crush the filibuster. I agree with you though on the lifetime appointees thing. They really should have terms and elections
Remember that this whole time biden could have packed the SCOTUS and turned the Republican majority into a Democrat majority. Nothing in our Constitution says only 9 supreme court appointees. He's just not willing to do it because he is a liberal and doesn't want to use his power to crush the Republicans like they need to be.
If it was trump he would have (and did) wielded the knife of political power with no hesitation but the moment Democrats have the knife they hold it with fear the Republicans would accuse them of being partisan.
Didn't they and Manchin and Sinema promised to block it?
Well now Biden can kill them, officially
He won’t though because he’s a spineless liberal.
Why couldn't Biden have gotten the fun kind of dementia instead of the Everywhere at the End of Time kind of dementia
That would be great. Surely making people into martyrs will definitely go well for the entire left.
I'm glad we're in agreement
It's possible but there was at least an opportunity to try putting forth some moderate judges which would have a chance to pull over center Republicans or Sinema/Manchin. Or at least force the issue. I believe they also had a chance after Roe V Wade before election time in November when the political will was more there to defend the abortion issue by getting a supreme court more favorable on the issue
Liberals love to maintain the status quo with small, incremental changes.
Capitalism loves unfettered, infinite growth. This is such a small minded, short term mindset. I much prefer a "controlled and sustainable" growth approach. Liberals are trying to build an equitable country for all of us and our progeny, the other side is trying to cash out before it all comes crashing down. It's disgusting. But history repeats itself, because humans are the common factor and humans, broadly, suck.
You can’t say Liberals are trying to build an equitable country when they clearly are not, while trying to pin the blame on “humans”.
Humans are not the problem, capitalism is the problem. The capitalist system is working exactly as intended - putting all the wealth in the hands of a few men while making slaves of the rest of us.
You cannot build an equitable or sustainable society in the capitalist system. It will always lead to fascism and ruin.
The capitalism that the Liberals love is the same capitalism that the Republicans love. It doesn’t make much difference if you stick a rainbow flag on it. There is no nice version of capitalism. There’s nothing “controlled or sustainable” about neoliberal capitalism.
Please stop trying to blame humans for being forced with violence, homelessness, and starvation to try to survive in a cannibalistic system that forces people to become greedy. I’m tired of hearing the Malthusian untrue “humans suck” meme. Humans learn from the conditions they are raised in. There is nothing inherently greedy in humans. That is purely conditioning. If we lived in a society that rewarded cooperation and didn’t threaten us with homelessness and death for not being obedient slaves we would be cooperative and have the possibility to work toward building a sustainable society.
Oh yes, that magical system that was created by ghosts or ghouls or something other than a human.
Humans are the problem and have always been the problem. Hell, we even invented the word problem to describe all of the problems we have, and cause!
This is ABSOLUTELY wrong and /u/exanime pointed that out to you already. Manchin and Sinema said they would have blocked it. It would not have succeeded because they sold their souls NOT because biden is tOo LiBeRaL. Jesus christ.
The Biden admin has fought tooth and nail for things that are actually fucking possible and the average american has benefited. We all want to expand this illegitimate court but you simply CANNOT pin the blame on Biden's chest.
What about Obama?? Where was the packing of the court then? You know, that time in which he could have forced RBG out and chosen a pick but instead mitch pushed for the AmErIcAn PeOpLe to get the choice (and then did the exact opposite when it was trumps turn). Too much of a lib as well?
So much lib apologism holy shit. First of all I responded to the users comment. They are correct about that but just because the two said they would oppose doesn't mean biden did his best.
The biden admin fought tooth and nail? What did he fight for? You think I'm supposed to accept the one thing he fought for, student debt cancellation as some sort of pity policy? Trump came out all the time pushing the window to the right, fighting for his policy. You literally could not make him shut up about the border while Biden hardly ever used his platform meaningfully to bully others in the government into doing what needed to be done to build political power for the democrats. If you can't see that then I think you might not understand the full extent of the power of the presidency. Where's decriminalizing weed? When did he push for the minimum wage? Those were like his main campaign promises. The worst part is especially with weed he could have just descheduled it but instead he just lowered it by a single schedule to raise his approval rating.
I don't get why you have such a hard-on for biden. He did some good things but that doesn't excuse his negligent misuse of his political appointment at a time when our democracy depends on it.
With regards to Obama, do I have to complain about every politician I don't like whenever I criticize any other politician? Obama sucked at this too and this is in many ways more his fault than Biden's but do I really need to bring him up every time I go to criticize other democrats?!
And what would stop the next Republican president from packing the court further to have a conservative majority again?
And this goes back and forth until there are 100s on the Supreme Court
Biden not doing something out of principle is not a guarantee Trump won't do it. The contrary is often true.
Packing the court solves nothing as it can be immediately reversed as soon as a Republican is in office.
In the case they reverse it then we are back at square 1 except we had a more progressive supreme court for a bit. I don't see how this makes our situation worse. I guess we should also give up and never bother with executive orders since they can just be undone when the Republicans get in
It's moot, anyway, as the President doesn't have the power to add Justice vacancies. That's Congress's job.
The new surpreme court could chance the laws so that is no longer possible.
Undo the current surpreme court laws, and weaken the powers of the president before Trump gains power.
I hate this reasoning. They would do it anyway! They attempted a coup. You really think they would stop because there's some gentleman's agreement not to add more?
Trump and the GOP have always used these gentleman's agreements against the Democrats when they are in power and ignored them when it was their time. Obama did the same shit when he was in office not forcing through the supreme court appointee.
One thing that people seem to be missing is that the President cannot add SCOTUS vacancies. Only Congress can.
And it is the President's responsibility to nominate justices, so if the majority party just nullifies every single nominee until they can secure the presidency, we shouldn't pretend that they aren't obstructing the operation of government to try to seize power.
All of this "but the government actually works this one specific way" argument isn't much of a real argument when the issue is that bad faith actors are exploiting and weaponizing the way our government works in order to destroy it and to turn it into a dictatorship.
Dems had majority in the house and senate. If they managed to get all dems to agree (which is not guaranteed) in the Senate on the appointee) then in all likelihood they would be able to increase the size with congress
They'd have to have a supermajority in both, which is an impossibility with current gerrymandering. Really, I think the Judicial branch needs a serious overhaul from the bottom up. 9 unelected lifetime appointees getting to decide what the law means for over 300 million people is ridiculously easy to exploit, which we're seeing now.
They would have to do the nuclear option and crush the filibuster. I agree with you though on the lifetime appointees thing. They really should have terms and elections