![]() ![]() ![]() Just to be clear: I am no defender of the status quo. Borrowing from Judge Rogers, I begin in like fashion my response to Professor Klarman’s diagnosis that American democracy is in a degraded state. It laid the foundation for a meaningful discussion to follow. Circuit, my colleague Judy Rogers frequently begins her questions with the phrase, “Just to be clear.” That rhetorical device always caught my attention. 12 Needless to say, Klarman’s form of “constitutional hardball” 13 would radically reshape our political system.ĭuring oral argument on the D.C. Democrats should win the Presidency and the Senate, then “entrench democracy” 8 against future Republican attacks with a series of bold moves: “ignore the constitutional provision mandating two senators for every state” 9 “create new states to expand their advantage in the Senate and the Electoral College” 10 replace the Electoral College with a direct popular vote 11 and consider packing new seats on the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts with judges appointed by Democrats. ![]() 7 Klarman’s solution to preserve democracy is straightforward. President Trump governs according to an “authoritarian playbook,” 1 while elected Republicans - and Republicans alone - continue their decades-long “assault on democracy.” 2 Meanwhile, the Justices on the Supreme Court “defend the interests of the Republican Party,” not because of any principled legal reasoning, but because of their “personal values” and “political calculations.” 3 Republican voters appear in the story only as stereotypes - as a “disappearing white majority,” 4 a “disappearing Christian majority,” 5 and “Neo–Ayn Randians.” 6 These voters, Klarman seems to think, are trapped in a “right-wing media ecosystem,” uncritically accepting talking points from Fox News pundits. The thesis of Professor Michael Klarman’s Foreword is that Republicans have declared war on democracy. ![]()
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