We may not be able to change the Republican Party, but we can change the political institutions it has deftly exploited.
Ideally, we'd toss out the Electoral College and restructure the Senate. Both have their constitutional roots in compromises designed to protect slaveholders, and both have warped our democracy. But amending the Constitution would require votes from the GOP, the very party that's currently gaming the system.
So what to do?
An obvious first step is to eliminate the filibuster, which is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution. With a simple majority vote (plus Vice President Kamala Harris), Senate Democrats could set a new Senate precedent.
The demand to end the filibuster is growing in popularity among progressive groups, 60 of which recently wrote Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), calling on him to scrap it. The only obstacle may be the Senate Democrats themselves.
While progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) now support ending the legislative procedure, more conservative Senators like Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) have vowed to oppose such efforts (although the latter recently expressed an openness to filibuster reform.)
Biden is also said to be reluctant to end the filibuster.
Democrats might, then, consider weakening the filibuster, without eliminating it. As it stands, 60 votes are required to stop a filibuster; this number could simply be reduced. Or, perhaps the filibuster could be suspended for votes on expanding voting rights or admitting new states. Senators already can't filibuster court nominees or budget reconciliations (such as the most recent COVID-19 relief package), so there is plenty of precedent for this move.
With the filibuster gone or limited, the next priority must be passing the For the People Act.
Already passed this year in the House, the For the People Act would greatly modernize voter registration, restrict the voter purges that have become commonplace in GOP-controlled states, expand mail-in voting and restore the civil rights-era Voting Rights Act, among many other measures.
The bill would also restrict the partisan gerrymandering that's become the norm across the country -- particularly in Republican-controlled districts. The practice has already rendered many states essentially non-democracies. (In my home state of Ohio, Democrats typically win between 40% and 50% of the statewide vote, but hold just four of 16 congressional seats -- and may lose one of those after redistricting.)
The bill also contains a laundry list of reforms that social justice activists have promoted for years. Because it has virtually no Republican support, it will only pass the Senate if the filibuster is successfully neutralized.
Getting more voters to the polls will help, but Republicans will still remain vastly over-represented in both the Senate and the Electoral College. The only solution, then, may be to add more states to the union.
While a few creative thinkers have proposed breaking California up into seven states, it might be more realistic to offer statehood to the millions of U.S. citizens living in different districts and colonial territories without federal representation. These include the approximately 700,00 residents of the District of Columbia (which does have three electoral votes, thanks to the 23rd Amendment) and the more than 3 million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico.
The same is true of other overseas territories such as the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, none of which are represented in Congress or can vote in a presidential election. (Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett helped manage the Democrats' last impeachment proceedings despite being unable to vote in the trial itself.)
If the residents of these islands vote to join the union, Democrats should welcome their entry. A basic commitment to democracy demands it. (As colonial territories, they should also be allowed to choose independence, a subject for another column.)
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