Extremist Thinking

It seems as if the Democrats are becoming increasingly extreme in their views. Driven by fear that hard-Left politics will not provide them with an electoral path to power, they have proposed eliminating the constitutionally mandated electoral college and replacing it with a popular vote. That would (because of heavy blue majorities in just two large states (NY and CA) of the 50 united states) guarantee election victories. Good luck with that. And to make sure that the courts would not stand in the way of unconstitutional power grabs, the Left is increasingly in favor of restructured SCOTUS. For years, a liberal majority presented the left with nothing to complain about, but now that the Supreme Court is leaning just a bit right of center, it's the end of the world.

James Freeman comments:

Yesterday this column noted that judicial radicalism is increasingly embraced by establishment Democrats. At last night’s Democratic debate, presidential candidates kicked around the idea of restructuring the Supreme Court by adding new Justices or perhaps forcing out current ones via term limits.

The general idea is to change the judiciary until it produces their desired political results. To his credit, former Vice President Joe Biden warned his fellow Democrats against attempting to pack the court with ideological allies, as it would surely reduce the public’s respect for legal decisions.

But unfortunately the idea probably isn’t going away ...

Freeman quotes from an opinion piece in the New York Times (where else?) arguing for a restructuring of the Supreme Court:

Four of the nine current Supreme Court justices have been named by presidents who took office despite losing the popular vote.

Two of those four justices were named by a president whose victory was clinched when the Supreme Court ordered a halt to vote counting.

Ahhh ... there it is. A GOP presidential candidate (in this case George W. Bush) "cheated" and "stole" the election. Sounds kinda familiar—does it not?

As a consequence, SCOTUS is illegitimate because ... popular vote!

No matter that the Dems knew the rules of the election before they conducted their campaigns. No matter that there are compelling reasons to allow every state to have some constitutionally mandated influence in a federal election, not only the largest (and coincidentally, bluest) ones. No matter that what's important to people in NY and CA just might be different than what matters to people in IA or AL or NH). No matter that we are a representative government. We pass laws via elected representatives, not via direct votes of a majority across the county. No matter that the constitution gives the states clear powers to govern, unencumbered by the federal government.

The Democrats now believe in the tyranny of the majority by endorsing the popular vote. By packing the courts or forcing judges to retire, they want to force the judiciary to bend to their will. As long as the Dems can grasp the power, anything goes. That. Is. Extremist. Thinking.