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comment by b_b
b_b  ·  4071 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Republicans, Over the Cliff

Unfortunately, structural and electoral reforms can only be gained through a Constitutional amendment, and considering that requires 2/3rds of Congress and 3/4 of state legislatures (by the most typical route anyway; I fear that a Constitutional convention would lead to riots), any ideas about reform will be DOA.





user-inactivated  ·  4071 days ago  ·  link  ·  

you'll never get there if you're constantly afraid to talk about it

but i don't believe they want reforms anyway so they won't bring it up

b_b  ·  4071 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I agree. I don't think that reforms would help the status quo (I suppose that has to be true by definition, or else they aren't reforms at all). And while Democrats might find the current crop of teabaggers annoying and antidemocratic, they are also mainly interested in maintaining a static system. Currently, our system is designed to do one fundamental thing: protect incumbents. Every law that is passed that has anything whatever to do with regulating elections typically just serves to entrench candidates that are already in office. It seems to be the one thing that everyone can agree upon.