HCR Hits It Out Of The Park, Again

Click here for the April 22 newsletter from Heather Cox Richardson. It's a good one.

She ties together three political stories from today:

1. The House voted 216 to 208 to admit the District of Columbia as a state. Since this would mean two more Democratic senators -- D.C. voted 93% for Biden in 2020 -- the Republicans will block it in the Senate.

2. Speaking to reporters on the Capitol steps, Ted Cruz said:

“You didn’t see Republicans when we had control of the Senate try to rig the game. You didn’t see us try to pack the court. There was nothing that would have prevented Republicans from doing what they’re doing other than respect for the rule of law, other than basic decency, other than recognizing that democracy matters, and packing the court and tearing down the institutions that protect our rights is fundamentally wrong.”

HCR's take: "This is classic Cruz: straight up gaslighting." Republicans have been doing their best to pack the Supreme Court since the Reagan administration. It's been particularly bad in the Trump era: After the death of Scalia, McConnell used his Senate majority to block Obama from appointing a Supreme, claiming it was too soon before an election -- 8 months. Trump then appointed Gorsuch, stealing a seat for the Republicans -- and he could only do it by blowing up the status quo, doing away with the filibuster for SCOTUS appointments, so that the Republicans could confirm Gorsuch with just 51 votes. McConnell's hypocrisy was incredible when he pushed through Amy Coney Barrett when Ruth Bader Ginsburg died -- EIGHT DAYS BEFORE THE ELECTION. Too soon before an election? Only when the nominee is a Democrat (the McConnell Rule).

3. The filibuster.

Biden's Democrats have an ambitious agenda, but they're likely to be blocked, even when their proposed legislation has widespread popular support -- even among Republicans -- because a Republican filibuster means the Democrats have to come up with 60 votes, which would require 10 Republican senators to vote for the Democratic proposal. That'll happen when Satan starts lacing up his Tackaberrys.

Normally cheerful and optimistic, HCR seems rather glum today, closing her post as follows:

It seems to me that these three stories about the mechanics of our government show that our democracy is in a bad place right now. Republicans have stacked the deck in their favor for a long time and have come to rely on that unfair system, rather than policies that appeal to voters, to retain power. Now that Democrats are trying to level the playing field, they howl that the Democrats are cheating.