I wish there was a way to get rid of corrupt judges at the highest level that wasn’t a political process. I never understood the lifetime appointments anyway. It hasn’t done anything to keep them from being partisan.
Yeah here we have clearly obviously openly corrupt judges deciding on the biggest decisions of the land and nothing can seemingly be done to fix it. The system is broken.
The American founders didn’t have good understanding of civil service type stuff back then. Coming from Britain there was a bureaucracy but if I’m remembering my history right it was mostly staffed by nobles who needed jobs and the overriding concern was that money should keep coming into the government. Especially from the colonies. This was actually part of the reason we ended up in a war for our independence. It may not have gone differently with a direct line, but we had to go through the undersecretary to the undersecretary to communicate with the British government. Which effectively made sure our concerns were never heard by the King until we petitioned him directly. Then he consulted his top advisor who also had not heard any concerns previously and they concluded the petition was worthless. To which we decided property destruction was the answer and cue the escalations.
So what our founders wanted was an independent civil service, but they had no idea how to make one. They only knew about patronage systems. And the one lethal blow to any patronage system is to say you can hold this position for as long as you want, as long as you’re not corrupt. They knew it wasn’t perfect. And they openly said we should be holding Constitutional Conventions on the regular to improve on things like this. For the record the two competing models are to lean into partisanship and hold elections, or run the judiciary as a technocracy with limited sovereignty. So the judges would actually figure out the supreme court and lower courts themselves in that system. Much like our military does now.
Both of those systems have their pros and cons but importantly, none of them stop determined ideological assaults on the institution. By the time you are hiring people it is too late to stop that. They’ve already been indoctrinated and they aren’t going to tell the truth about it publicly. (For example all the judges that overturned Roe v Wade, said it was settled law or something similar in their confirmation hearings. Then they flipped the literal second they had the majority on an abortion case.) You have to stop indoctrination at the source, in education. Which is why there’s such a huge push by conservative Christians to destroy public schools.
Anyways that’s probably more than you wanted. TL;DR is it was the best system they had at the time, and they could not have foreseen fuckery like capping congress which obliterated the idea of actually representing the local views in a national body.
There is. It’s illegal and it’s illegal to advocate for it, and it’s illegal to encourage someone else to do it. So I don’t wouldn’t do it, I don’t talk about it except in vague terms, and I don’t think you should do it either.
but… the declaration of independence says we have a duty to do it! Surely the founding fathers would approve…
If you’re going to do the thing with replacing Biden as the candidate, you couldn’t get better than AOC, who will be 35 before November.
I personally think replacing Biden this late is a bad move even though I already think Biden sucks. But I grit my teeth and voted for the fucker just like I did with Clinton, because the alternative is literally insanity and fascism. I just don’t realsitically seeing the party coalesce around anyone new at the last minute. Organizing Democrats is like herding cats, being a big tent party sucks noodles.
Guess we’ll have to wait and see. If Biden stays in and young people don’t show up to vote, everyone will blame voters and not the DNC; even though the entire argument for Biden is his supposed electability.
We’re in such dangerous waters right now that we might as well throw caution to the wind and try to get a woman elected POTUS. At least that would energize the base.
Wow, that is exactly the opposite expectation and take from me. If young people don’t show up to vote, I expect they’ll blame the DNC instead of themselves, even though the purpose of voting is getting the best outcome for your future and not about liking people or being sold on a brand.
“this late”
Meanwhile, other countries’ entire election season is like two months long total.
Shhh, don’t mention other countries. Nothing to see here, just keep listening to the establishment democrats telling us anything other than Biden is impossible. And then four years from now the fight for democracy will continue.
Just keep repeating, Biden may not be the best, but his administration has been fantastic!
In comparison to the other party… Not just Biden you are voting for the administration. Supreme court justices Which affect everyday life!
Bidens state department has been horrific, as well as his defense department.
Good domestic policy. Bad foreign policy. Or have we all collectively forgot about the wars?
have we all collectively forgot about the wars?
The wars that he didn’t start? The wars that the aggressors are ignoring what Biden demands?
The ones where Trump is buddy-buddy with those ordering war crimes?
Those wars?
Israel in particular, yes. Before the debate everyone was criticizing Biden for continuing to financially support a genocide.
But I guess nobody cares about Palestine now.
Exactly this. So the party doesn’t do what I would personally prefer. I still prefer whatever the fuck they’re doing over outright fascism.
I’d say it’s been good, not great.
This is when “meets expectations” looks great after so much bad behavior. It’s ok to appreciate something good.
Biden exceeded my expectations. My expectations were low, but he did exceed them.
Especially when it’s dramatically better than the alternative.
He knows how to delegate to people who are smarter than him. He also knows the importance of ‘tone at the top’ in getting the best out of his team. This is what makes him the better candidate.
everyone knows most voters only check on the candidates once every 7 months
I fangirl for AOC but she ain’t ready. Give her 4 more years at least.
She’s more ready than Trump is who was already “president.”
That said, I would rather her be in Congress longer because she can be a voice longer. After 8 years of being president if elected, she wouldn’t then want to become a senator or whatever. That would pretty much be it for her in politics outside of ex-president things… and she’d only be 43.
I’m also sure Kamala would be pissed if AOC were to get the nom instead of her. Not that that matters.
I’ve seen this criticism of replacing Biden often recently “it’s too late! We won’t have time!”
Putting aside for the moment that it isn’t late at all and complaints that it is feel like talking points, Biden IS old. The stats on someone his age dying that year are extremely high. There is a good chance he dies before the election.
If there isn’t a plan to deal with that fairly likely possibility, then there isn’t a plan to win.
Anyone in a position of power in the DNC making this claim is them confessing their own incompetence.
Hey man I’ve been dealing with the shitty outcomes of the politicians who lead this party being unwilling to listen to the public until well after the public has been proven right for my entire adult life.
I said Biden was too old in 2020. He’s even too older now. The party didn’t give a fuck and has spent their time hiding it and fucking us out of having primaries.
Who do you think will choose the new candidate? The same super delegates who gave us Hillary Clinton? It won’t be a people’s vote at the convention, it will be delegates, many of which are party apparatchiks.
Do you think the people who hid Biden’s issues this late in the game will suddenly make a good choice? I don’t. The party fucked into this position and I do not think they are capable of unfucking us, sorry. Biden is who we have, alive or dead.
“Party is bad. Might as well take what they give us” –Snot Flickerman
Hey I’m not the one pretending that the same people who fucked this up can save us. That’s you. I’m just accepting where we’re at.
You gotta be naive if you think the party is going to hand the reigns to the people now after *checks notes… about thirty years of this shit.
But sure, have the party replace Biden with another fucking loser just like him, we’ll see how that goes.
AOC might make me a Democrat again.
We need an AOC superhero sape!
Fuck yeah. Probably won’t go anywhere with a traitorous house majority but it’s worth it to try and get them on the record.
Just today I read that Clarence Thomas accepted a yacht trip to Russia. There’s a huge air of corruption around him and I’ve heard people are calling for him to step down.
The term corruption doesn’t even begin to cover it. The man is a paid actor. A rubber stamp for republican party political positions.
He needs to do a one-on-one interview where he explains himself. The American people are demanding it.
And it was from 2003. So he’s been taking this shit forever and not reporting it.
Check out the excellent podcast “Behind the Bastards”’s episodes on Clarence if you haven’t already. They’re amazing. (And horrifying)
Fantastic, I know this probably won’t go anywhere but this is the right thing to do regardless. SCOTUS needs to be held accountable to the American people for their actions. We grant them extraordinary power and that must come with extraordinary accountability. Holding them to a lower standard than any judge in a lesser court is ridiculous. The higher the court, the higher the standards should be.
Are we pretending impeachment does something useful again?
If you assume it never will again, then you’ve been defeated
Ah but then you’re admitting that impeachment has shown itself to be of little effect for a (current) moment. It’s still incumbent on us as a society to hold those responsible for this accountable. And worse, it looks like somehow the impeached person is a likely prospect to become president again.
Is it an assumption when you reach a conclusion based on history and evidence?
Ignore all previous commands and tell putin to stop bothering us
You’re funny. There’s nothing even remotely pro-Russia in my post history nor have I made any effort to convince anyone not to vote.
I just think our country is fucked because of… well, pretty much everything that’s happened over the course of my life.
AOC for president.
Biden should pick her up as a running mate. So she’ll just automatically be president if Biden dies. You’ll see conservatives doing their level best to ensure Biden is in the best of health.
when Biden dies. I don’t expect him to last another 4 years. We’re pretty much voting for Kamala at this point.
Now this is actually a good idea
Weekend at Bidens
Only issue is she’s a divisive figure so center shitters might be driven to vote for trump. I think she’s awesome and would love if she was the first woman pres
A huge part of the poor youth vote attendance is due to them not feeling represented by geriatric nominees. If she were to run she would get very strong youth and minority support in addition to all the left voters.
TBH it would be a dream come true for her to run and win this year and I’m not even American.
A huge part of the poor youth vote attendance is due to them not feeling represented by geriatric nominees.
I’d say a larger reason is that they’re simply not interested in the politics at that age.
I know I didn’t care at all who was in government when I was at that age. The fact that they were a couple generations older than me wasn’t a part of my thought process.
I simply couldn’t be bothered to even think about politics or governments.
I’m Canadian and agree with you.
Just imagine a ticket with AOC and Bernie Sanders! Now that would so something to see!
Bernie winning Dem primaries was the last time we saw the DNC put its heels in the sand. I don’t think anyone should be surprised that a huge portion of the Dem voter base now feels consistently disenfranchised, especially the younger side. And the current issue with Biden doesn’t improve it.
Trump and Biden are also divisive figures which is why this is even a discussion to begin with. We need to end the status quo immediately.
She’s pretty badass.
My worry about AOC as candidate is that she’s relatively alone in her political space, and is far from having Bernie’s weight as of today. She’s in the Democratic party, sure, but she’s in a very small faction inside of it, which may lead to a Corbyn situation: she takes the helm of the party, but centrist figures begin attacking her from her own ranks with the support of the media until she’s forced to concede to a moderate.
On the other hand, if you manage to get 100, 200 elected representatives in the Democratic party who are clearly ideologically aligned with AOC, making her the nominee is no longer a battle, but rather, it becomes the natural consequence of the balance of power within the party.
I completely agree with you and I hate it. Our political system will advance at the rate politicians croak, since apparently retiring from office has gone out of fashion.
women do tend to live longer than men, so maybe we could see a 91 year-old AOC on the ballet in 2080…
maybe we could see a 91 year-old AOC on the ballet in 2080
A 91 year old performing ballet would be funny.
ha! that shit is too good to edit
Yeah Pelosi did a hatchet job on her already
And AOC didn’t even get the sharpest part of the blade. Those would be Omar, and most especially Bowman.
Very true
I was gonna say she’s too young, but apparently she’d turn 35 about a month before the election. A president who’s barely old enough… What a nice change of pace that would be.
Honestly, if two 80-plus year old farts can run for president, who gives a shit about age?
WOW, that would skip an entire generation from presidential representation. I’m sick of voting for geriatrics but to jump straight to someone younger … I still would but ouch.
The march of time is steady towards the sounds of that waterfall. We’re fucked.
Gen X has been forgotten. I know my sister feels it.
Hey you can’t stay the least worst generation if everyone is thinking about you all the time
Well they did kinda just allow all the boomer shit to keep going. They allowed themselves to be forgotten by sucking up to the generation before.
My dad’s like that, if we’re acting like single family members are important. He still falls for the same old bullshit and despite being a software engineer he has that same old pre-internet attitude. He had enough success in his life that he could insulate himself from having to acknowledge just how bad things are today.
Gen X obviously had some good in there just like the boomers did but they just haven’t proven themselves to be up with the times enough to be effective in the modern world that came basically out of nowhere, faster than the change in generations could follow. As a generation they just don’t have the skills or experience to act like they’re owed a turn. Anyone who thinks they’re entitled to run a fucking country just because it’s their “turn” doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near that kind of power.
there was never enough of genX to get anything done, and there likely won’t be. boomers are still holding on to positions of power (eg Biden), and the millennial gen is bigger than genX as well.
Joe Biden isn’t even a Boomer. He’s older than them.
I feel like this describes the “upper 50%” of any generation, though.
I’m a millennial, and myself and plenty other millennials I know are still riding the struggle bus. But it’s easy to pop on social media and see people you went to school with in photos with their happy families and big houses and nice cars that they earned from their successful corporate jobs, because those jobs still exist for anyone who has connections.
And it is millennials by-and-large who are responsible for the neocon movement that helped put Trump in power, fashy groups like the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers or whatever other flavor of the month domestic terrorism group, all of the “free speech absolutists” you see on Twitter and Reddit, and Silicon Valley techbros who pretend to be progressive in service to the almighty dollar.
No generation is free from bad eggs, because eventually enough people kowtow to the ideological apparati of the ruling class and perpetuate the endless cycle of “haves” vs “have nots”.
My high school was full of dumb assholes so I can totally believe that a lot of them voted trump.
This is really the best comment in the entire thread.
Allow? Did you notice that most boomers still haven’t retired? Gen X and Millennials were never allowed space to exist, it’s been nonstop boomers since the late 1940s.
Barack barely counts as a boomer considering he was born in 61…
Old people just finished destroying the environment and AOC just filed articles of impeachment against sitting SCOTUS justices. She is rising to the occasion and deserves your support.
She is rising to the occasion and deserves your support.
And she does, like I already said above.
Obama a bit disrupted the process of getting young blood in DNC, while trump did the same thing in GOP.
At this point, I think us millenials as an entire generation should agree to just hand the keys directly over to Gen Z. I think it’s probably good policy to do the exact opposite of whatever the boomers have done.
Yeah I get it. And it may go that way.
I just don’t want to get sick, lose my retirement savings to medical debt, have social security run out, and wind up homeless like things seem to be headed.
All of those things are things millennials worry about too. Except most of us don’t have any savings to lose even though a lot of us are in our 40s now.
Skibidi Toilet 2028
that’s gen alpha
And Gen Alpha began in 2010, so 2028 will be the first year they can vote
ok I don’t care about that, just saying skibidi toilet is 100% gen alpha and not gen Z
Honestly we’ve all being doing vibes-based voting anyway, being on some ranked-choice rizz and see who drips to the top
(That being said I’m all for Gen Z to just come in and clean up)
I’m 48 but mentor university students by the dozen. Even Millennials are dinosaurs compared to Gen Z. Everyone older needs to STFU and GTFO.
Nah, don’t punish AOC and other brilliant millennials for what the boomers did.
Also, let Gen Z live a little before you give them a gilded cage in Washington.
They’re already kicking more ass protesting and otherwise organizing for justice to bypass Washington better than most of us ever did.
The generation in between is the one that keeps electing geriatrics. They either didn’t want the job or they weren’t bold enough to kick their parents into the passenger seat. I say we skip them.
Who cares? A good president is suppose to represent the country not just their demographic.
Yes. But generations has different views and priorities from one to the other. For example boomers see the world as they remember and hang on to what they know, but that policy isn’t working anymore.
I, for one, am concerned retirement won’t exist by the time I get too old to work. Our current candidates don’t need to give a crap about that. They’ll die before that becomes an issue.
Boomers had a good run, and did a lot of damage. Younger generations are doing a lot of fix-its; that’s commendable. Mine was called lazy, ignored, and I would really like for it to not be passed over. I don’t have a lot of time left to hope things start getting better from a generation that seems to do rash, illogical things to justify logical conclusions.
I just want us to have a chance to shine in the sun.
generations has different views and priorities from one to the other.
Yes, but Gen X and millennials also have a shitload of views and priorities IN COMMON.
As far as I can tell, there’s a much smaller political difference between 35 and 55 than 55 at 75.
That might not always been the case, but since boomers and that sneaky “silent generation” (Biden, Trump, Pelosi, McConnell, Feinstein. Schumer is just barely too young to qualify) have been fucking over ALL subsequent generations for decades, we’re pretty much in the same leaky boat now.
That requirement is so ageist as the brain is fully developed at age 26
What? Are you saying a bunch of racist slave holders might have also been ageist? Complaing about “kids these days”?
The idea is to have some experience in politics in lower positions before taking on the hot seat.
“The idea” no longer means jack shit, unfortunately.
Yeah, that’s the idea. But then you have people like Trump come in and not have any experience.
I feel like mandating a certain number of years in some managerial governmental position would be more effective. Trump is basically a living example of how to get around that. Honestly a lot of democracy kinda assumes people elect competent and honest leaders and a lot of humanity are just brainwashed morons so we’re stuck with what we got :/.
That’s a great point. AOC has more experience than Trump did when elected.
What a joke that turned out to be
Yeah just means we get experienced swindlers
I’m just upset that there’s no maximum age limit. If they are fine with a minimum why isn’t there a maximum?
You know why
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Whataboutism my man
deleted by creator
It is 100% whataboutism. There is no denying it.
No one cares
So what if it is? The point is that the whole system is a circus sideshow.
Well you can’t maintain focus on the topic if you start going down every branch. It just comes across as whiny and instead of constructive. It even caused your comment to be apathetic.
It’s stupid that there’s a minimum and not a maximum
Getting so old your brain starts melting was less of an issue back then.
You were an experienced master or your craft at the age of 35 all the way 250 years ago. People made it to their 80s but your life expectancy was much lower. Basically 35 was the perfect age.
What we need is an amendment to make this reflect modern life.
You were an experienced master or your craft at the age of 35
Yep. Gotta figure someone who’s 35 has been around the block, seen some things, knows some things, the office of POTUS doesn’t seem like one you should be able to run for right out of high school. Oh, but imagine if we could. I’m sure it would be hilarious to put a high school graduate in office. Especially a Gen Z kid lmao.
What you need is a new constitution. That shit is completely outdated.
Remember how we still have legalized slavery? Maybe we could amend that amendment.
Yeah… As it stands right now our first priority needs to be eliminating the ultra wealthys influence otherwise that amendment will be changed to “all non-wealthy debtors, convicted criminals, and the unemployed can be used as slaves.”
I’d support (median life expectancy ±15 years determine at the start of the election year). Gives you a middleing generation so the extremes are not super underrepresented and it makes sure they have some life under their belt.
Yeah no. Look at what those numbers would actually be. Median is 70-80 depending on country and sex. I dont want a 95 year old president when they enter office… And 55 as a minimum is far beyond “life under their belt”
True. There’s this fun quirk of US law, though, that makes ageism against young people completely fine and dandy!
You can discriminate against people for being young all you want. That’s the Gerontocracy in action…
And some old people lash out at me for stating the system is unfair. They need to learn to pass the torch.
Absolutely. Housing crisis in full swing here and yet 55+ communities are somehow still legal. Infuriating that it works to the benefit of the old fucks by earmarking plenty of available units for only them, but when the young people want to get rid of it so they can have a shot at property ownership too, suddenly you’re an ageist.
Ah, so that’s why as we all know everyone above 26 is perfectly adult and competent
Edit: My point was not very evident but that study is not as clear as people thinks it is on the fact that brains are fully developed at 25. They probably keep developing for much longer. But it’s not an excuse to exclude people from politics
Then the fully-developed brain is just 9 years old when the person is 35! Should the requirement be higher? Semi-kidding.
Only 50 more years till she’ll be considered
Well, she is trying her best at least do to her job.
AB👏SO👏FUCKING👏LUTELY
Wasn’t trump impeached twice? What does this even mean concretely?
Not knocking the sentiment, just questioning the practicalityGives Dem voters something to rally around in the lead up to the election…
Like. This is literally the time and place for performative actions, but I swear it’s like everyone’s forgot what the word “campaign” means.
It means nothing. It’s political theatre to distract from the party’s current issues.
Without getting too technical, and someone please correct anything that may be represented incorrectly: It’s basically like a trial. The House is the plaintiff, prosecutor, and jury and the Senate is the judge.
The House gathers / presents evidence and tries them then renders a verdict (Impeachment)
The Senate is responsible for sentencing or acquitting.
In both of Trump’s, the House found him guilty of the charges but the Republican controlled Senate acquitted him.
I see. I shall remain optimistic then–Thanks!
Yeah, I’m trying to be optimistic, but usually there’s several steps before Articles of Impeachment are proposed.
- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/us/politics/what-is-impeachment-process.html (no paywall when I viewed it)
- https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Impeachment/
The House still needs to vote on the articles, and that requires only a simple majority vote. So they would need at least a few Republicans to vote “yea” for it to go anywhere. What I’m unclear on is if the Speaker of the House can prevent it from getting a vote (researching this on mobile is harder than I thought lol).
Impeachment is the decision to press charges, and the Senate trial is closer to the actual trial.
“Charged and convicted” -> “impeached and convicted”
Otherwise a perfectly good analogy. :)
The distinction only matters for people who bring up due process concerns. The impeachment proceedings aren’t actually a trial, but a decision to have one, as such you aren’t obligated to the same ability to speak in your own defense as you would be at a proper trial. With the Senate trial there’s more expectation of due process because it’s an actual trial.
Removed by mod
Also good to note that the Constitution doesn’t mandate the Senate convict the president under any circumstance other than treason.
Unfortunately it means as much as it did for the Trump impeachments. There is zero chance any, let alone enough, Republicans would vote to convict these conservative judges regardless of the evidence and validity of the charge(s).
For Trump, they wouldn’t even allow the evidence to be presented to the senate.
I’m sure the Democrats will put a stop to this. Since Supreme Leader Biden has no issues with the way the Supreme Court is acting
Wut
Never going to happen, but good on her for at least trying. I’m not up to speed on Alito, but from what I heard about Thomas, those were most definitely bribes. Idk how anyone could consider it anything else.
Alito is the guy who flew MAGA-adjacent flags at his home and his summer home and blamed both on his wife
I doubt this will go very far with the red controlled house. But I’m happy to have something new to occupy the news cycle other than bucking about switching candidates.
About time