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It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics?
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A note about the author's bias: David Faris is the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty, which is all about how he believes the only way for Democrats to gain more power is to play the same partisan hardball that Republicans do. He couches it in the language of democratic reform, but where Pete's values revolve around deradicalization, Faris seems to lean into radicalization. Fundamentally, I think the difference between them is that Faris takes a short-term view, advocating moves like splitting California into several states and a partisan packing of the court, while Pete takes a long-term view. What he proposes might let us win a battle for the next four years, but it does nothing to talk the country off the ledge that we've climbed up on. Pete's been very upfront that most of his ideas about democratic reform aren't actionable within the span of a single presidency, but must be the culmination of long pushes of advocacy that possibly end in constitutional amendments.
Quick fixes versus lasting solutions. Which do you prefer?
Not sure why you're getting downvoted here, but you're right that it is very confusing. Because while others have explained the filibuster and sure that can be a barrier . . . But yes, the Democrats have 1000% made their own bed. They've not delivered on anything, and have made no major changes to anyone's life. They point to their own spoilers like Sinema and Manchin, as though they are not known entities that they've done nothing at all about for decades. There are some major steps they could take to lock themselves into power, at least for a generation. But they won't do it because at their core, they simply don't believe that they should have power, or that they should ever exercise that power.
I'm not trying to make an equivalency argument here, but I imagine that I sound like it. They are not 'the same', but they are also, overwhelmingly, not the answer.
What's your take on David Faris' new book It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics?
His arguments strike me as broadly compatible with yours, but he argues for a platter of considerably more ambitious things.
In short, he argues that once Democrats run the table again (like in 2009), they should ram a bunch of reforms through that are explicitly designed to undo unfair Republican advantages. Such reforms include:
- Packing the court so that we don't have such a large percentage of justices nominated by presidents who lost the popular vote.
- Term limits for Supreme Court justices structured in such a way that guarantees every president at least one nomination.
- Admit Puerto Rico and DC to the union.
- Break California into several states to get it more senators.
- National early voting.
- Pre-voter registration of 17-year-olds nationwide.
- Making Election Day a national holiday.
- Other voting rights reforms as well (e.g. bans on disenfranchising ex-cons, making it a federal crime to intimidate voters, etc).
- Fighting gerrymandering by doubling the size of the House and having multimember districts with proportional representation.
- Abolishing the filibuster so all those things can be enacted with a simple majority.
These things seem philosophically in line with your proposal to fix the Electoral College, so I was wondering what you thought of each of those ideas.
Also, if you could amend the Constitution with whatever changes you like, would you simply abolish the Electoral College? Would you abolish the Senate too? (I would.)
>And we don't have an equal and opposite force exerted by a liberal propaganda machine.
Michelle Obama is one of the smartest and classiest people ever, but sometimes I think she gave bad advice when she said "when they go low we go high." It only works, in a political environment like the USA is dealing with right now, if people care about someone going low. Not enough people do. The book It's time to Fight Dirty is awesome in how it lays out solutions like giving DC and Puerto Rico statehood, expanding the SC and so on. I don't know how realistic it is but it's a good blueprint. I'm fucking sick and tired of the Dems trying to play by the book and the fact they still respect traditional norms. Fuck that. It's time to go Moscow Mitch on their asses.
https://www.amazon.com/Its-Time-Fight-Dirty-Democrats/dp/1612196950
Realise nobody cares about "Norms" which throughout the Obama era just acted as a weight around the Democrats necks and that politics is actually about winning and pushing your ideology and not "compromise" and "bipartisanship" which generally just moves the Overton window in the direction you don't want it to go by nature? That would be a nice start.
>How can/should the next Democrat President/Administration take advantage of these broken Precedents.
Stack the Supreme Court FDR style or at least routinize appointments and ratfuck the Republicans from top to bottom. Seriously, why in hell should Democrats be stuck with a Supreme court that basically just voted for national "right to work" under the most absurd reasoning and weaponisation of the 1st Amendment?
Political Scientist Professor David Faris recently released a book on how and why the Democrats should fight dirty and ratfuck the Republicans instead of caring about Norms and gentlemans agreements that the right never really cares about beyond virtue signalling while they flaunt them the second they grab power anyway.
> If equal rights is a motivating factor for you, then you really only have one choice and that is to vote Democrat.
Equal rights to me means the rights of everyone, not just the people I agree with. Democrats tend to be a little too selective about which groups deserve which rights IMO. Like this, but the umbrella also represents other Constitutional rights. Republicans aren't better, they just favor other groups. My view is that it should cover everyone equally, but that feels like a minority opinion.
> Also, could you explain what frightening ideas the Democrats have said they would do if they have power?
Off the top of my head: stuffing the SCOTUS, breaking up Democratic strongholds into multiple states, allocating more Senators to states with large populations (or eliminating the Senate altogether), eliminating the Electoral College, etc. In fact, here's a book, written in earnest by a liberal Democrat, that offers a breadbasket of ideas many in the party are seriously considering for after they win back Congress and the White House.
I'm not going to quibble over the merits of these ideas. What's frightening to me is the serious consideration of proposals intended to create a "lasting" (read: permanent) majority. While I understand the appeal from an emotional standpoint, I think history is rife with examples warning against this type of arrangement.
Why? For one, it seems like the surest way to bring one of the most ambitious social experiments in history to a disappointing conclusion. Broadly, a one-party state that controls the Legislative, Executive AND Judicial branches is an oligarchy. What is the point in having a Bill of Rights if the court is packed with justices who will arbitrarily reinterpret those rights to suit the whims and political expediency of Congressional leaders? It gives the illusion of legitimacy, but really it's a democracy in the same way North Korea is a democracy.
To circle back to what I said earlier about equal rights, this concept is terrifying to me personally because a group with a tenuous relationship to freedom and equal rights is openly talking about how they can rig the system to grant themselves the ultimate say in the matter. I 100% do not trust them with that kind of power.
To be clear: I'm not saying "IF TEH DUMBOCRAPS WIN, THE US WILL TRYANNY AND WAR IN TEH STREETZ!!" What I am saying is that I am hesitant to vote for people who fantasize about how they could take over and rule over me the rest of my life. I don't want to enable Trump any more than I want to enable that agenda. I don't trust either party with my life, safety, liberty, economic security, etc. Hence why I'm conflicted.
The Democrats made an entire book about how they will cheat:
https://www.amazon.com/Its-Time-Fight-Dirty-Democrats/dp/1612196950/ref=nodl_
IT'S TIME TO FIGHT DIRTY HOW DEMOCRATS CAN BUILD A LASTING MAJORITY IN AMERICAN POLITICS
> The American electoral system is clearly falling apart—as evidenced by the 2016 presidential election. In It’s Time to Fight Dirty, David Faris offers accessible, actionable strategies for American institutional reform which don’t require a constitutional amendment, and would have a lasting impact on our future.
> With equal amounts of playful irreverence and persuasive reasoning, Faris describes how the Constitution’s deep democratic flaws constantly put progressives at a disadvantage, and lays out strategies for “fighting dirty” though obstructionism and procedural warfare: establishing statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico; breaking California into several states; creating a larger House of Representatives; passing a new voting rights act; and expanding the Supreme Court.
> The Constitution may be the world’s most difficult document to amend, but David Faris argues that many of America’s democratic failures can be fixed within its rigid confines—and, at a time when the stakes have never been higher, he outlines a path for long-term, progressive change in the United States.
IT'S TIME TO FIGHT DIRTY HOW DEMOCRATS CAN BUILD A LASTING MAJORITY IN AMERICAN POLITICS
> The American electoral system is clearly falling apart—as evidenced by the 2016 presidential election. In It’s Time to Fight Dirty, David Faris offers accessible, actionable strategies for American institutional reform which don’t require a constitutional amendment, and would have a lasting impact on our future.
> With equal amounts of playful irreverence and persuasive reasoning, Faris describes how the Constitution’s deep democratic flaws constantly put progressives at a disadvantage, and lays out strategies for “fighting dirty” though obstructionism and procedural warfare: establishing statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico; breaking California into several states; creating a larger House of Representatives; passing a new voting rights act; and expanding the Supreme Court.
> The Constitution may be the world’s most difficult document to amend, but David Faris argues that many of America’s democratic failures can be fixed within its rigid confines—and, at a time when the stakes have never been higher, he outlines a path for long-term, progressive change in the United States.
IT'S TIME TO FIGHT DIRTY HOW DEMOCRATS CAN BUILD A LASTING MAJORITY IN AMERICAN POLITICS
> The American electoral system is clearly falling apart—as evidenced by the 2016 presidential election. In It’s Time to Fight Dirty, David Faris offers accessible, actionable strategies for American institutional reform which don’t require a constitutional amendment, and would have a lasting impact on our future.
> With equal amounts of playful irreverence and persuasive reasoning, Faris describes how the Constitution’s deep democratic flaws constantly put progressives at a disadvantage, and lays out strategies for “fighting dirty” though obstructionism and procedural warfare: establishing statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico; breaking California into several states; creating a larger House of Representatives; passing a new voting rights act; and expanding the Supreme Court.
> The Constitution may be the world’s most difficult document to amend, but David Faris argues that many of America’s democratic failures can be fixed within its rigid confines—and, at a time when the stakes have never been higher, he outlines a path for long-term, progressive change in the United States.
IT'S TIME TO FIGHT DIRTY HOW DEMOCRATS CAN BUILD A LASTING MAJORITY IN AMERICAN POLITICS
> The American electoral system is clearly falling apart—as evidenced by the 2016 presidential election. In It’s Time to Fight Dirty, David Faris offers accessible, actionable strategies for American institutional reform which don’t require a constitutional amendment, and would have a lasting impact on our future.
> With equal amounts of playful irreverence and persuasive reasoning, Faris describes how the Constitution’s deep democratic flaws constantly put progressives at a disadvantage, and lays out strategies for “fighting dirty” though obstructionism and procedural warfare: establishing statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico; breaking California into several states; creating a larger House of Representatives; passing a new voting rights act; and expanding the Supreme Court.
> The Constitution may be the world’s most difficult document to amend, but David Faris argues that many of America’s democratic failures can be fixed within its rigid confines—and, at a time when the stakes have never been higher, he outlines a path for long-term, progressive change in the United States.
IT'S TIME TO FIGHT DIRTY HOW DEMOCRATS CAN BUILD A LASTING MAJORITY IN AMERICAN POLITICS
> The American electoral system is clearly falling apart—as evidenced by the 2016 presidential election. In It’s Time to Fight Dirty, David Faris offers accessible, actionable strategies for American institutional reform which don’t require a constitutional amendment, and would have a lasting impact on our future.
> With equal amounts of playful irreverence and persuasive reasoning, Faris describes how the Constitution’s deep democratic flaws constantly put progressives at a disadvantage, and lays out strategies for “fighting dirty” though obstructionism and procedural warfare: establishing statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico; breaking California into several states; creating a larger House of Representatives; passing a new voting rights act; and expanding the Supreme Court.
> The Constitution may be the world’s most difficult document to amend, but David Faris argues that many of America’s democratic failures can be fixed within its rigid confines—and, at a time when the stakes have never been higher, he outlines a path for long-term, progressive change in the United States.
IT'S TIME TO FIGHT DIRTY HOW DEMOCRATS CAN BUILD A LASTING MAJORITY IN AMERICAN POLITICS
> The American electoral system is clearly falling apart—as evidenced by the 2016 presidential election. In It’s Time to Fight Dirty, David Faris offers accessible, actionable strategies for American institutional reform which don’t require a constitutional amendment, and would have a lasting impact on our future.
> With equal amounts of playful irreverence and persuasive reasoning, Faris describes how the Constitution’s deep democratic flaws constantly put progressives at a disadvantage, and lays out strategies for “fighting dirty” though obstructionism and procedural warfare: establishing statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico; breaking California into several states; creating a larger House of Representatives; passing a new voting rights act; and expanding the Supreme Court.
> The Constitution may be the world’s most difficult document to amend, but David Faris argues that many of America’s democratic failures can be fixed within its rigid confines—and, at a time when the stakes have never been higher, he outlines a path for long-term, progressive change in the United States.
Agreed. BTW this is a great read. I'm 1/3 way through but it is 100% on point. https://www.amazon.com/Its-Time-Fight-Dirty-Democrats/dp/1612196950
https://www.amazon.com/Its-Time-Fight-Dirty-Democrats/dp/1612196950
It's Time to Fight Dirty.
Have you or anyone else on the team read this book "It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics"?
https://www.amazon.com/Its-Time-Fight-Dirty-Democrats/dp/1612196950
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/video/it-s-time-for-democrats-to-fight-dirty-1226072643531
Is the team aware of Spitting Image's amazing Grandpa Biden puppet? https://twitter.com/SpittingImage/status/1310987713152192516
All great suggestions. And end the Senate filibuster.
https://www.amazon.com/Its-Time-Fight-Dirty-Democrats/dp/1612196950
With rule by minority ended forever with structural changes to this country to prevent it. As many as we can do without changing the constitution: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1612196950/
I really wish I lived in the world you’re describing, but that’s not how I see it. The Democrats have consistently underestimated the threat Trump poses, and under-reacted in opposing him.
I think we would do well to spend less time assuring ourselves that:
“it could have been worse”
“we can still undo this later”
“he’s obviously guilty, it’s a matter of time”
And more time thinking of how to effectively resist and block his agenda, here in the present tense. Quite frankly I think our Republican friends across the aisle do a consistently stronger job of this.
I’m a big fan of the Indivisible Guide, written by former democratic congressional staffers who witnessed the rise of the Tea Party, and have written a guide on how to emulate the most effective portions of their model of political organization.
As well as David Faris’, “It’s Time to Fight Dirty”: How Democrats can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics
This book just released in April. I haven't read it yet, but it's getting good reviews.
Can you explain where the whataboutism was?
I was answering OP's question with the realistic idea of what's going to happen. MSM has shown it's favoritism and loyalty to a political party.
Whoever they put in will get the same harshness that Trump got. It's not a personal opinion, democrats literally wrote a book on fighting dirty. https://www.amazon.com/Its-Time-Fight-Dirty-Democrats/dp/1612196950
Interesting idea, but the borders aren't so interesting. We should probably break out into 6 states.
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