Democrats think they will win back the Senate and the White House in November. But Democrats and progressives advocating big structural changes seem to be convinced, foolishly, that they will never lose another election.
Democrats hope to give themselves four more senators by granting statehood to Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. While it’s unclear if the latter will really elect Democratic senators (or even if it wants to become a state), the district votes for Democrats by a nearly 80-point margin. Granting statehood to the city is a blatant power grab for Senate Democrats, which is why Chuck Schumer wants to push it.
Meanwhile, court-packing has been making its way around the progressive pundit circle. At the Atlantic, Quinta Jurecic and Susan Hennessey argue that the only way to maintain the Supreme Court’s legitimacy is by adding more Democrat-selected justices. This is because Republicans “clearly” have the constitutional power to confirm a nominee, but it would be a form of “constitutional hardball.” Better, then, that Democrats hold the court’s legitimacy hostage.
Some Democratic senators are on board with court-packing, but most are keeping mum on the issue until they see how the election plays out. But even if voters deliver them unified government control in November, Democrats should remember that even their desired structural changes won’t keep them in the majority forever, and they will lose elections again.
It’s become a very popular trope to prophesize the end of the Republican Party. “Demographics are destiny,” some are fond of saying, and the Republican Party is always losing the demographics. Nancy Pelosi thought the GOP wouldn’t be back for a generation after Barack Obama entered office in 2009 with a unified government, including a filibuster-proof Senate majority. Two years later, Republicans swept her out of the speaker’s office in a historic wave victory.
Harry Reid thought Democrats wouldn’t lose the Senate again, which is why he nuked the filibuster for most presidential appointments in 2013. One year later, Republicans swept into the Senate majority with a nine-seat swing. Democrats were sure they wouldn’t lose the presidency again either. Then, Hillary Clinton didn’t visit Wisconsin and lost to a reality game show host.
Democrats have remained angry that Mitch McConnell has exploited the mechanisms of the Senate as he has in recent years. A Republican Party facing court-packing and Senate-packing will respond in kind. Democrats won’t be in the majority forever (they aren’t even there right now), and they won’t like the direction these structural changes go when the power changes back again.
