Political commentator and Democratic strategist James Carville suggested sweeping reforms on his Thursday ‘Politics War Room’ podcast.
Responding to Trump’s ongoing gerrymandering plot in Texas to grab five extra Republican seats in the House, Carville warned that Democrats have no choice but to engage in radical reforms of their own to keep the nation from transforming into permanent minority-party rule.
“If the Democrats win the Senate and the House in 2028, which is not impossible … they are just going to have to add Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as states. They’re going to have to do it,” Carville told co-host Al Hunt.
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Hunt said Trump knows his policies are unpopular, so he needs to “play dirty” to keep the House. Carville agreed, but added that Republicans have been playing dirty for years.
“Republicans in this century in six elections have won the popular vote twice, but they control two-thirds of the Supreme Court. That’s not good,” Carville said. “ … Democrats talk about preserving democracy … but the truth of the matter is people are right when they say this democracy is really imperfect.”
Hunt said that the Supreme Court now works for the White House, and suggested Democrats expand the court to 13 members.
“The shadow docket was supposed to be the emergency docket. You only rule during an emergency, but the shadow docket only serves now when the emergency is for Trump,” Hunt said. Carville agreed, despite reservations.
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“If you have a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate and a Democratic president you should do that on Day 1,” Carville said. “Four more United States senators. Four more Supreme court members and some stringent national legislation restricting redistricting.”
“Any of those things in isolation I would be skeptical about. I would be cautious about,” Carville added. “I would say, ‘Well, I don’t know if that’s the greatest idea in the world, you’re opening Pandora’s Box,’ but if you want to save democracy, I think you got to do all of those things because we are just moving further and further away from being anything close to democracy.”
Listen to the full podcast at this link.