This is not a democracy problem, "it's a fire-breathing right-wing problem."
Congressman Jim Himes pushed back effectively against Katy Tur's ridiculous framing
I used to like Katy Tur about 6 years ago when she was fresh off the Trump campaign beat. Since then I don’t quite get what has happened to her, but now she seems like she is auditioning to be the next Chuck Todd or Andrea Mitchell. That is not a compliment! I don’t usually watch her show but I caught a segment on the radio while driving, one that really caught my attention because Congressman Jim Himes (D-Connecticut) pushed back so well against what I thought was Tur’s terrible framing of our current situation. Tur insisted on “both-sidesing” the political rot and gridlock we are facing, and asked (paraphrase) “will there ever be a unity leader who can work with the centers of both parties.” Himes said very respectfully but clearly and strongly, “This is not a democracy problem,” it is a right-wing nationalist problem here and globally.
Tur kept pressing, saying democracy allowed gerrymandering which was held up by SCOTUS. (While Tur may have a point, these are FLAWS in our democratic system, not a feature!)
Himes said that the right-wing GOP is gravitating to undemocratic mechanisms to get their way. He mentioned the Electoral College and each state having 2 Senators regardless of population. Wyoming (pop 580,000) has the same number of Senators as California, which has 40 million residents. Think about it, there is one Senator for every 20 million residents of California, versus every 290,000 people in Wyoming.
See also Matt Gaetz as 1 person, bringing down the Speaker of the House. Our system is messed up right now because the Republicans have made it so.
This really hits me hard after my interview with NC State Senator Graig Meyer this week because the autocratic takeover of our state government by the Republicans is pretty much complete. The only way to change things is to vote out the Republican majority, but they have put in so many structual changes that is is almost impossible to do so. I am not giving up by any means, but right now it is truly not a fair fight. When citizens can’t change things through democratic means, that is a failed democracy.
Here is the link to the video segment with Congressman Himes and Katy Tur.