Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by diordiderot 1456 days ago
It's difficult when the balance of power is skewed so heavily to the right.

CA senator represents ~10000000

WY senator represents ~200000

1 comments

That determines who has control. However, the Democrats currently have control despite this, if only barely.

So the question remains - why don't they just do what the court has said they should, and pass a law?

See my answer above. It comes down to the filibuster. That's a procedural rule making it so that the Democrats do not, in fact, currently have control. They have to find 10 Republicans to "come across the aisle" in order to get legislation on the floor for a vote. Getting those Senators to come across the aisle is known as politicking. That's just the way the system works.

Democrats do have the power to change those procedural rules, but there's huge downsides in doing so.

Bottom line - don't look for easy solutions to complex political problems. They're likely to be loaded with unintended consequences.