Democrats had the opportunity to enshrine Roe after the 2020 election. They had a trifecta. They could have passed whatever they wanted and the Republicans would have had to suck it. And they deserved to go unheard, too, because it's what Republicans did to Democrats for four years. Abortion is overwhelmingly favored among the voter base. We've been seeing abortion rights being protected on state ballot measures, even in states Trump won by wide margins. What we needed for half a century was a law on the books explicitly granting the right to an abortion rather than a SCOTUS decision based on an interpretation of an Amendment that doesn't explicitly guarantee that right. So why did the Democrats do basically nothing to enshrine Roe between 2021 and 2023?

I'm still going to vote blue because the options are either fascists or business as usual. Do I really have a choice? So while we're at it, fuck the two-party system.

And it's not just that particular Congress's fault Roe wasn't enshrined. There were other Democrat trifectas after Roe. The last Congress just happened to be the one to oversee the overturn of Roe.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The Republicans had the house in 2020. The last time Democrats had the trifecta was under Obama for about 6 weeks, they still didn't do anything because enough senators were having health problems, so they still didn't actually have enough votes.

We need to burn down the state election offices till they stop gerrymandering the fuck out of tons of states so that the Dems can actually have a supermajority.

[–] Kiosade@lemmy.ca 4 points 11 months ago

Not true, they passed Obamacare in that window. I remember it was a rush to get… i think the last Kennedy brother to vote on it before he died and they lost the advantage.

[–] TAVAR@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

6 weeks? They held the trifecta for 2 years! From 01/09 to 01/11.

If you give the Dems a supermajority even more Senators will have "health problems" for way longer

Look, I know my instance gives it away, but from Marxist to self proclaimed angry commie: You are dead wrong comrade.

Dems under Obama didn't not do anything bc of "enough Senators with health problems" but because they are beholden to their bourgeoise donors. In essence they are a party representing the bourgeoisie who only occasionally throw you a bone when they are pressured to do so

And you pressure them not by voting harder for them but by doing political work outside of both parties.

The harder you vote blue, the less they'll do for you!

A bit oversimplified but I like the ring of it so I'll run with it.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Democrats had the opportunity to enshrine Roe after the 2020 election.

God I am so sick of hearing that. Anything less than a Constitutional amendment would do fuck-all to protect abortion because Republicans would just repeal any law the Democrats passed. How do you not get that? Or are you just a Republican troll trying to demotivate Democrats?

[–] spicytuna62@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Sure bud. I'm a Republican troll. Don't worry about going through my comment history to learn a shred about who I am or what I stand for.

You think I'm not aware they'd try to repeal it? Trifectas are rare so it'd be some work to pass a law repealing it. It'll die in a chamber or get vetoed. It took a Republican trifecta just to end the Individual Mandate of the ACA, but the ACA is otherwise still in effect. But even if it only took a few years for Republicans to repeal an act granting the right to an abortion, at least they tried directly addressing the issue instead of shrugging and going "well that's that."

Yes, it'd be a lot of back and forth at the federal level for a while until people got sick of it and an Amendment actually made it to ratification. Until then, Amendments are practically impossible. Over 10,000 Amendments have been proposed since founding, but only 27 have been ratified. We can't even get the Equal Rights Amendment ratified, despite its popularity. So what makes you think 37 states would vote to ratify an Abortion Amendment? Would you also have been a naysayer in '64 when Johnson signed the umpteenth Civil Rights Act into law?

Don't get me wrong. I want an Amendment too. An Amendment is the strongest form of protection. But it's also got a very slim chance of happening within our lifetimes. I'll celebrate the moment I hear of its proposal, but I'm also not holding my breath for ratification.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com -3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Don't worry about going through my comment history

Ain't nobody got time for that.

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

Mmm, yes, much better to just throw around off-the-wall accusations based on a couple sentences

[–] Facebones@reddthat.com 9 points 11 months ago

I'm sorry, WHO is trying to demotivate people?

"Republicans will overturn everything anyway so fuck it why try"

GTFO here with that. Abortion was a losing platform in multiple states this last cycle - If we had locked it into law on the federal level, yes Republicans would overturn it day one but they'd have had to do it in front of the whole world on the national level removing any wishy washy state by state bullshit argument that they love using to compartmentalize themselves from every evil thing the right does.