1979-81 is before my time. In 2021-23 Democrats had a majority in the house and a weak-as-possible majority in the senate (a supermajority is 60 votes, enough to break a filibuster) with only 50 votes*, with Kamala as a tiebreaker.
In all practical terms though, that kind of majority is a Republican majority. In order to control the Senate at all (due to the fact that every state, even rural red states with less than a million people gets 2 votes), Democrats have to include people who are basically Republicans in their senate races, like Joe Manchin - a “Democrat” who refused to endorse Biden or Harris over Trump this last election. And that’s exactly why codifying Roe failed - Manchin said no.
I’m not here to defend Democrats though. I think they should’ve kicked out Manchin a long time ago and stop hiding how broken the system is. But they’re not the problem, they’re just the insufficient cure. Republicans are the problem, fight them. If Democrats are too centrist, then the left should be primarying Republicans and attempting to make a hostile takeover of the party.
*Technically even this was not a Democrat majority, as it included 2 independents - 1 was Bernie Sanders, the other was the more centrist Angus King
1979-81 is before my time. In 2021-23 Democrats had a majority in the house and a weak-as-possible majority in the senate (a supermajority is 60 votes, enough to break a filibuster) with only 50 votes*, with Kamala as a tiebreaker.
In all practical terms though, that kind of majority is a Republican majority. In order to control the Senate at all (due to the fact that every state, even rural red states with less than a million people gets 2 votes), Democrats have to include people who are basically Republicans in their senate races, like Joe Manchin - a “Democrat” who refused to endorse Biden or Harris over Trump this last election. And that’s exactly why codifying Roe failed - Manchin said no.
I’m not here to defend Democrats though. I think they should’ve kicked out Manchin a long time ago and stop hiding how broken the system is. But they’re not the problem, they’re just the insufficient cure. Republicans are the problem, fight them. If Democrats are too centrist, then the left should be primarying Republicans and attempting to make a hostile takeover of the party.
*Technically even this was not a Democrat majority, as it included 2 independents - 1 was Bernie Sanders, the other was the more centrist Angus King