Comment by mattnewton | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mattnewton | Hacker News Reader

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> The primary civic problem in this country is the neutering of our State and Federal legislatures. The Courts should not be legislating. The Executive should not be legislating. Force our Representatives to do their damn jobs.

This is just another symptom of the disease of the disproportional representation everywhere in our systems, most importantly the senate. The senate confirmed (or in the case of Garland, refused to confirm) these justices, and the senate refuses to pass laws the majority of Americans want.

> But there's no way to view this as "a minority enforcing social views on the majority."

How can you interpret the Texas law as anything but? This decision and those laws are all the product of concerted and focused lobbying and maneuvering by conservative Christian groups that make up a minority of Americans.

> This is just another symptom of the disease of the disproportional representation.

Hard disagree. Those issues have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Legislators have learned that the best way to guarantee re-election is to loudly wring your hands and ask "won't somebody do something" every election season. If they actually do their jobs, people might hold them accountable. It has zero to do with "disproportional representation".

> ...the senate refuses to pass laws the majority of Americans want.

This is by design. That's literally what a Senate is designed to do. Preventing the mob from ruling the country by popular decree.

> How can you interpret the Texas law... that make up a minority of Americans.

Because a majority of TEXANS support it: only 28% of the state thinks abortion should be legal in all or most cases [1]. You can't look at nationwide polls and make statements about local politics.

1: https://news.gallup.com/poll/355034/texas-aligned-red-states...

Claims about disproportional representation are almost always based on presidential election results, ignoring the midterm elections, even though the midterms are equally important for the Senate.

The 2014 election shouldn't be ignored, because it explains why Garland wasn't confirmed and Trump's appointments were. That year, Republicans won the popular vote by a margin of almost 6%, and won 9 seats in the Senate.

That election gave them control of the Senate until 2020, and that outcome was representative of the popular vote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_United_States_elections

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