The abilities of mayors and their city governments vary from state-to-state, but generally they have very little power in the United States. They do not have the income or legal purview to launch large civic projects, be they physical constructions or social programs. Mandami is a stuntman, and so has an awful lot in common with Donald Trump.
When a political movement tries to implement an agenda, it’s common for pushback to come from people inside the tent. Trump has seen that from Senate Republicans. Names like Manchin and Sinema were thorns in Democrats side in recent years. While there is some momentum for this Mamdani-style of Democrat, you are seeing some pushback in areas.
One recent example is here in Columbus. Columbus State Community College recently introduced a proposal to put a property tax increase on the ballot that would provide for free tuition for any high school graduate in Franklin County. This sounds like a proposal right out of the Mamdani playbook. Today, Columbus State cancelled the proposal. The most prominent public pushback on it came from local black Democrats.
OK, that goes too far. However I've toyed, in my imagination, with greatly reducing the powers of the Senate leaving it a body with "meta" duties:
- Conducting trials of impeachment
- Approving presidential appointments (but with the limitation that any appointment not voted up or down within 90 days would take effect provisionally*)
- Approving or rejecting Constitutional amendments
- Approving or rejecting foreign treaties(again, with a requirement that they must be voted on, within, say, 180 days)
- Approving or rejecting new states joining the nation
- Approving or rejecting declarations of war that have passed the House.
* Meaning that such an appointment taking effect in this manner could be subsequently rejected before the convening of the next Senate.
Re: eliminating the separation of powers by making the executive and judicial branches subject to the legislature in a quasi-parliamentary setup.
Now that's freaking nuts. An independent judiciary is crucial to liberty.
Re: This proved to be a very useful thing to do, and not socialism at all by our understanding.
Well, there are extremists on the other side who think that even public infrastructure should be privately owned and built. So yes, this is socialism, we just don't think of it as such because it seems normal and natural to us.
In my own lifetime, I have noticed the decline of reverence toward the U.S. Constitution which, I think, corresponds well with the decline of public, non-partisan patriotic display. Witness the drop in enthusiasm between the Bicentennial and America250.
Now we have illiberal movements on both the right and the left that are promising changes that are unconstitutional. DSA-types would abolish the Senate and pack the Supreme Court. Christian Nationalists would like to deport Muslims and elevate Christianity as a state religion.
The Constitution has served very well as a national arrangement for the last 237 years so that a diverse people can inhabit a huge and well-endowed continent in a way that allows much prosperity and freedom. Our country had and has many faults but our Constitutional arrangement has enabled us to remedy the worst of them. As a confessional Lutheran Christian, I think American classical-Liberal constitutionalism is likely to be the best system possible in a sinful world. Our outcomes have historically been worse under some Catholic and Calvinist regimes.
This is why I must reject Christian Nationalism and hold to classical-Liberal Conservatism as promulgated by Ronald Reagan, Charlie Kirk and others. By rejecting anti-constitutional extremism on the Right, we are enabled to fight anti-constitutional extremism on the Left. Flag-waving civic patriotism, 4th of July celebrations and the Pledge of Allegiance are useful and important ways to demonstrate loyalty to our Constitutional regime.
I wish I could ban the use of "neoliberal." It's amorphous and used solely as a pejorative. Basically no one uses it as a self-descriptor.
The abilities of mayors and their city governments vary from state-to-state, but generally they have very little power in the United States. They do not have the income or legal purview to launch large civic projects, be they physical constructions or social programs. Mandami is a stuntman, and so has an awful lot in common with Donald Trump.
When a political movement tries to implement an agenda, it’s common for pushback to come from people inside the tent. Trump has seen that from Senate Republicans. Names like Manchin and Sinema were thorns in Democrats side in recent years. While there is some momentum for this Mamdani-style of Democrat, you are seeing some pushback in areas.
One recent example is here in Columbus. Columbus State Community College recently introduced a proposal to put a property tax increase on the ballot that would provide for free tuition for any high school graduate in Franklin County. This sounds like a proposal right out of the Mamdani playbook. Today, Columbus State cancelled the proposal. The most prominent public pushback on it came from local black Democrats.
Re: abolishing the Senate
OK, that goes too far. However I've toyed, in my imagination, with greatly reducing the powers of the Senate leaving it a body with "meta" duties:
- Conducting trials of impeachment
- Approving presidential appointments (but with the limitation that any appointment not voted up or down within 90 days would take effect provisionally*)
- Approving or rejecting Constitutional amendments
- Approving or rejecting foreign treaties(again, with a requirement that they must be voted on, within, say, 180 days)
- Approving or rejecting new states joining the nation
- Approving or rejecting declarations of war that have passed the House.
* Meaning that such an appointment taking effect in this manner could be subsequently rejected before the convening of the next Senate.
Re: eliminating the separation of powers by making the executive and judicial branches subject to the legislature in a quasi-parliamentary setup.
Now that's freaking nuts. An independent judiciary is crucial to liberty.
Re: This proved to be a very useful thing to do, and not socialism at all by our understanding.
Well, there are extremists on the other side who think that even public infrastructure should be privately owned and built. So yes, this is socialism, we just don't think of it as such because it seems normal and natural to us.
In my own lifetime, I have noticed the decline of reverence toward the U.S. Constitution which, I think, corresponds well with the decline of public, non-partisan patriotic display. Witness the drop in enthusiasm between the Bicentennial and America250.
Now we have illiberal movements on both the right and the left that are promising changes that are unconstitutional. DSA-types would abolish the Senate and pack the Supreme Court. Christian Nationalists would like to deport Muslims and elevate Christianity as a state religion.
The Constitution has served very well as a national arrangement for the last 237 years so that a diverse people can inhabit a huge and well-endowed continent in a way that allows much prosperity and freedom. Our country had and has many faults but our Constitutional arrangement has enabled us to remedy the worst of them. As a confessional Lutheran Christian, I think American classical-Liberal constitutionalism is likely to be the best system possible in a sinful world. Our outcomes have historically been worse under some Catholic and Calvinist regimes.
This is why I must reject Christian Nationalism and hold to classical-Liberal Conservatism as promulgated by Ronald Reagan, Charlie Kirk and others. By rejecting anti-constitutional extremism on the Right, we are enabled to fight anti-constitutional extremism on the Left. Flag-waving civic patriotism, 4th of July celebrations and the Pledge of Allegiance are useful and important ways to demonstrate loyalty to our Constitutional regime.