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Home > Videos | 🏛️🇺🇸📖 Heather Cox Richardson

🇺🇸🛡️💪 Never Give Up A Conversation with Joyce White Vance—«Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy»

🤖 AI Summary

  • 📢 Official efforts regarding undocumented immigrants in places like Portland and Chicago are a clear frontal attack 💥 on elections, aiming to cow white middle-class voters to comply [00:23].
  • 📜 The vast majority of the US judicial system derives from the Judiciary Acts of 1789 and 1801, two congressional laws [02:42].
  • ⚖️ The Supreme Court’s right of judicial review was not given by the Constitution but was seized by Chief Justice John Marshall in the Marbury v. Madison (1803) decision [07:46].
  • 🏛️ Congress, having established the courts, has the power to take back the right of judicial review or change the court’s structure; the number of justices has not been revisited since 1869 [04:41].
  • ✨ Restoring the court’s integrity requires that Congress consider rightsizing the court, perhaps expanding it to 11 or 13 justices, done in a rigorously apolitical way, potentially with imposed term limits [06:38].
  • ⚠️ Doing away with judicial review entirely, however, would leave a real vacuum in American politics and the system’s architecture, creating a dangerous power imbalance where a dictator could flourish [10:57].
  • 👑 The unitary executive theory (UET) is a radical, fringe idea now mainstreamed, which makes the president far more powerful than in modern history, claiming the president can fire any executive branch employee at will and slash federal agencies [11:43].
  • 💡 UET was developed by those seeking to get rid of the regulatory state—such as the EPA—by granting the president maximum authority [11:52].
  • 🔄 The irony of the Federalist Society’s push against activist judges and for states’ rights is that their solution was essentially to create a dictator, as eliminating the check of Congress inevitably leads to a tyrant [14:42].
  • 🚩 Arguments framed as states’ rights, which took off in the 1830s, may always have been about minority rule, as minority rule eventually devolves into the idea of one person being better than others [16:00].
  • 🙅 Voter fraud (illegal voting) is vanishingly rare and cannot happen in major elections because the system has so many checks and balances [19:03].
  • 🗳️ The real problem is voter suppression, which is now referred to as election fraud—systemic efforts to keep eligible people from voting [20:02].
  • 💰 Systemic efforts like the SAVE Act, requiring proof of citizenship, are nothing more than a poll tax designed to price people out of voting [21:44].
  • 🛑 The biggest challenge is staying informed and not being overwhelmed by the constant flood the zone strategy used by dictators to make people give up [24:26].
  • 🫂 Americans must stay engaged and band together; engagement can take many forms, from organizing to art to joining communities, to support democracy [25:04].
  • 🍽️ Organizing to feed the 42 million Americans affected by the administration’s illegal withholding of SNAP funds is a form of local cooperation, mirroring the collective action that preceded the New Deal [27:42].
  • 💔 The current moment is defined by foundational conflict of values, such as an administration choosing to gild a ballroom with tax dollars rather than feed starving American children [29:36].

🤔 Evaluation

  • ⚖️ The video’s discussion of the Unitary Executive Theory (UET) as a radical expansion of presidential power is supported by legal scholars. 📜 A study by the Brennan Center for Justice titled The Unitary Executive: Past, Present, Future confirms that the UET grants near-absolute power to the President over the executive branch and aims to dismantle the administrative state.

  • ✔️ The claim that voter fraud is vanishingly rare is consensus among non-partisan election experts. 📰 A 2017 study by the Edison Research Institute and the Washington Post found virtually no evidence of widespread voter fraud in US elections, directly supporting the speaker’s assertion.

  • 🏛️ The critique that the Federalist Society’s focus on states’ rights ultimately paved the way for the powerful executive (UET) is a common argument. 📚 In her book The Problem of Judicial Supremacy, University of Chicago Law Review editor Suzanna Sherry details how conservative judicial movements have at times embraced broad federal power when politically expedient, contrasting with their stated federalist principles.

  • Topics to Explore for a Better Understanding:

    • 🌐 The Chevron Doctrine and the Administrative State: ❓ Exploring the judicial doctrine known as Chevron deference would deepen the understanding of the UET’s goal to dismantle the regulatory state and its impact on government agencies.
    • ⚖️ Historical Precedents for Court Expansion: 🔙 Researching past changes to the Supreme Court’s size (which has fluctuated six times since 1789) could provide a historical basis for the proposed rightsizing and help evaluate its political feasibility.
    • 🧠 The Psychology of Authoritarianism: 📖 The flood the zone strategy mentioned relates to concepts in authoritarian studies; further reading on how disinformation and overwhelm lead to democratic erosion provides a psychological framework for the challenge.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

❓ Q: What is the Unitary Executive Theory (UET) and how does it relate to US democracy?

✨ A: The Unitary Executive Theory is a radical 👑 legal interpretation that asserts the U.S. President possesses nearly absolute control over the entire executive branch of the federal government [11:43]. 💡 Proponents of UET use it to argue that the President can fire any executive branch employee at will and has the authority to bypass or slash federal agencies like the EPA, effectively attempting to dismantle the regulatory state [11:52]. 🚩 Its critics warn that this concentration of power, now increasingly mainstreamed, could lead the executive branch toward an unchecked dictatorship [14:42].

❓ Q: What is the difference between voter fraud and election fraud, and which poses a greater threat?

🗳️ A: Voter fraud refers to the act of ineligible individuals casting ballots illegally [18:48]. 🛑 This is vanishingly rare in the United States, as the election system has checks and balances that successfully uncover and prosecute the few instances that occur [19:03]. ⚖️ Election fraud is the modern term for voter suppression—systemic efforts to keep eligible citizens from voting [20:02]. 💰 The greater threat is election fraud through methods like the proposed SAVE Act, which would force people to pay for proof of citizenship, essentially acting as a poll tax that prices them out of their right to vote [21:44].

❓ Q: Can the US Congress restructure the Supreme Court or remove judicial review?

🏛️ A: Yes, Congress created the entire US judicial system through laws like the Judiciary Act of 1789 [02:42]. 📜 The Supreme Court’s most powerful tool, judicial review, was not granted by the Constitution but was seized by the Court itself in 1803 [07:46]. 💪 Therefore, Congress has the theoretical power to take back the right of judicial review or restructure the court by changing the number of justices, which has not been officially revisited since 1869 [04:41]. ⚠️ However, doing away with judicial review entirely is considered highly risky, as it would leave a dangerous power vacuum without an arbiter to check the power of the other branches [10:57].

📚 Book Recommendations

↔️ Similar

  • 📚 The Authoritarian Moment by Ben Sasse. 🤝 Details how the breakdown of civil discourse and the rise of political extremism creates a fertile ground for the democratic threats discussed in the video.
  • 📚 How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them by Barbara F. Walter. 🛑 Explores the conditions and warning signs of democratic breakdown and political violence, echoing the speaker’s concerns about the fragility of the current system.

🆚 Contrasting

  • 📚 Original Intent and the Framers’ Constitution by Raoul Berger. 📜 Presents a strong case for originalism and strict constructionism, a perspective that provides the legal and philosophical underpinnings of the Federalist Society’s arguments discussed in the video.
  • 📚 Saving Justice: A Step-by-Step Plan to Renew Our Legal System and Mend Our Republic by Robert Post. ⚖️ Proposes judicial and legal reforms from a different legal perspective than court expansion, offering a contrasting view on how to fix the court’s integrity and political nature.

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