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Comment by lolinder | Hacker News Reader

> It won't force Congress to do shit.

In which case the states will step in. We're already seeing this happen post-Dobbs, with blue states falling over themselves to create safe havens. If Congress can't get anything done and the courts won't let the executive branch do anything then that trend will continue with workers' rights and everything else.

Maybe our problem is that the country has just gotten too big to run effectively as a single 350-million person democracy, and it's time for the state governments to step up and stand up for their people.

Either way—federally or at the state level—we need written laws drafted by elected representatives in a body that has more inertia than the single position of chief executive.

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> Maybe our problem is that the country has just gotten too big to run effectively as a single 350-million person democracy, and it's time for the state governments to step up and stand up for their people.

Or, perhaps, we just need to alter some aspects of that government to run better. For example: changing the size of the House of Representatives to make it more representative. It wasn't supposed to be stuck at 435.

Switching away from first past the post voting would also help enable more diverse voices within the government.

> Switching away from first past the post voting would also help enable more diverse voices within the government.

You have my full agreement on that! Unfortunately that's not going to happen at the national level any time soon, both parties benefit from first-past-the-post too much. We'll see better luck experimenting with it at the local and state level.

Okay, so a blue state steps in to make themselves a safe haven. Conservative courts sue and take cases up to the supreme court to force their will on them. Said blue state then says 'I believe the supreme court ruling is invalid and will not adhere by it'. What exactly do you think will happen?

And for reference, there has already been trends of this occurring. The Texas bounty hunter law for women who have abortions is an example, where they have tried to sue other states for records pertaining to abortions (See: Texas vs Seattle Children's Hospital).

I Louisiana today, Bibles were mandated in every classroom and all teachers are mandated to "teach from the Bible."

I imagine there are some seriously distraught teachers in that state right now.

We are in dark times.

That would be great!

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