On SCOTUS: My impression as a Brit is that this body is rather like the House of Lords—it’s understood to act in a political way rather than just interpreting legal statutes and precedents, and indeed most of its members still very much wear their political colours, but they are appointed effectively for life by the executive, making them a long-run footprint of political control of the executive over the years (in the UK, the House of Lords is seen by some as a moderating influence because its composition doesn’t change violently when there’s an electoral aberration). The big differences though seem to be the much smaller number of SCOTUS members as opposed to Lords makes it a lot more variable as to how many members a given administration gets to appoint, and that SCOTUS is probably more powerful (several of their decisions are tantamount to constitutional amendments, a power SCOTUS has acquired due to the terseness of the US constitution and the aversion of the US system to amending it formally.)
On the power of the voter: I’m sure there are many out there who entertain fantasies of people going all “GRRR! ELECTORATE SMASH!” and booting out the demopublicratans. Unfortunately, if a Bayesian looked at world history he’d assign a high probability of victory in such a situation to a group based on some combination of xenophobia, religious fervour and class envy. The red mist can really bring out the worst in people when it comes to knee-jerk thinking.
On Colbert’s candidacy: The Democratic Party is not an official body charged with upholding the general welfare of the American voter. It’s up to the Democrats how they choose candidates. I think it’s a dangerous path to start thinking of political parties as public institutions in their own right, and their primaries as being somehow the same kind of activity as a presidential election itself.
On SCOTUS: My impression as a Brit is that this body is rather like the House of Lords—it’s understood to act in a political way rather than just interpreting legal statutes and precedents, and indeed most of its members still very much wear their political colours, but they are appointed effectively for life by the executive, making them a long-run footprint of political control of the executive over the years (in the UK, the House of Lords is seen by some as a moderating influence because its composition doesn’t change violently when there’s an electoral aberration). The big differences though seem to be the much smaller number of SCOTUS members as opposed to Lords makes it a lot more variable as to how many members a given administration gets to appoint, and that SCOTUS is probably more powerful (several of their decisions are tantamount to constitutional amendments, a power SCOTUS has acquired due to the terseness of the US constitution and the aversion of the US system to amending it formally.)
On the power of the voter: I’m sure there are many out there who entertain fantasies of people going all “GRRR! ELECTORATE SMASH!” and booting out the demopublicratans. Unfortunately, if a Bayesian looked at world history he’d assign a high probability of victory in such a situation to a group based on some combination of xenophobia, religious fervour and class envy. The red mist can really bring out the worst in people when it comes to knee-jerk thinking.
On Colbert’s candidacy: The Democratic Party is not an official body charged with upholding the general welfare of the American voter. It’s up to the Democrats how they choose candidates. I think it’s a dangerous path to start thinking of political parties as public institutions in their own right, and their primaries as being somehow the same kind of activity as a presidential election itself.