Uncapping the House of Representatives from the set 435 number would allow for people to better hold their politicians accountable, politicians to better understand their constituents, and better representation of small or minority communities. Even better, this would not be a constitutional amendment, but a simple vote.
American history has known one founding and one refounding. The first, in 1787, built a republic on paper and left its deepest contradictions unresolved. The second came after the Civil War, when Reconstruction's amendments tried to make the promise of equal citizenship real. Both were acts of construction undertaken after a rupture — the first after revolution, the second after civil war. This issue of The Pragmatic Papers proceeds from a hard premise: we are living through a rupture that may demand a third.
The essays gathered here do not agree on tactics, but they share a diagnosis. Each institution meant to check power has, in its own way, stopped working as a support for liberal strength. A Senate rule with no basis in the Constitution has let minorities govern majorities. A House frozen at 435 seats for a century has made representation a fiction for most Americans. A Supreme Court that depends entirely on public faith for its authority has spent that faith faster than any generation before it. A presidency has claimed emergency powers Congress handed over and never took back. And a president and his allies have tested, seemingly without cost, how much of the Constitution's plain text — on insurrection, on emoluments — can simply be ignored.
None of these are new complaints. What is new is the argument this issue makes collectively: that these are not five separate malfunctions to be patched individually, but one constitutional order that has drifted from the design its framers actually intended, and that reasserting that design is not radicalism but restoration. Uncapping the House, ending the filibuster, rebuilding congressional power over the administrative state, reforming a Court that has become a partisan instrument and finally enforcing the accountability provisions already written into our founding document — these are not separate reform agendas competing for attention. They are the elements of a single project: maintaining liberal strength in a republic so that it governs by majorities, answers to the people it represents, and holds its officials to the law it claims to honor.
A third founding, like the first two, is to be avoided if possible. However, we liberals must strengthen ourselves out of institutions that already exist but have stopped doing their jobs if a third founding is forced upon us. The essays that follow are not a platform. They are an argument that the tools for this work are already in our hands — if we're willing to use them.
https://pragmaticpapers.com/volumes/46
Special thank you to all the writers and to Eden who proposed and co-edited this special issue.
-Cara, Editor-in-chief
Good morning folks!
We return to Russia's war in Ukraine once more with TWO articles. Are drones changing the future of warfare? Does is matter to the people on the ground? Can we get a look at the based medal Ana presented Destiny and the community? Some of these questions answered and more(!!) is this volume of the Pragmatic Papers.
We also have two articles on the frontier of space, two features from DGG, and one on a sketchy trip to Cuba.
Man, with all the Snarker drama popping off, it’s probably slipped everyone’s mind that it's time for the next edition of The Pragmatic Papers. Sure, we don’t have a bazillion Discord logs, but I guarantee our writing is spicy with Redacted . Reading it will be useful for more than memes.
Global news :the Ukraine Tracker, the UK Prime Minister review, and what’s happening in Mali
National news: learn about the changes to Student Loans, Telehealth & the Opioid Crisis, plus Taylor Lorenz is right about... Click here to learn more.
Hello Liberal Democracy Lovers,
Digital Ground Game held a successful fundraiser last month, and Bryce, the man behind the vision, wrote an article we thought you all might enjoy reading. It offers tips for organizing a successful fundraiser you might want to hold in your community.
Either way, please take this as a drop of good news, which can be in short supply. Digital Ground Game will be able to help in a couple of important races that will hopefully flip the House. We can't rely on people being upset, we're going out and making sure we rally them to the polls in November. Puts a smile on my face and gives me some hope.
The Pragmatic Papers , newest volume, is here again to bring you what you crave.
We have a report about the Maduro trial with a journalist who was in the room where it happened. It pairs well with the update we have about Venezuela after Maduro. Read about the recorder breaking fundraiser for Digital Ground Game. It's the top grossing fundrasier Digital Ground Game has ever run.
What's life without a little mystery, click on the link to discover the other top tier articles.
Thank You for paying attention to this matter!