 Mike Lee is a Republican senator from Utah and as many of you know by now He showed up to the confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett Not wearing a mask as he is testing positive for COVID-19 as far as we know So that in and of itself is I think really interesting and could be its own segment But we're gonna talk about something else with regard to Mike Lee specifically what he said That irritated me because what we're seeing now is Republicans effectively trying to pack the Supreme Court it may not be traditional court packing in the way that we envision it But make no mistake about what they are doing by trying to rush through a Supreme Court nominee in an election year after they said We don't confirm Supreme Court justices in an election year. I mean, let's call it what it is This is court packing it was court packing when they held open just the Scalia's seat in 2016 They stole that seat from President Obama didn't even give Merrick Garland a single hearing So what they're doing is court packing. So I think that Democrats are within their right To expand the court in retaliation of Republicans stealing two seats But Mike Lee has a different philosophy. He thinks that if Democrats respond to Republican stealing Supreme Court seats from them Well, then Republicans have to retaliate and then they have to stack the Supreme Court or pack the Supreme Court rather So this is what he said when asked about court packing He says the GOP would retaliate by adding more seats if they got the chance and that the Supreme Court would soon look Like the Senate from Star Wars and to that I say, all right Let's go tit for tat Democrats should add a couple more seats to the Supreme Court and then when you take power Go ahead add more seats to the Supreme Court because guess what that is better than the alternative If Democrats do not pursue a court packing plan and I'm not necessarily sure that they will in fact I think they probably won't then what are we looking at here two to three decades of Conservative rule where they are undoing everything that Americans have fought for worker rights protections for labor abortion rights LGBTQ equality That took decades to achieve all of this could be undone. So I'm sorry, but we don't have time To be refighting all of these battles that we already won when we're facing a climate apocalypse We just we have to move forward so the way that I see it and somebody made this point on Twitter is that either we have two to three decades of conservative rule for that entire time or It'll go back and forth over the course of the next few decades Sometimes we'll have a majority conservative. Sometimes we'll have a majority Liberal, I mean that's preferable than just non-stop conservative. It's not so Democrats have every incentive to pack the Supreme Court And what Democrats need to do is be smart about this Don't buy into Republican framing. Don't Suggest that oh we're we're being offensive here. I think in this instance make it seem as if you're playing defense We're the ones retaliating By adding more justices to the Supreme Court because the Constitution doesn't say that there should only be nine justices So since the Republicans got an extra two Supreme Court seats that they took from us It's only right that we do the same thing But you don't just let them go tit for tat if you can You stop them and you don't stop them by being authoritarian You stop them by enhancing our democracy because Republicans they can't win if they fight fair, right? If they are forced to actually compete for votes and not engage in voter suppression and vote purges It's really difficult for them to win because this is a minority party Most people don't agree with Republicans their policies are incredibly unpopular. So why should we all be subjected to them? Because you know our system our democracy is deeply dysfunctional So what does that mean? Well if Democrats are able to take back the Senate and capture the White House if they have all branches of government They have a limited window to act and actually save Democracy and stop Republicans from going tit for tat. So what do you do if I'm Joe Biden if I'm Democrats and I actually have a spine not sure that they do but Hypothetically if this happens and they take back government you add more seats to the Supreme Court at a minimum You put two on there because that's easy to justify you say look they took two We're taking two. We're getting those two back If it were me, I would add six seats to the Supreme Court. Let's bring it up to 15 I think that's fine. They want to add six. All right, that's fine But we stopped them from doing that how by stopping them from getting power by actually Enhancing our democracy. So the first thing that they do and this would be difficult that they try to abolish the electoral college Or they make it so that way they tie the electoral college to the popular votes of The country the national popular vote because it is completely unacceptable That somebody can lose an election after getting millions more votes like as much as I don't like Hillary Clinton She should be the president right now because she got three million more votes than Donald Trump. I'm sorry Because small states Have a bigger say than everyone else. I mean, that's that's completely preposterous. It's undemocratic So get rid of the electoral college and that alone would make it more difficult for Republicans to take the presidency again Because then they'd actually have to compete if you're basing who becomes president off of a national electoral vote They can't you know do all of these shenanigans in certain districts and you know reduce the number of polling places because Then we're looking at the national popular vote. It's harder for them to regularizations. Second of all you expand the Senate by Bringing more states into the Union you automatically give DC Statehood that's two more senators that will most likely be Democratic and you might say well Mike That's cheating. Um, no, it's not we are giving more people a say we're expanding democracy and in the process of expanding democracy If Republicans are not able to appeal to the people who now have a say in our electoral part process That's on them. They've got to appeal to people in DC. They've got to win that election on top of that Statehood for Puerto Rico now we can't unilaterally say you are now a state What we have to do is allow Puerto Ricans to have self-determination let them vote We welcome them in but of course they have to have their own say But if you allow Puerto Rico to become a state then what happens? That's two more senators at least one of those is gonna be Democrat So you have to make sure that you fight fire with fire And this is not even as if you're playing dirty because you're literally expanding democracy You're giving more people a say in our process You're enfranchising more people who currently don't have a say if Republicans can't win under a more Democratic Circumstance that's on them. They're the ones who have to appeal So I think that what you have to do if you're a Democrat And if you are the Democratic Party at large is you of course packed the court because even if we go tit for tat Sorry, that's better than the alternative of just having non-stop conservative rulings from the Supreme Court for decades Can't have that but if you can you stop them from doing that by making our democracy more Democratic you consolidate Democracy and again, they're gonna say that this is rigged and they're gonna, you know put up a big fuss about this but They're the ones who are literally against democracy you have the moral high ground in this argument Democrats would be saying look what we want to do is Make more people eligible to vote to have a say in our democracy and right now People in DC have no senators. They have no political representation in comparison with other states So why don't we make them an official state? Why? Why haven't we already done this? We've done this before we made Hawaii a state We made Alaska a state like we keep doing this. So why is this so weird? Because Republicans can't appeal to these states tough shit and if Republicans want to play a little bit dirty cut up Texas and You know try to get more senators That way that's fine Then Democrats should propose cutting up California make it into multiple states So you get additional senators because I'm sorry we can't keep having it So that way people in rural areas have an oversized say on what the rest of the country wants We have to democratize our democracy further We are not even a democracy you could argue because we don't meet the criteria of robert doll's polyarchy So by expanding our democracy In the process you make it harder for Republicans To win because they can only win if voters turn out as low and they suppress the vote That's what you have to do. You have to fight fire with fire And you're operating within the confines of what is constitutionally acceptable It's not like you are becoming authoritarian. You're quite literally expanding democracy So if they want to argue that more democracy is bad Let them make that argument. Don't let them craft the narrative and I am Pleased to see that uh democrats including joe biden are starting to say it is republicans who are packing the court Whenever they're asked about it because that's what this is the only court packing going on right now It's going on the republicans packing the court now. It's not constitutional what they're doing We should be focused on what's happening right now And the fact is that the only packing going on is this Court is being packed now by the republicans after the vote is already begun I'm going to stay focused on it. So we don't take the eyes off the ball here Now he is wrong when he says that what republicans are doing is uh, it's unconstitutional That's not actually true. What they're doing is constitutional. It's just dirty and hypocritical But having said that you uh, you use the constitution to your advantage to expand the court Uh add dc in port abrico make them states if you have to chop up california into multiple states get more senators Uh, enhance democracy get rid of the electoral college make sure That we expand the court and then stop them from doing it You have to be fierce in fighting republicans because this party is a far-right extremist party That can only win elections when turnout is low when democracy fails And if you have to make voting compulsory make voting compulsory I know that people may have this visceral like knee-jerk reaction to the idea of voting being a requirement But it works really well to increase turnout in countries like australia We need people to vote because when more people vote republicans lose And we're not just saying oh, we want people to vote Because we want republicans to lose. We want them to have to compete for those votes We don't want them to bank on people staying home because they hate everything about the country because neither party Is fighting for them like if more people voted our democracy would function better Right when a third of the country doesn't vote That's really a bad sign for the health and safety of our democracy at least when we're looking at the long term so What democrats have to do Is they have to really be serious about enhancing our democracy And if they can enhance our democracy they can pack the supreme court and save us From basically all of our rights and civil liberties being eroded with this, you know tyranny of these right-wing extremists That republicans are currently trying to get on the supreme court. So that's what you have to do. You've got to uh, you've got to play hard We're not gonna violate the constitution, but we are gonna fight And we're gonna fight by doing what's right by enhancing democracy not fighting democracy like republicans do