Questions tagged [united-states]
Questions relating to the government or the politics of the United States of America
4,943
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When was the last time a Democrat Senator voted differently from other Democrats?
In regards to the recent SCOTUS vacancy due to the loss of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I see countless articles stating things like (paraphrasing)
"These 6 GOP senators are most likely to vote ...
5
votes
1answer
128 views
Why is changing the size of the Supreme Court considered dangerous today, when it has been done in the past?
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about "court packing", the process of increasing the size of the Supreme Court, thereby creating openings to be filled with new justices. The accepted ...
2
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2answers
130 views
Is there historical precedent for the US Senate to confirm a SCOTUS nominee from a POTUS of their own party in an election year?
There is debate over whether it is right for Donald Trump to try to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the SCOTUS now, because the election is coming up. Republican Senator Mitt Romney said he will still ...
2
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0answers
111 views
What explains this difference in partisanship with statewide black officials?
I was looking at the partisanship of black Americans today. The first one really stood out to me. I found this bizarre. Look:
Position, % Democratic
Statewide office (after VRA, Senate or governor), ...
2
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0answers
71 views
How difficult is it to change Senate Committee rules?
As most of us are likely aware, Democrats are looking for any possible way they can delay the Senate taking up a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg so that the next president can decide who should be ...
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1answer
231 views
With DC statehood, what is the proposal for not giving 3 electoral votes to the president and his family?
Recently a bill passed the House, which would give statehood to DC, except for a few core areas including the White House. This would mean that the president and his family would control three ...
2
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5answers
2k views
Why aren't the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States democratically elected? [closed]
Related: Doesn't the system of the Supreme Court oppose justice? and Why is the debate on the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court so politicised?
In following the aftermath of Justice Ruth Bader ...
28
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2answers
8k views
If either party would “pack the Supreme Court”, what would be stopping the next administration from just doubling (+1) the number of judges again?
If either party (i.e. Democrats or Republicans) in the US would proceed to "pack the Supreme Court", what would be stopping the next administration (i.e. after power has switched once again ...
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0answers
38 views
What happens to the House bills, being held up in the US Senate, if the majority shifts after an election? [duplicate]
At the time of writing there are 500 odd house bills, being blocked from coming to the senate floor.
Let's say at the next election the Senate (and for fun the House) majority shifts to the opposite ...
0
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0answers
103 views
Are there any publicly known plans on a lame-duck Senate SCOTUS confirmation vote be held in order to satisfy senators conditions?
Four Republican senators have said that they would not vote on a justice before the election. I am wondering about circumventing the risk of the senators following through on that by holding the vote ...
7
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1answer
210 views
Has AP published DOJ memo regarding sedition statute?
In a story titled Justice Dept.: Sedition charge may apply to protest violence the Associated Press (AP) says it has obtained a DOJ memo regarding the potential of applying federal "Seditious ...
2
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1answer
119 views
Does it make a difference that senate republicans choose not to vote?
It's clear that the Senate will hold a vote for Trump's nominee, so what would senate republicans like Susan M. Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska accomplish by saying that they would not ...
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2answers
1k views
Will Trump's nominee list still be considered if he loses the elections? [duplicate]
Senator McConnell has already said that "President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate." According to the NY Times regarding McConnell's statement:
...
17
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3answers
1k views
Is there any political reason for a President to avoid appointing a Justice after election day?
Even if Trump loses the Nov. 3 election, he will still have the full powers of the President until inauguration day on January 20th. My suspicion is that Trump will wait until after the election to ...
0
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2answers
174 views
What have been Trump's successful policies/reforms? [duplicate]
Honestly, I'm not personally inclined to support Trump because his rhetoric and misinformation tactics rub me the wrong the way, but I make a point to consume centered media as often as I can and I ...
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0answers
79 views
Why is social media and similar on-line services) allowed to operate against the the principle of universal succession? [closed]
According to this article the principle of universal succession:
(..) means that each dead person (the deceased) is to have a universal
successor, an heir to whom the estate is passed in its entirety
...
26
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1answer
5k views
Can the Democrats filibuster the vote for a new judge for the Supreme Court?
The Republicans will try to install a new judge for the Supreme Court before the election.
Can the Democrats prolong this process, e.g. by filibuster, so that it does not finish on time?
26
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2answers
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Do any Republican Senators oppose replacing Justice Ginsburg on the Supreme Court before the election?
After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death earlier today, Senator McConnell vowed to bring the President's nominee to a vote quickly:
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said late ...
4
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1answer
342 views
Have Democrats said a late-presidential-term Supreme Court Justice appointment will be subsequently neutralized?
It has been anticipated that there may need to be a replacement justice during the late part of president Trump's term, as there was during Obama's. The Democratic president Obama nominated a ...
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1answer
172 views
Can Supreme Court justice appointment be delayed until after elections? [closed]
Can the House delay a Supreme Court justice appointment until after the general elections?
0
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1answer
49 views
Do primary vote totals tend to indicate the winner in the general election for US Senate?
In June, the Democratic Party won the primary vote in Georgia by ~9 percentage points, 1.19 million to 0.99 million. Do Senate primary vote totals where both sides are having competitive primaries ...
4
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1answer
150 views
How did Bernie Sanders win in Congress as an independent?
In 1990, Bernie Sanders got elected to the House. This stands out for multiple reasons. The one I am focusing on is him being an independent. It is highly unusual for a US politician to be an ...
2
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1answer
142 views
Why do black Americans vote for third parties even less than other Americans?
I was reading through an exit poll, and I found that only 3-4% of Black American voters voted 3rd party in the 2016 election. 6% of American voters voted 3rd party and polls indicate that that number ...
4
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3answers
156 views
Is there anything stopping the US President from issuing pre-emptive pardons for officials that violate court orders?
So, there has been a number of times when courts have rules against actions taken by the Trump administration on various different areas. Generally, to my knowledge, once these rulings have been made, ...
7
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1answer
324 views
Why are Democrats favoring unusually old presidential candidates lately?
The 2020 DNC primaries came down to Biden and Sanders, who would be taking office at 78 and 79.
In 2016, it was down to Clinton and Sanders, at 69 and 75.
Prior to that, the oldest president in the ...
1
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1answer
90 views
How many electoral college votes would the District of Columbia be entitled to if the least populous state cap did not apply?
How many electoral college votes would the District of Columbia be entitled to if the least-populous-state-cap did not apply? What process is used to determine this alternate maximum value?
The 23rd ...
11
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1answer
217 views
Why do some states forbid per-kWh by anyone but the utility monopoly?
I was reading this article on EV-charger pricing schemes. There are some vague references to states requiring per-minute pricing, but 0 explanations of that thing. A little research has suggested ...
-1
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1answer
130 views
Is the ballot service in America secret or open? [closed]
How is the American voting system?
Is the voting secret or open?
Do people need to identify themselves as belonging to a particular party? Going further, am I allowed to vote for Republicans if I &...
-3
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0answers
113 views
Why did Pat Buchanan fail to get the Republican nomination but Trump succeeded? [closed]
I remember Pat Buchanan running for the Republican nomination in 1992. His campaign was very similar to Trump's candidacy: populist, nativist, suspicious of minorities. Buchanan eventually lost, ...
2
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1answer
144 views
Longest negative popular vote bellwether US county streak?
I was thinking about negative bellwethers, which are things that generally pick the losing candidate. A positive popular vote bellwether could be New Mexico dating back to 1964. This means it always ...
7
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2answers
500 views
Why would F-35 sales to UAE/Bahrain only be made possible after they established diplomatic ties with Israel?
I heard that the reason for the normalization and establishment of diplomatic ties between Israel and UAE/Bahrain is so that the US could sell exports-controlled military goods to UAE and Bahrain. ...
0
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1answer
191 views
Could a two round voting system revive American democracy? [closed]
As an external observer I can notice is that in the pending US Presidential election a lot of voters don't like and don't feel represented by any of the candidates. The feeling is that the games were ...
2
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1answer
224 views
Why are American Juvenile Curfew Laws not Unconstitutional?
Many jurisdictions in the United States have curfew laws, which prohibit youth of a certain age (usually under 18) from being in public or in a business establishment during certain hours.
Given the ...
13
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2answers
3k views
Is it illegal for candidates to pay a journalist to publish fake news?
Say candidate A and candidate B both want to be elected president.
Then candidate A pays a journalist to publish an invented story about candidate B. For example where candidate B killed a cat.
Then ...
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votes
3answers
455 views
How does 9/11 compare with the fire in the Reichstag, Berlin – in terms of consequences? [closed]
Is there a similarity between 9/11 and the USA PATRIOT act and the Reichstag Fire in 1933, after Hitler used democracy to seize absolute power (although 67% didn't vote for him)?
After 9/11 the ...
24
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8answers
9k views
Why do attack ads focus so much on Joe Biden's mental state but not Donald Trump's?
Now the USA has a longstanding tradition of negative campaigning, so it is not surprising when the competence of a political opponent is questioned.
What is surprising however, is that while Democrats ...
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0answers
84 views
Could Ted Cruz (or another sitting senator) be appointed to be a SCOTUS justice? [duplicate]
Donald Trump made a list of possible US Supreme Court appointments if a vacancy shows up while he's in office. Two of these intrigued me: Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz.
I know this might not matter in ...
4
votes
1answer
93 views
Are there any tangible proposals for a modern era war powers system in the U.S. akin to the War Powers Resolution of 1973?
The system of congressional oversight in the U.S. with regard to acts of war has been broken for a long time. The year 1942 was the last time the U.S. formally declared war. Since then there have only ...
49
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5answers
8k views
Apparently many US voters think their candidate supports their politics even if they do not. Does this also apply to voters in other countries?
This surprising New York Times article says many US voters can't tell what political positions their candidate espouse, and in fact appear to simply attach their favored positions onto their candidate....
0
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1answer
137 views
In what way did Trump claim to have saved bin Salman from Congress?
President Trump recently said that he saved Mohamed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, from Congress after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi (a Saudi author, dissident, and reporter) by Saudi ...
0
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1answer
109 views
Why is ideology not strongly associated with partisanship at the state level?
It is said that Democrats are the liberal party and Republicans are the conservative party. However, the correlation is a lot weaker at the state level.
Examples:
New Mexico was rated as more ...
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0answers
80 views
How would the liberal democratic U.S. government fund a large secret project? [closed]
For reference this question considers the movie The Core, so if you haven't seen it, please see the linked plot overview for more details, but a brief summary is, the world will end unless the Earth's ...
4
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0answers
57 views
Quantitative estimate of the actual electoral impact of rejected mail-in ballots in the 2020 US election?
Has anyone made well-informed, quantitative estimates of the actual electoral impact of rejected mail-in ballots in the 2020 US election?
-3
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1answer
145 views
How to establish a gender-equatable society in modern living? [closed]
I am conscious of the growing Feminism in our society and one of their striking movements is to abolish gender inequality in women's daily lives such as (Job, Interests...) I comprehended that men and ...
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1answer
93 views
Was Hawaii the only state that never voted significantly more Republican than the national average? [closed]
I have read something (I don't remember where) that said: Hawaii is the only state that never voted significantly more Republican than the nation as a whole. Its Democratic lean was more established ...
2
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1answer
65 views
Where to find a summary of US FONOPS in the year 2020?
Where to find a summary with dates of FONOPS (especially in the South China Sea) conducted by the United States in 2020 and ideally in recent years?
Some information on previous years is contained in ...
41
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4answers
9k views
Why are Democrats blocking COVID-19 pandemic relief bills with the objection that it's not enough instead of passing it and then passing another?
I read an article that said that the most recent COVID-19 relief bill was not passed because Democrats didn't think it was enough. The article is here: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/11/gops-coronavirus-...
1
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1answer
170 views
Has the Trump Administration explained why it has been withholding money from the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program?
Yesterday, the New York Daily News reported that the Trump administration has been secretly withholding money from the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program:
The Trump administration has secretly ...
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0answers
83 views
Where On The Political Spectrum Do The Old US Political Parties Fall
I'm not a poly-sci major so I need some help to figure out a seemingly simple thing. I've been given a list of presidents and have to do some data visualizing with them. There is a list of parties, ...
2
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1answer
141 views
Has Biden discussed his vote to admit China into the WTO?
In this interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden was asked about his past votes as US Senator in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and in ...
