> This is the Republican play book: purposely make the government worse, distract with absurd claims, then come election time lie and say that the Democrats want to make the Republican's version of bad government even more expansive. Every four to eight years, the Democrats clean up the Republican's mess. Government gets better. Then Republicans lie again and the cycle repeats.

You may already understand this, but just to make it explicit: the Democrats are not the good guys in this process. They benefit just as much as Republicans from good government being perpetually on the brink. They win the presidency because we're terrified of what Republicans will do if they don't. The system is currently structured to reward both sides for brinkmanship and that's why it sucks.

We need a system that reduces the amount of change riding on any single election and neither party wants a change to such a system. If SCOTUS is as much an extension of the Republican party as people here assume then I think we'll find in 30 years that they badly shot themselves in the foot.