Below is my column in the Hill on moments of honesty after the recent Democratic victories in California, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York. In the euphoria that followed, Democratic politicians and pundits admitted that they intend to pursue radical changes, including packing the Supreme Court, once they retake power.
Here is the column:
“In vino veritas.” The Roman proverb — “In wine, there is truth” — reflects the fact that people are often at their most honest when they’ve had a few.
Elections can have the same effect for some to become drunk on even the prospect of power. Partisans can blurt out their inner thoughts with shocking frankness.
That was the case this week as Democratic luminaries discussed plans to retake power and then fundamentally change the constitutional system to guarantee they will never have to give it up again.
It turns out that winning votes in three blue states and a blue city in an off-year election can be quite intoxicating. It is easy to dismiss it as the talk of chest-thumping, bar-room blowhards about whom they were going to thump. But there is a truth in the bravado.
Citing election results, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) seemed to bounce with elation in declaring that “the Democratic Party looks powerful for the first time all year.” In a moment of remarkable candor, Murphy explained his desire to continue the shutdown, admitting deep concerns about the midterm elections if Democrats reopen the government.
It is the same logic as randomly shoving people at a bar to impress one’s date.
Of course, extending the shutdown will harm millions and cost billions. But there are more lasting plans afoot if some of these partisans are to be believed.
Others were proclaiming their plans not only to retake power but never to lose it again. That means weakening the greatest single check on power: the Supreme Court. The talk of court-packing had died down after Democrats lost both houses of Congress and the White House. Now, after the elections last week, such talk is back with a vengeance.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder was telling anyone who would listen this week, suggesting that once Democrats take control, they intend to keep it permanently.
Holder explained on a podcast: “[We’re] talking about the acquisition and the use of power, if there is a Democratic trifecta in 2028.” When asked about the priority in wielding that power, Holder declared that the court was hopelessly broken and had to be fundamentally changed: “It’s something that has to be, I think, a part of the national conversation in ‘26 and in ‘28, ‘What are we going to do about the Supreme Court?’”
In other words, the court, as we know it, has got to go. While some on the left are questioning the very need for a Supreme Court or calling for it to be simply defied or “dissolved,” others want it to be stacked with political activists, like some state supreme courts are.
The problem has long been the focus of liberal academics planning for sweeping changes to the system. Many have called for the elimination of the Senate filibuster to force through measures making Puerto Rico and D.C. states with the addition of four new senators. Others want election and immigration “reforms” viewed as favoring Democratic campaigns.
That, however, leads them back to the inconvenient Supreme Court.
Years ago, Harvard professor Michael Klarman laid out a radical agenda to change the system to guarantee Republicans “will never win another election.” However, he warned that “the Supreme Court could strike down everything I just described.” Therefore, the court must be packed in advance to allow these changes to occur.
This week, Democratic strategist James Carville laid out the step-by-step process of how the pack-to-power plan would work.
“I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen,” he said. “A Democrat is going to be elected in 2028. You know that. I know that. The Democratic president is going to announce a special transition advisory committee on the reform of the Supreme Court. They’re going to recommend that the number of Supreme Court justices go from nine to 13. That’s going to happen, people.”
Carville returned to explain that court-packing will now be as inevitable as Democrats taking power. “That’s going to happen to you,” he said. “They’re going to win. They’re going to do some blue ribbon panel of distinguished jurists, and they are going to recommend 13, and a Democratic Senate and House is going to pass it, and the Democratic president is going to sign it, because they have to do an intervention so we can have a Supreme Court that the American people trust again.”
So, with the legislative and executive branches in their hands, some Democrats are planning to decapitate the judicial branch — just in time for the 250th anniversary of our revolution.
After all, as Holder explained, it is all about “the acquisition and the use of power.”
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of the bestselling book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Democrats are divided on how far to go “changing the system”.
There’s a divide and conquer opportunity there, but you’ll never realize it if an “us-vs-them” mindset tells you they all think the same way as the most radical voices.
Thank you, Johnathan TURLEY, for this blog and the Rules of Civility. I have been trying to get an understanding of our country’s current political rhetoric for a while but have difficulty discovering what is real from all the rage statements. … our country is a miracle, but only rational, clear thinking, and following our constitution will keep us from destroying ourselves from within as Britain and Europe are doing. For democrats it’s all about power; to use the citizenry to fund and keep themselves in power. … Before Biden (?), (rather the democrats running the government) left office, they shoveled billons of $ to their special projects and anywhere they thought it could be used to destroy republican interests (Trump: they hate him because he woke people up), some of which has been used to fund the ICE protests in CA and Oregon. Don’t let them blind you. Everything democrats do is done to gain power over the citizenry to get our money, to stay in power in perpetuity. They do not care about us – only the power they can get by subjugating the population leading to a socialist/ communist type government totally dependent on government handouts. The shut down was never about health care. It was about the election. The will use whichever issue they can to further whichever issue is uppermost, force concessions on others.
Democrats didn’t win on the merits of their platforms or principles. They drunkenly raised their toasts to the successful collaboration with MEDIA, -having bombarded the electorate/public with anti-Trump propaganda designed to affect voting results. Then they gloated with pride at their election wins. With Legacy/MSM already under their wing, next is SCOTUS, then the implementation of the New America.
At least the Brits had the sense to contain their propaganda. To prove my point,
Here is something you won’t see on NBC/ABC evening news tonight:
–Two top BBC News executives just resigned, following a finding that a BBC documentary (no less), -strategically-released just prior to U.S. presidential election voting last November,- was edited to make it look like Trump was encouraging the J6 Capitol riot. (BBC is the nation’s “public broadcaster,” equivalent to NPR/PBS in the U.S.) If we cannot even trust DOCUMENTARIES from PUBLIC BROADCASTERS, why bother with slanted/selective news reporting from private for-profit MSM?
“The BBC’s director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness resigned following criticism over the editing of a Donald Trump speech in a documentary, which misled viewers into believing he encouraged the Capitol Hill riots.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bbc-trump-speech-edit-documentary-resignation-b2861953.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3vn25d5dq7o
I wince at Trump’s boasting personality, but he, -indeed, NO president-, should put up with what he gets.
Lin,
Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Only goes to demonstrate how far biased, leftist MSM will go to lie and or gaslight the public.
Lin, so what you’re saying is Democrats did exactly what Republicans have done for years.
They collaborate with Fox News, Newsmax, etc. and use anti-Biden propaganda to convince voters to be afraid of liberals. Sounds like they certainly took a page from the Republican playbook.
I regret that your reading comprehension/context skills have failed to distinguish between private, opinionated cable networks (Fox, Newsmax, CNN, MSNBC) and Corporate for Public Broadcasting heretofore “publicly funded” broadcasters like NPR News and its equivalent BBC News.
It regrets?
Well, X, at least then there was some contact with civilization.
X says: They collaborate with Fox News, Newsmax, etc. and use anti-Biden propaganda to convince voters to be afraid of liberals
It’s anti-Biden propaganda to say that he’s barely sentient for only a few hours a day, and other people are running the country with him as their puppet!
The overwhelming singular failure of the American republic rights and freedoms experiment has been voters allowing the continued existence of the vile and violent, seditious DNC and their equally vile members like George X.
Painting a truthful picture of what Trump was thinking on Jan6th didn’t serve the interests of either faction. Here it is: Trump had convinced himself on election night that he had won based on early returns, yet no statisticians were ready to call the election. Some in the WH cautioned Trump to wait, knowing it was too early. Others like Rudy Giuliani went along with Trump’s overconfidence.
When the bad news came, Trump clung to his “belief” (and loyalists reinforced it). They erected paranoid narratives about how massive cheating had occurred, some involving tampered election machine software, others late night appearance of stuffed ballots. When confronted with down-ballot Republican votes that didn’t have Trump selected (something you’d expect if Democrat hacks were filling out fraudulent ballots), Trump just attacked those observations as further evidence of a grand plot.
A rally was organized by a woman in VA to “Stop the Steal”, and Trump encouraged attendance, and he and Rudy and Eastman spoke.
What was Trump expecting? He was expecting a lawyerly coup to take place at the Joint Session of J6, managed by Mike Pence as Presiding Officer….something where swing state Electoral Certificates would be rejected, and Trump would then win the majority of accepted Electoral votes. He wasn’t planning a riot, but rather a jubulent celebration by his supporters massing chanting outside the Capitol. However, Pence had told Trump a flat “no” the day befor J5, and again the mnorning of J6th. Why did Trump not pass this info along at the Eclipse Rally?
Some say he wanted to prime the crowd to expect the election to be overturned by Congress that afternoon, and then if that process bogged down inside the House Chamber, employ mob anger as “encouragement” to the assembled Congresspeople. I think that’s accurate.
Trump lit the fire at 2:24 with his tweet that “Mike Pence has betrayed us”. Of course, Trump did not ask anyone to go violent, no. But he did use selective information to set an expectation that he knew was likely to be dashed.
He manipulated his supporters, hoping beyond hope to get the result he fantasized occurring — well past the point where a reasonable person would have accepted defeat.
As to what Trump was thinking after the violent clash broke out, and Congresspeople had to take shelter….it’s a matter of speculation. He waited 2 hours before tweeting folks to go home. What was he thinking during that time? I believe he was fantasizing that military rank and file disobeying orders, and fall in line with a Declaration of an Insurrection and Martial Law, which would indefinitely delay Biden’s Inauguration. But, as the hours wore on, it became clear that law enforcement and the military would side with the Constitution, and that’s when he folded his tent.
I’d like to hear Trump talk candidly about that day and his mental process. Maybe someday when the stakes are lowered. Until then, I’m pretty sure he, Rudy, Eastman, Bannon, Kerik & Meadows were all about denying Biden his Inauguration, and thus Trump continuing as President….right up to the moment all options in his mind were exhausted, the last play being Martial Law and suspension of the transition of power.
That’s about as shameful a chapter in US history ever. He’s my President, and now I want him to be successful in leading the country to a better place. But, his behavior leading up to the J6th riot was vile and repugnant.
Painting a biased post on this blog site is equally shameful. Maybe you need to read this from congressional investigation,
“WASHINGTON – Today, Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Barry Loudermilk (GA-11) released a transcribed interview the January 6 Select Committee conducted with President Trump’s former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato, which shows President Donald Trump pushed for 10,000 National Guard troops to protect the nation’s capital.
The interview also shows White House frustration with slow deployment of assistance. The Select Committee conducted this interview in January of 2022, but never released it.
‘The former J6 Select Committee apparently withheld Mr. Ornato’s critical witness testimony from the American people because it contradicted their pre-determined narrative,’ said Chairman Loudermilk. ‘Mr. Ornato’s testimony proves what Mr. Meadows has said all along, President Trump did in fact offer 10,000 National Guard troops to secure the U.S. Capitol, which was turned down.’
‘This is just one example of important information the former Select Committee hid from the public because it contradicted what they wanted the American people to believe. And, this is exactly why my investigation is committed to uncovering all the facts, no matter the outcome.'”
https://cha.house.gov/2024/3/chairman-loudermilk-publishes-never-before-released-anthony-ornato-transcribed-interview
From AI ‘Search Assist’
‘Yes, President Trump did offer to deploy the National Guard on January 6, 2021, suggesting the availability of 10,000 troops to ensure safety, but this request was ultimately declined by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. This information has been supported by testimonies from Trump officials indicating frustration over the slow deployment of assistance during the events of that day.’ (citing as sources U.S. House of Representatives and Brennan Center for Justice.
That entire scenario is ridiculous, because whether Biden was inaugurated or not, without the electors’ votes confirming a Trump win the presidency would have become vacant at noon on Jan-20, and the armed forces would have ceased to obey his commands. The speaker of the house would have been acting president until the electors’ votes could be counted properly and a president declared.
“Painting a truthful picture of what Trump was thinking on Jan6th didn’t serve the interests of either faction. Here it is: …That’s about as shameful a chapter in US history ever. ”
That’s the false flag Soviet Democrat version. With no explanation of why Trump offered Pelosi the National Guard to secure the capital days before and Pelosi turned them down.
And no explanation of why that three hour riot was more shameful than two years of Biden and his DoJ/FBI STASI using their felonious “Russia Dossier” to first attempt to fix an election, and then spend years when that failed attempting to use it to remove Trump from office.
Democrats don’t even know what that word “shameful” means when they’re the avatar for that word.
So my grandkids will need to get nose rings, dye their hair blue, and chop off some body parts to fit in with the new majority?
No. Tech them to resist and FIGHT, FIGHT,
FIGHT!
If they want to, yes.
The far left is in the process of taking over the Democrat party. If they get power, and can load the SCOTUS, they will cede it or lose it to the farthest corner of their left left wing, which is the socialists, communists and islamists. NYC is the lab experiment heading into 2028.
What happens when a Democrat marries a Republican? See you in court.
If the Left tried to pack the courts the Tree Of Liberty would have to be refreshed.
None of the people babbling about watering that tree are ever going to step up front with a rifle in their hands and say “follow me!”
At that point the Court will have lost all legitimacy and can be safely ignored. America will have effectively ceased to exist in everything but name.
Let the Republicans follow Carvillle’s plan
Bahahaha
The eunuchs wouldn’t touch it
Not so the Commie Dems
That’s the Left’s goal, no?
The name will go too.
FAT CHANCE – The Dems have as much chance of packing the SCOTUS, as Congress would have passing the E.R.A. Bill (Equal Rights Amendment). -0-
Now… would Someone please pass me the Bottle!
Congress can’t amend the constitution on its own. Even sending an amendment to the states requires 2/3 of each house, which neither party has.
But expanding the court and packing it requires only simple majorities in both houses, and the presidency. There’s a very real risk that that might happen in 2029. And that would be disaster.
They gasped. They groveled. They tossed and turned. They rolled around in the mud. Their shins and elbows were bloodied. Sweat mingling with the blood and mud upon their faces in their attempt to put lipstick on the pig of the election wins in places where a Republican hadn’t won an election in multiple decades. See see we got that their pig looking mighty pretty but putting a bow around his neck just isn’t gonna happen.
Beautiful description!!!!
Great way of putting it.
Maybe we’re witnessing the birth of a third party lead by NYC Mayor elect Madman, AOC, Uncle Bernie, the squad? They’re certainly not democrats.
“witnessing the birth of a third party lead by NYC Mayor elect Madman,”
If Dems regain power he may be our next Chief Justice…
Margot, you touched on something important. Politics will want to make the socialists you called out the poster child for all Democrats. But the Democrats have also people like John Fetterman, and before, JoeManchin and Kyrsten Senema. My takeaway is see the good where it can be found. However slight that may be in the short run.
Please finish your thoughts regarding the possibility and ramifications. Thanks!
Fell right out of my easy chair this morning. The Washington Post says that once the socialist was elected in New York in his victory speech his moderate mask fell off. https://archive.is/tbbXM
The jury is still out but maybe just maybe even the Post has said that enough is enough. Do I detect a sliver of common sense? I’m beginning to feel like the eternal optimist. Let not my hopes be dashed.
The Washington Compost will never change, it is a tool of the demoncrat party.
So much for the “No Kings” mantra. Dems are quite hippacritical.
Yup, the party of death is not hiding it’s intent at all anymore.
Newsflash…they don’t all think alike. 10 Senators last night told Schumer to pound sand with his “fight” slogan, and voted cloture for a CR that runs until Jan 1st. It’s a huge political mistake to see your enemy as united when they are in reality split — you’ll never see that you have a divide and conquer opportunity. We need to get back to mature adult politics.
Yep. They actually want to kill us.
Christmas travel is coming up. The airports must be up and running. No other reason.
Typical Democrats approach. If you can’t win fair and square just change the rules.
Another approach that they love is by any means necessary such as killing your political opponents children and watching them die in their mother’s arms. Pack the court, kill their kids. To make an omelette you have to scramble a few kids brains. All is fair in love and war. Sorry, the word love is misplaced in the previous sentence.
“After all, as Holder explained, it is all about “the acquisition and the use of power.” And to hell with what The People want. Am I right, Eric?
Let me tell you something. If the Democrats come up with a scheme in order to do something like that, you can bet, this will create a new American Civil War.
Really? By Republicans who cannot even vote in NJ?
It should do something.
“If we surrender without having gotten anything, and we cause a lot of folks in this country who had started to believe in the Democratic Party to retreat again — I worry that it will be hard to sort of, get them back up off the mat in time for next fall’s election,”
— Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
GOP bill to reopen the government has received 60 votes, after at least eight Democrats crossed the aisle to support it.
So democrats (not all, just the required number) will vote to reopen the government under exact same conditions they refused to do so a month ago having realized they won’t get what they want by keeping the govt shut.
Is that about right. https://t.co/BURWyi54UT
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 10, 2025
Great. Let’s start the quest for preferred Supreme Court outcomes with unlucky 13. Then let’s get rid of finality of decision by embracing a “living Constitution”. Once we get rid of the Originalist rudder baseline, we escape the bounds of of a limited government. No more inconvenient difficulty of having to amend the Constitution. You will own nothing and you will be happy.
Well, at least “You will own nothing!”
I don’t understand all the press saying Republicans took major losses. They Democrat won in:
1) New York City Mayor (hasn’t been a Republican elected in 30 years, and Sliwa was never going to win)
2) New Jersey Governor (hasn’t been a Republican elected in 20 years)
3) Virginia Races (Virginia has been increasingly Democrat controlled as the DC suburbs expanded, this was not a surprise)
The only reason anyone was talking about this was because the Democrat candidates had scandals and some bad polling suggesting it was closer than it was. Absent the outlier polling, this would have been an “of course” election….
It is media spin.
That Virginia Lt Governor Winsome Earle Sears, a black woman, former Marine Corps soldier and US Veteran, an immigrant from Jamaica, lost to a pasty white entitled chic like Abigail Spanberger, as Governor for the once former Confederate anchor state for the US Civil War, is pathognomonic of the death of the once known Democrat Party. They literally no longer exist.
Northern Virginia (population 3.1 million) has the highest number of residents in all of Virginia (8.8 million).
Northern Virginia also has the largest number (18) of wealthy counties in America that rank in the top 100. California comes second with 11 counties, Maryland has 10, New Jersey has 9.
The election results in VA eliminated what little credibility Democrats had.
I thought Chris Christie was Republican.
“New Jersey Governor (hasn’t been a Republican elected in 20 years)”
You should be more careful with your research, or brush up on your math skills. Chris Christie won reelection in 2013, served until 2018. That’s a while, but far less than 20 years no matter how you calculate it. NTM that Ciattarelli ran a much closer race against Phil Murphy in 2021, and the Dem candidate this year was carrying significantly more political baggage (e.g. involvement with the Annapolis cheating scandal) than Murphy had. I agree that those results do not necessarily constitute a Republican disaster, but they do bear close scrutiny. Things in NJ are not moving in the right direction.
Ah, I was thinking when Christie was first elected, I forgot the reelection in 2013. Regardless, the point remains that New Jersey is a solidly blue state and Sherill, for all of her faults, is a moderate democrat that is largely in line with where Jersey is. Murphy was actually rather further to the left of Sherrill.
1) If you count Bloomberg as a Repubilcan, he was last elected 16 years ago.
2) Christie was last elected 12 years ago.
“If you count Bloomberg as a Repubilcan”
But he’s not. That’s like saying “If you count Cuomo as a Republican” in this last election.
Ah, but for all that Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat, he won the Republican primary, and was the official Republican candidate, so in that sense he was a “Republican”. Cuomo never was.
That’s a great way of looking at it. Some of those polls had me believing Jack Ciattarelli had a small window of winning even though in my heart I didn’t believe it. The VA race, I wasn’t fooled. I knew Winsome-Earle Sears didn’t have a chance. She had nothing going for her. I knew Mamdani was going to win for sure. I’m hoping when the government is reopened, that will knock some wind out of their sails as the democrats will have failed at something at least.
No one really cares about mandami. He’s just fun for news. He’s a clown in a circus providing entertainment. Nothing else…
New Yorkers care. He’s a serious threat to the city’s continued existence.