Democrats are now perilously close to being unable to prevent passage of Constitutional Amendments after last week’s election put conservatives in charge of a record number of state houses.
RollCall.com is reporting on state-level results of the 2016 election which found Republicans seizing an all-time high of 68 out of 99 state legislative chambers. As of last week, they increased total control of state houses from 31 to 33.
Most notably, Kentucky Democrats lost control of their state house for the first time in 95 years with the ousting of Democratic Speaker Greg Stumbo along with 15 other Democratic incumbents. With the state senate already in control by the conservatives, Republican Governor Matt Bevin will now have much more freedom to enact conservative legislation.
In Iowa, Democratic Senate Majority leader Mike Gronstal was defeated which resulted in Republicans winning two more seats in the state house where they already held the majority.
The Minnesota legislature is also now in full control by the Republicans who won control of the legislature by securing a majority of seats in the Senate. MPR News cites voter fury over another round of hefty Obamacare premium increases announced just weeks before the election as one reason why the legislature flipped into Republican hands. With conservatives now in control of the state house, Democratic Governor Mark Dayton is expected to have a much tougher time getting things done.
The final tally after last week’s election gives Democrats total control over state houses in just California, Delaware, Hawaii, Oregon and Rhode Island.
But this is not nearly enough to further the aims of progressives in the U.S. As ATTN.com reports, if Democrats lose any more ground – or the equivalent of just one more state house – they risk losing the power to stop the ratification of constitutional amendments which require approval by three-fourths of the states.
This could become a real threat to the spread of liberalism in America should Republicans choose to enforce issues that are already enunciated in their platform.
As Constitution Daily reports, the first proposed amendment in the 2016 Republican Party platform is a ‘right to life’ amendment, which would affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed.
The platform also calls for the reversal of the 2015 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage to be overturned either by judicial reconsideration or through a constitutional amendment that would return control over marriage to the states.
Last week’s election is already being called historic but the bigger picture points to a lot more history yet to be written.
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