Roosevelt University political science professor David Faris counsels Democrats to disregard procedural precedents and niceties, and pugnaciously wield power in his book, It’s Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics (Melville House, 2018). As Faris explains in this interview, he doesn’t mean Democrats should run smear campaigns against Republican candidates. He proposes creative and aggressive rules changes within the structure of Constitution. For example, he recommends Democrats scrap the legislative filibuster, end lifetime tenure for Supreme Court justices and break up California into seven states to expand Democratic power in the Senate. Faris argues that the Republican denial of the Merrick Garland Supreme Court nomination proves that parties do not suffer political consequences from playing political hardball. Furthermore, he argues that his reforms would make democracy work better, and not erode trust in democratic institutions.



Bill Scher is a Contributing Editor for POLITICO Magazine. He has provided political commentary on CNN, NPR and MSNBC. He has been published in The New York Times, The New Republic, and The New York Daily News among other publications. He is author of Wait! Don’t Move to Canada, published by Rodale in 2006.
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