To most progressives, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was a ground-breaking stalwart for the rule of law and a champion for the most vulnerable. But others resent the Notorious RBG who, despite having cancer in her 80s, chose to not step down from the bench during the Obama Administration - her subsequent death allowed Donald Trump to fill a precious Supreme Court seat in his last year. This week on Sea Change Radio, the second half of our discussion with political consultant Aaron Huertas. We focus on the fact that some of the nation's most influential people are well past the average retirement age. We look at 83 year-old Stephen Breyer's seeming reluctance to retire from the Supreme Court, talk about California Senator Dianne Feinstein plowing ahead with re-election plans (when she'll be 91), and explore possible solutions to an exceedingly delicate balance of power.

Narrator  0:02  This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Aaron Huertas (AH)  0:20  These are people these are flesh and blood human beings in these elected offices and if anything happened to a single democratic senator right now if they were incapacitated, or God forbid if they passed away, we lose the majority.

Narrator  0:32  To most progressives, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a groundbreaking stalwart for the rule of law and a champion for the most vulnerable. But others resent the notorious RBG, who, despite having cancer in her 80s chose to not step down from the bench during the Obama administration. Her subsequent death allowed Donald Trump to fill a precious Supreme Court seat in his last year. This week on sea change radio, the second half of our discussion with political consultant Aaron Huertas. We focus on the fact that some of the nation's most influential people are well past the average retirement age. We look at 83 year old Steven briars seeming reluctance to retire from the Supreme Court. Talk about California senator dianne feinstein plowing ahead with reelection plans when she'll be 91. and explore possible solutions to an exceedingly delicate balance of power.

Alex Wise (AW)  1:44  This is Alex Wise on Sea Change Radio. And this is the second half of my discussion with political consultant Aaron Huertas. So, Aaron, can you give us some examples of how activists and other leaders are trying to change the minds of a Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema when it comes to doing away with the filibuster?

Aaron Huertas (AH) 2:05  Yeah, well, I think the first thing is to realize that it's not just mansion and cinema, right? There's a lot of democratic senators who have not explicitly said that they want to reform the filibuster. So you might have a relatively progressive senator, or a senator who exhibits a lot of national leadership, who still needs to hear from their constituents that this is a priority. And even the senators who are supportive of eliminating the filibuster, you know, it's always worth saying, Okay, great, you know, what, what are you doing about it? is there is there something else that you would be willing to hold up? Because we haven't dealt with the filibuster yet? Like, can we can we keep hammering on this and going back to it. So you may look at somebody like Senator clover char, she, you know, following her presidential run had much more of a national profile. her, her committee on the hill deals with voting rights and with election administration, and she's much more open to reforming the filibuster now, and part of that is seeing where the Republican Party is at a part of that is also just a huge push from activists and for people who supported her presidential campaign.