Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), one of the Democratic senators who threw his support behind preserving the filibuster in 2017, on Thursday evening joined the growing chorus of Democrats calling for the abolishment of the procedure.
An avalanche can start with the movement of a pebble.
Letâs roll.
Will the rethug efforts to restrict voting bring the end to the filibuster? Letâs hope so.
They jumped the gun a bit, with their over the top Jim crow 2.0 bills, making it a lot more likely that filibuster reform will happen.
Timeâs up for the filibuster. Good riddance to this tool of white supremacy
I want to see Mitch cry right before he resigns.
The tears of a clownâŚ
I guess HR 1 is going to be next, before infrastructure. Letâs keep moving forward. Voting should be safe and easy. Both parties should promote it.
Instead of promoting popular policies and programs the Republicans have elected to destroy democracy.
Time to move on from them. .
Itâs time for Sinema and Manchin to get on board. Sinema especially.
Somebodyâs âwhippingâ these senators into shape.
And it ainât John Thune.
Something I wonder about: Can the Dems revoke or water-down the filibuster for like 12 months to allow the agenda to get through without all the nonsense and then re-instate it?
Second, letâs say the HR1 passes, even on a partisan basis with Harris breaking the tie in the Senate. How long before the numerous court cases are started up and have to wend their ways all the way up to the SCOTUS, where the cases could be won by the GQP? Is this an interference in to the 10th amendment Statesâ rights where preventing the States from setting their own rules is the foundation (kind of like the cases that are starting up against the Recovery Act where GQP States want to use the money to fund tax cuts)?
This could get real messy, regardless of how popular these initiatives are by the public. The GQP has demonstrated that popularity doesnât matter when they voted in a bloc against the Recovery Act, despite its popularity across the board (something like 70%?).
âToo often the filibuster has been used to block our countryâs continued march toward equality,â Heinrich said. âWe must change this.â
Indeed!
I know Manchin and Sinema need to be pushed into this for appearances sake. And I admit to being wrong about Manchinâs chess moves before. 
I think they picked HR1 to go first because itâs been out there for awhile and is already very popular and has very popular, hard to argue with provisions.
There are also definite places where the GQP could negotiate in good faith instead of just labeling it âwritten in hell by the devil himselfâ. If the GQP doesnât negotiate (like they didnât with the Rescue Plan) and it still remains popular, then the pressure on Manchin and Sinema will only build.
I still think finding a small piece of daylight here is important to give Manchin and Sinema a way out of this. Perhaps going back to the narrow carve out for civil rights or voting rights legislation would move the ball.
But how much time do they have to wait? Surely the GQP will challenge HR1 in court as overreach. If they can drag it out so that it canât help the 2022 election that would be very, very bad. ETA: @becca beat me to the court problem.
I think this piece needs an editing pass.
âSusan Collins (D-ME)â?
" in 2017 and have yet to fully reverse their stance have yet to fully reverse their stance"
Best
Jim
I believe the courts have always been Republicanâs strategy. Twenty one states are suing Biden over the revocation of the Keystone pipeline permit.They are suing over using the stimulus money to finance tax cuts. They will sue over anything they object to whether it has any chance in the courts or not. They can always appeal until they they get a more favorable ruling. Biden is letting Mexico and Canada loan some AstraZeneca vaccine:
Psaki said that officials are working to finalize plans to give Mexico 2.5 million doses and give Canada 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not yet been approved in the United States. She said that the U.S. has 7 million âreleasableâ doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in total and suggested the administration could share extras with other countries in the future.
I wouldnât be shocked if they sued over that.
Well, at least the lawyers will be happy. No one else will be, but the lawyers will be.
So letâs say the GQP does sue. After passage, does that mean the portions of the law canât go into effect until the courts clear them? Or does it go forward and get corrected after adjudication?
I have no idea. Weâll have to wait and see what happens.
The âFor the Peopleâ act, HR-1, needs a name change to the âSave the Republican Partyâ act. The only way a minority party can have long term viability in a two party system is for that party to realize that it needs to evolve/adapt to attract a broader segment of the voters. The current Republican Partyâs tactic of voter suppression and gerrymandering will only prolong its death spiral. Unfortunately, their current strategy will inflict untold harm to the country as it spirals to its death.
As for the filibuster, I am of two minds. On one hand it should not be easy to pass legislation over the objections of the minority but neither should it be easy (or in the current case, effortless) to prohibit legislation from going forward. I am currently for modification to filibuster rules that shift the burden of effort to the minority. The rule changes can be revisited in a year to see if more change including all out abolishment is necessary.
But on the other hand, popular and beneficial legislation should not be blocked because a party is having a hissy fit. There should be legitimate reasons for blocking legislation and those reasons donât include âbecause I said soâ or âIâm the Grim Reaperâ.
Time and again, the GQP has demonstrated itself as of a mind that only what they want should count and the rest should be ignored or blocked. Thatâs not how this works. It never was and never will be. The GQP has gotten away with this for far too long and itâs time to put a stop to it.
Thatâs exactly what happened. Jim Crow 2.0 is based entirely on the Big Lie which many of the states passing these laws admitted was a lie from the beginning. Various GA GOPers spent months dodging the president and death threats while they stood behind the GA results and yet now theyâre using those same results, which they said were accurate and fair, to justify taking away voting rights. Theyâve left Senate Dems with little choice than to move forward with upending the filibuster and to do it sooner than later. For Dems, itâs now a matter of survival.