Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) on Sunday reiterated his support for reforming the filibuster, days after President Biden came out in support of a “talking filibuster” to make the procedure more painful to carry out for the Senate minority.
Good.
I really like Durbin. He’s a straight shooter.
“President Biden came out in support of a ‘talking filibuster’ to make the procedure more painful to carry out for the Senate minority.”
You had me at “more painful” for the GOP.
(I’m good with almost anything that does that.)
The time for reform is now. I understand the respect for the ‘old traditions’ of the Senate, but we are out of time to fix this country. Senators need to stand up and say there is something more important than those traditions.
In addition, from a purely political standpoint, once Americans see what can be done with robust use of well-crafted laws, the GOP will sink more deeply into the mire of irrelevance. Which is where they belong.
In Parliament the government whip is responsible in making sure their party members conform to the leaderships policies and voting on any given piece of legislation.
I take it that in US politics that isn’t the case. If it were then the Mancins of the party would be less vocal in their opposition to change.
So I ask…
What power does Durban have to persuade the conservative element in the Dems to move forward?
Some people came to work for the good of the country. Durbin is one of them.
Not much. That’s why they use the ‘mend, don’t end’ argument and why it’s so helpful when Rs are bullying and unreasonable.
The filibuster is a vehicle for the majority party to lie, by campaigning on big promises they have no intention or possibility of keeping. Republicans in the Senate, and frankly in the House as well, lied to their base for years about repealing the Affordable Care Act. They campaigned on it and raised funds off it, knowing full well it would never pass with 60 Senate votes. And none of them really wanted to be the ones taking away their constituents’ health insurance. When it finally came time to do the deed via reconciliation, they didn’t even have 51 Republican votes!
Well how is the GQP base supposed to feel when they turned out in record numbers, gained control of all 3 branches of government, and the big promise STILL wasn’t kept? Filibuster abuse is as responsible for inciting the Jan 6 coup attempt as a lot of other factors.
Look, it’s really simple. The American people (or at least democrats) vote for Senators on the basis of their policy positions and the expectation they will act assertively to enact those policies, and decidedly not for them to give precedence to some archaic rules of the Senate or illusions of collegiality.
If you believe in your policies and in your ideas, why wouldn’t you move to enact them when you have the ability and the power to do so? It just makes no sense to me.
And don’t dare speak about collegiality when the other team stole your SCOTUS nominee and rammed through judges and tax cuts without a single democratic vote.
Dems need to do anything to make the Repubs look weak, hateful, anti poor, anti middle class, anti working class and appear humble.
OT: Back to back 3 million people days.
I think a talking filibuster would accomplish all those things.
It’s beginning to roll and it is going to happen, but they’re growing it slowly. It’s brilliant.
No wonder McConnell is terrified. Democrats Unchained. What a thing.
I don’t really see it as painful, it’s more accountability. You want to stop something from going forward, then you’re going to have to stand up, and state why. And if it forces Republican, or Democratic senators to explain and that’s “painful” then so be it.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) on Sunday reiterated his support for reforming the filibuster
Just what Josh wrote in his column a few days back.
Speaking as an extremely old, it is my considered opinion that respect for old is highly over-rated.
(Respect for extremely old is an entirely different matter, obviously.)
He has all the power that Schumer contrives to give him.
Meanwhile, as you know, he spends much time counting votes – a dynamic process.
…the 60-vote requirement has stopped the Senate from meaningful activity.
Leaving it in the hands off petty white collar crooks manipulated by monied interests.