Is filibuster reform dead?
Eight months into President Joe Biden’s term, the minoritarian Senate rule remains untouched. It’s not how activists thought things would unfold.
I hate to say it but this seems to be where we’re at. Biden may already know what the truth is likely to be and is reluctant to expose it explicitly but I honestly don’t see how the alternative can be anything but worse; Manchin and Sinema can succeed in evading fault otherwise but that fault has to rest on them rather than the Biden administration and its allies or we risk real loss of leverage and progress. JMO
Lay what on the line? His political capital? That’s a finite resource. Which account should he withdraw it from? Infrastructure? Covid? Afghanistan? If he has progressives begging him to make a deposit on voting rights, what do they give up in return? Maybe all of Biden’s actions, taken as a whole, and contrasted with the evil-doings of the grand old MAGA party, taken as a whole, will assure democratic success in the midterms and in 2024.
I said maybe, y’all.
In the end I suspect that the reactionary Trumpist wing of the Republicans are actually on a path to a series of Pyrrhic victories like the completely bonkers Texas abortion law. I suspect that the restrictions, the abortion ‘wins’ (as Josh has framed it, blowing up the stealth strategy) actually will heavily motivate the progressives to vote, will turn-off centrists and swing voters on the reactionary Trumpists while not really ginning up the frothy Trumpies any more.
The dems just need to avoid their own froth-at-the-mouth errors, no more of that Defund the Police idiocy.
I’m cynical and skeptical as always. The Senate is broken, period!, and the filibuster is just one aspect. To fix it properly to make it more representative of the people would require a new constitution, which isn’t happening. We need to turn a few states blue and then get rid of the filibuster. Here’s one way.
We lost seats in the House in 2020. How many folks know that? I’m a proud member of the Democratic Party and support ending the filibuster. Why is this a progressive issue? It isn’t.
Stacey Abrams has 95% of Georgia voters registered so I’d recommend she show the rest of us how it’s done.
Literally the most important legislation pending in Congress are the voting rights bills. If the GQP can eliminate freedom to vote, use gerrymandering to segregate remaining non GQP voters into bizarrely drawn districts, and impose state sanctioned ways to overturn elections, we are done as a democracy. It’s over. We will be a permanent one party state with a radical and hateful minority in charge until violence erupts.
The six radical extremists on the Supreme Court could stop elements of the voting rights acts pending in Congress, but not most of it.
If we don’t act soon, we’re screwed. And Manchin & Sinema will lose their Senate seats and Biden (or any Democrat) will “lose” in 2024 to Trump or another insane GQP traitor. They will proceed to turn the U.S. into a Hungarian pseudo democracy.
It’s so damn easy. Just tell Manchin and Sinema and any other Senator that wants it, maybe even include Murkowski, that they can have 10 billion for their state, no strings attached, in exchange for their vote, spending which is vital to help the struggling families of the great states of West Virginia and Arizona and Alaska. Then make sure the offer gets in the news every single day. GOP heads will explode, providing more publicity, and the pressure from their constituents would be overwhelming. We’re in an existential war for the future of our country, it’s time to break every rule there is if we’re to succeed. If you’ve got a better idea beyond “Biden needs to step up” I’d love to hear it.
Increasingly Desperate Sane People is a better descriptor, IMHO
As it stands now, the GQP are truly running the country. The Supreme Court, Senate and House minority leaders and GQP State run legislations are running the country. In a way, Trump truly is still president. The American Taliban are winning, totally empowered by 4 years of Trump. With the intentional neglect of climate change, COVID mismanagement/politicizing and the ease of manipulation of propaganda. the democrats are just downright overwhelmed with problems created by the Trump movement.
The Biden administration and Senate/House democrats need to be getting in the faces of the GQP leaders big time, I mean IN THEIR FACES and in public. Expand the Supreme Court, eliminate the filibuster, pass voting rights legislation now, put these state legislators in their place. The hell with decorum, we are witnessing a civil war being played out and the GQP is winning and the world is dying.
Yup. With Manchin and Sinema entrenched the GOP simply needs to bide their time until they win again and then it’s over. Hate to be so blunt but it’s true.
My ignorant suggestion is to stop the comprehensive bullshit.
The public isn’t going to read or comprehend hundreds of pages of legaleze. We’re promoting labels, and branding isn’t our strength. Our strength is the vote.
Josh is right. Hold votes. Pick one thing – poll watchers. Put up a bill. Argue it on social, tv, newspapers, everywhere. If it fails, fine. If most people want it, don’t want it, fine. Vote, decide, then put up another one. The public will make the best decision.
But when we wrap this stuff up in a “comprehensive package,” the issue becomes a matter of trust, and trusting government isn’t our strong suit either.
That’s very good, but only 41% are registered as Democrats. We need to make inroads on the other 59%.
I think this is absolutely correct. GOP governors and legislatures across the country are in a race to be the next state to implement the TX abortion law, especially the governors with 2024 presidential hopes. There will be many more of these laws enacted and they’ll almost certainly try to make them even more oppressive. And then the stories will come about a rape victim who can’t get an abortion, about a woman pregnant with 8 babies as a result of in vitro fertilization who can’t carry all 8 fetuses, about a child who was raped by a family member, and on and on. Any chance they had at winning back white suburban women just went directly out the window.
But I still believe they’ll get something done on voting rights. I believe this because I believe politicians will ultimately do what is in their best political interest and it is absolutely in the entire Democratic Party’s best interest to pass voting rights legislation. They’ll come up with some carve out for this specific issue and maybe abortion because they’ll probably be able to get at least one GOP senator on board (gestures at Murkowski). Make no mistake, though, the pressure on Manchin and Sinema to move on these issues just got exponentially more intense.
OT, but where else, right?
When the first big legislation passed this past Spring and was made into Law…
When the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed the Senate…
There were meetings the likes of which we are not subject to be privy to.
There is the same process going on right now in Congress, along with representatives of the Administration.
I, too, believe that we will get a voting rights bill with some teeth, along with a decent Reconciliation Infrastructure Bill. But it will not be something that we can publicly monitor like legislation in the past.
The GOP, the Dark Money, Trump, his minions and a host of other Bad Actors would like nothing more than to thwart our efforts, using even OUR modes of communication with each other to sink us. The GOP is ahead of us with messaging discipline.
That’s pretty much their forte.
It’s a fatuous headline.
I thought I had accidentally landed at Faux Noise.
“Increasingly Desperate Progressives…”?
Should be:
“Seriously concerned Democrats…”
I can tell you specifics of the Texas bill. Six weeks. Ten thousand dollars. Vigilantes. No exceptions. I learned that in a few days.
Now, after months, I can’t tell you anything about the For The People Act, except opponents of Republicans believe they’ll be sunk without it.
Who’s being tribal?
Everyone. It’s typically human.