Yet people in Maine have kept on voting for her so what does that say about them?
2 Likes
I reluctantly agree with you: “they’re all happy to have the filibuster around so none of them have to actually stand for anything.”
4 Likes
Because Dems will always have a majority and that will never come back to haunt us.
Right now the GOP prefers it the way it is because they have ditched the filibuster for judicial appointments, so it doesn’t block anything they care about, and they don’t want any laws or budgets passed ever so that’s no problem for them. If the Ds remove the filibuster entirely then gop leadership will have to justify why they aren’t passing laws to only allow white xian immigrants and to shift the presidency to an annual rotation among prosperity gospel megachurch pastors.
6 Likes
It says they are not nearly as brave and bold as the voters of West Virginia who give us Manchin who gives us Schumer. As much as Manchin aggravates me, I don’t hold that against West Virginians. Mainers, on the other hand …
5 Likes
Right, I think the idea that McConnell and Co would dump it is a fallacy in thinking. As currently constructed, all judicial appointments and some budgetary bills are not subject to the filibuster. So if you’re main interest in putting your judges on the bench and maybe passing a budget when you have to, you’re set. The only people who benefit from fully eliminating the filibuster are people who want to pass all the rest of the legislation that comes before Congress. And the GOP is totally okay if none of it passes.
That’s why I don’t think they would kill the filibuster if they were to take the reins again. It suits their purposes to leave it alone so they can deep-six bills that would be inconvenient for them on their own side of the aisle and gives them veto power over anything the Dems want.
The filibuster also gives inordinate power to states constituting some 13% of the population, or so. The representatives of the least populous states get de facto vetoes over any law and the GOP controls a majority of those states, so it further behooves them to let the filibuster stand. Numerically, they are the minority and even if they get “majority” in the Senate (and/or the House), they are still going to be a minority in the country, so any legislative mechanism that maintains power for the minority is going to be of more use and interest to the side that is the minority.
6 Likes
The Helms amendment also needs to go. Speaking of the dead and unlamentedly gone for over a decade. It concerns restrictions on foreign aid for abortion services.
1 Like
centrist colleagues, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV)
Everytime I see her name in print my Sinema Syndrome acts up.
6 Likes
If only…
4 Likes
The cartoonist should have included Thomas’s favorite drink - a can of coke -to accompany Kavanaugh’s Beer Mug.
4 Likes
We have had a fairly sensible immigration bill–the DREAM Act-- kicked around the Senate since 2001, when it was first put on the shelf by the filibuster. Every time it came up, Senators would announce how they favored the bill while they decried the filibuster that kept the bill off the floor. Imagine how far along our immigration policy could be if we had 15-20 years of immigration law. On every burning issue from voting rights to health care and war and peace, the filibuster prevents sensible action. It has become a cover for cowards in the Senate and an international disgrace.
6 Likes
The Senate was less a concession to Slave States than a concession to the small states (e.g., Delaware, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire) that their voices would be a factor in national decisions. The concession to the Slave States was that they would get to inflate their populations by counting slaves as 3/5 of a free person. The free states wanted them to count as 0, while the Slave States wanted the slaves to count as a full person. (NB: This is only time in history that the Slave States advocated for Blacks as full people.)
6 Likes
Slave states had nothing at all to do with it.
Read up on the Connecticut Compromise and learn about it.
3 Likes
Spread-necks. Kill yourselves assholes. I don’t care anymore.
You can only accomplish that if you’re the MAJORITY party.
Oh wait…
2 Likes
Senator Collins is surely “concerned” and Sinema with her buddy Manchin stand to gum up everything they can.
McConnell smiles.
1 Like
See? I said trump dragged us into another universe… one where there is no logic or anything rational.
(((Sigh)))
1 Like