Don't Let the Dems Keep the Filibuster

Yes, repugs are to blame for continued high unemployment and resulting suffering in this economy. The Senate repugs, led by Mitch McConnell, repeatedly and reflexively use the filibuster to block every Democratic attempt to save the economy.

The only way for the Democratic majority to save the economy and incidentally their own asses in November is to kill the filibuster.

Obvious, right? So why haven't they done it yet? Unfortunately, because they don't want to.

Jon Walker at Firedoglake says that by refusing to kill the filibuster, Democratic Senators are breaking campaign promises:

We learned Wednesday from The Hill that many Democratic Senators don’t actually support all the great things they claim they have “fought for.” They lied to voters. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) doesn’t really support her health insurance rate-review agency as she claims to do. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) doesn’t really want Americans to have the choice of a public option, though he told people he’d fight for it. Carl Levin (D-MI) doesn’t really support expanding unemployment insurance. Russ Feingold doesn’t really care about using transparency to reduce corporate spending in elections. And so on. . . .

Why don’t these and other Senate Democrats support the policies they claim to if they really want to deliver for the voters? Because they refuse to take the small step that would actually allow them to become law. They refuse to vote to change the filibuster rules, rules that permanently doom every idea they claim to champion. They want to make sure 41 Senate Republicans always have a veto over every piece of legislation, so nothing they claim to care about could ever pass. They publicly state that they care about defending the broken rules of their clubhouse more than any promise they ever made to any constituent about a law.

SNIP

Only one thing is stopping Senate Democrats from passing all the laws they promised you. It’s a simple rules change, yet many refuse just to vote yes on changing the rules. I don’t know how they could do any less to make good on their promises.

Kevin Drum on why the filibuster survives:

No matter what anyone says, this has always been the reason the filibuster continues to exist: because both parties want it. They mostly don't want to admit it, but both Democrats and Republicans have always had an essentially defensive view of the power of government: They're more interested in stopping the other guys when they're in power than they are in getting their own things done when they're in power. In fact, for a lot of senators, the filibuster acts as a pretty convenient excuse for not doing things they don't want to do in the first place. It allows them to deliver partisan stemwinders to the faithful during campaign season without having to worry about actually delivering once they're safely back in Washington.

So despite the massive abuse of the filibuster that we've seen over the past few years, in which Republicans have made its use so universal that even Mother's Day resolutions now need 60 votes to pass the Senate, it's not going anywhere.

Wait! Don't despair. Cowardice and betrayal from Democratic Senators is nothing new. A year ago everyone was positive it would doom healthcare reform, then that it would doom financial reform. Yeah, both bills are nowhere near as strong as they need to be, but they are starts. And they are also proof that the Democratic majority can do the right thing - when we force them to.

Walker says vote against Democratic Senators in November; Drum says give up.

I say we have not yet begun to fight.

Call and email your Senators, make all your friends to the same, turn up at townhalls and demand the death of the filibuster. And don't forget:



Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....