They didn’t under Trump, there’s a reason for that, even if it’s just to not let the Dems get it.
Timex
3083
The GOP didn’t blow up the filibuster under Trump because they didn’t really want to pass any laws anyway.
Seriously, they passed their tax cut through reconciliation… and they didn’t even have 50 votes for their non-plan on healthcare.
The filibuster is immaterial if your goal is just to fuck around and do nothing.
They didn’t under Trump because they didn’t have to; they could pass what they wanted (tax cuts for the wealthy and judges) with 51 votes. As soon as there is something they really want and the filibuster is in the way, they’ll toss it. They’re prepared to toss out elections, FFS, so they won’t balk at a rule like the filibuster.
Yeah, I’m also struggling to understand “Taking the filibuster to 55 votes only helps the Republicans, but getting rid of the filibuster entirely is the safer play”
Galaxy brain stuff, that!
Joe Manchin is like the Colorado Rockies, and his support on key elements of the Democrats agenda is Nolan Arenado. For five months, Democrats have thought, “There’s no way we can come up with something to trade for those votes.” And in the last 48 hours, Manchin has said he’s willing to trade those precious votes for the legislative equivalent of Austin Gomber and two minor leaguers that no one’s heard of.
This is getting more do-able. Especially some sort of infrastructure bill.
I am honestly unable to make heads or tails of that analogy. Maybe try cars? Or movies? ;)
KevinC
3090
It’s not him per se, it’s how corrupt the system is. Sure, he didn’t solicit a bribe for himself. Instead, he solicited a bribe for another senator in order to get him to switch his vote.
We all know this kind of corruption exists. It doesn’t make it any less gross for me, though.
It’s more cutting it to 55 won’t help the Dems pass anything needed to save democracy, cutting it to 50 means you can make sure Republicans can’t suppress the vote.
I’m not worried about Manchin getting on board- he knows at some point he’s going to be tossed, he’ll give us something good on his way out. It’s Sinema and Feinstein I worry about more. One’s a loon and the other’s senile, which means they can screw up anything and everything.
The girl you’ve really wanted to ask out but never have because you thought you could never afford to take her to the expensive places you assume that she’s going to demand to go to for a night out, lets it be known that her idea of a good time is to go out to Sonic and then sit in your parents basement watching Netflix.
138
3093
also from that Intercept piece:
“I think, basically, it should be [that] 41 people have to force the issue versus the 60 that we need in the affirmative. So find 41 in the negative. … I think one little change that could be made right now is basically anyone who wants to filibuster ought to be required to go to the floor and basically state your objection and why you’re filibustering and also state what you think needs to change that’d fix it, so you would support it. To me, that’s pretty constructive.”
Would flipping the filibuster have an effect?
It would have a big one. They’d have to give up their weekends to filibuster, which would hurt fundraising.
Dems would suffer less than Republicans on this.
But how does she feel about Nolan Arenado?
There is no bill even in consideration at this point that will help with “saving Democracy”. Voter suppression is a terrible thing, rooted in racism and white paternalistic social mores. But it seems to have minimal, if any negative effect on ballot outcomes.
Nothing in Manchin’s compromise deals with election subversion, which is the real threat. Nothing in HR-1 deals with election subversion either.
All of this is kabuki theater. If Democrats want to get serious about protecting democracy, they’d dump a doomed, poorly-written hunk of bolted together political theater legislation like HR-1 and work to come up with a narrowly-focused election subversion proposal, because that honestly might get 55 senate votes. (Then they can come back and focus on voter suppression, once they’ve tried to put that fire out.)
If Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema won’t vote for the bill that saves democracy, the filibuster is irrelevant.
Timex
3098
I would be supportive of the idea that you need to flip the filibuster…
If you want to stop a vote and continue debate, then you need to have 40 senators, ON THE FLOOR. If at any point you no longer have 40 senators on the floor saying they want to continue debate, then it moves to a vote.
It still allows the minority to slow things down if they want, but it means they have to actually work for it. And guess what? Most of the GOP members don’t want to bother with that.
138
3100
Just got a text from my wife who is ecstatic about her sudden three-day weekend.
Menzo
3101
I love that they’re making Juneteenth a Federal holiday.
I’m wondering why making Election Day a Federal holiday is so hard.
