Democrats are faced with a choice. Protect the filibuster or protect democracy.

[Rogue Valley]

Democrats are faced with a choice. Protect the filibuster or protect democracy.

1/31/21
The Democrats can use their House and Senate majorities to reform our politics, guarantee voting rights and enhance our democracy. Or they can surrender to an anti-majoritarian, money-dominated system, and allow the more accessible approach to voting created during the coronavirus pandemic to be destroyed. This means that the party must recognize that the Senate filibuster, contrary to happy myth, does not promote bipartisanship or constructive compromise by requiring most bills to get 60 votes. No, in the face of a radicalized Republican Party, maintaining the current filibuster rules means abandoning any aspirations to a legacy of genuine achievement. Sorry, there is no third way here. Living with the status quo means capitulating to obstruction. Democrats have only 50 votes plus Vice President Harris’s tie-breaker. They will never get 10 votes from a GOP that can’t even find a way to exile white-supremacist extremists from its ranks. So let the inevitable battle be waged in memory of John Lewis and John McCain, the civil rights icon and the Teddy Roosevelt reformer. Let it be a fight for democracy itself. The proposed For the People Act lives squarely in that tradition. Congressional leaders underscored its significance by designating it H.R. 1 and S. 1.

The bill takes direct aim at voter suppression by giving all Americans easy access to postage-free mail voting under a set of clear national rules, requiring drop boxes to make casting ballots easier and guaranteeing at least 15 days of early voting. It allows for Election-Day registration and constrains voter purges that often throw legitimate voters off the rolls. Other provisions would end partisan gerrymandering by requiring all states to set up independent commissions to draw congressional district lines, set up new safeguards against foreign money and subject dark money to effective disclosure rules. These provisions would be worthy in a normal time. But Trump’s attacks on the 2020 election, focused especially on high turnout among Black voters, make the For the People Act and a new Voting Rights Act imperative. Trump lost, but the impulses he represents are still powerful. And if Democrats are not willing to challenge a filibuster against political reform on moral grounds, they might consider self-interest: The voter suppression actions across the country would hit the young and racial minorities the hardest. Senators need to ask themselves which sentence they would like historians to attach to their names. One could be: “I saved the filibuster.” Here’s hoping that most of them would prefer: “I saved democracy.”

There is little doubt in my mind, Senate Republicans under Mitch McConnell will filibuster S.1. McConnell is all about power at any cost.

Republicans depend on voter suppression/depression, and the unfair gerrymandering of Congressional districts to survive. This is why the Trump administration was trying to sabotage the 2020 US Census.

28 GOP led states are working on passing 106 bills that limit mail voting, imposes strict ID requirements, and legalizes mass voter-roll purges.

If the choice is between preserving the Jim Crow relic filibuster or supporting democracy, I'll take democracy every time.

The history of the filibuster as 'Jim Crow relic'

 

[Ikari]

Yeah they will, but if you get rid of the legislative filibuster, they'll rue the day rather quickly. Because they ain't gonna be in control forever, and when the tables turn they'll feel it.

 

[CaughtInThe]

Can't republicans just reverse it the next time they're in power?

 

[Aunt Antifa]

Yeah they will, but if you get rid of the legislative filibuster, they'll rue the day rather quickly. Because they ain't gonna be in control forever, and when the tables turn they'll feel it.

Matter of time before the GOP does it. Be the first, get a ton of shit done, and hope the voters like the ton of shit you’ve done.

It’s a waste of time to do anything else. GOP are not good faith partners, even during a pandemic they can’t get out of election mode.

 

[Rogue Valley]

^^^^ This

 

[Rawley]

Democrats are faced with a choice. Protect the filibuster or protect democracy.

There is little doubt in my mind, Senate Republicans under Mitch McConnell will filibuster S.1. McConnell is all about power at any cost.

Republicans depend on voter suppression/depression, and the unfair gerrymandering of Congressional districts to survive. This is why the Trump administration was trying to sabotage the 2020 US Census.

What's "unfair" gerrymandering?

28 GOP led states are working on passing 106 bills that limit mail voting, imposes strict ID requirements, and legalizes mass voter-roll purges.

Voter roll purges are required by Federal law.

If the choice is between preserving the Jim Crow relic filibuster or supporting democracy, I'll take democracy every time.

The history of the filibuster as 'Jim Crow relic'

??? The Senate filibuster predates Jim Crow laws by a half a century.

 

[Cardinal]

Yeah they will, but if you get rid of the legislative filibuster, they'll rue the day rather quickly. Because they ain't gonna be in control forever, and when the tables turn they'll feel it.

Then Republicans best not turn the tables next time they're in power, or else Democrats will turn the tables next time they're in power.

 

[Moderate Right]

Democrats are faced with a choice. Protect the filibuster or protect democracy.

There is little doubt in my mind, Senate Republicans under Mitch McConnell will filibuster S.1. McConnell is all about power at any cost.

Republicans depend on voter suppression/depression, and the unfair gerrymandering of Congressional districts to survive. This is why the Trump administration was trying to sabotage the 2020 US Census.

28 GOP led states are working on passing 106 bills that limit mail voting, imposes strict ID requirements, and legalizes mass voter-roll purges.

If the choice is between preserving the Jim Crow relic filibuster or supporting democracy, I'll take democracy every time.

The history of the filibuster as 'Jim Crow relic'

Ummmmmmmmmmmm, we've had the filibuster since 1806 and we've had democracy the whole entire time.

 

[Old 'N Chill]

I'm not sure about the filibuster, don't know enough about whether it's good or bad. Looking to read opinions from the members here who are more knowledgeable, and whose opinions I respect. Here's an article I was just browsing.

How Joe Manchin can make the filibuster "more painful" for the GOP without eliminating it

Filibuster reforms are normal, and they happen all the time.

www.vox.com