Michael Ramirez for January 03, 2022

The filibuster is not in the Constitution. But each house is allowed to make their own procedural rules. The Senate rules, unlike the House, trying to be a more “deliberative” body (and with fewer members in the early days) allowed unlimited debate on the floor and unlimited “yields” (handoffs to allies). During such speechifying, no other business could be conducted.

It took a 2/3 vote to stop a debate.

The filibuster arose when Southern conservative senators wanted to block bills, especially in the area of civil rights. Not having the votes, they simply stood and spoke under the rules allowing “unlimited debate” and kept on speaking, handing off (yielding) to accomplices as needed for breaks, and thus preventing any other business from going forward.

Finally, they made a compromise in the Senate rules: they would lower the cloture vote from 2/3 to 3/5 (60 votes in a 100-member senate) and not require senators to actually speak; just invoke filibuster by motion, and allow other business to still proceed on a “two track” basis.

Taking out the hard work of hours and hours of speaking made it easier to invoke and, once Obama became president and McConnell embarked on an unprecedented racist obstruction of the first African-American president, he made a 60-vote supermajority the de facto standard for passing any legislation, with more filibusters during the Obama years than the entire history of all prior administrations COMBINED and then, when he regained the majority, essentially did away with the filibuster for all confirmations and for budget bills (budget reconciliation).

McConnell’s unprecedented ABUSE of filibuster, coupled with the built-in (Constitutional) disproportionate allocation of senate representation, transformed it from a tool for the minority to have a voice in developing legislation, to utter tyranny of the majority, in which senators representing 16% of the population could overrule an overwhelming majority.

They need to get rid of that G-D filibuster!

that’s an accelerator, it needs to be the superego to the President’s ego and the House’s id. But I agree that having it be the chamber of “Nothing but NO!” isn’t good.

Rambo-mirez does not want anything accomplished which the Democrats can take credit for.

I first misread this. I thought it meant removing the filibuster would mean things could actually get done.

What lovely ignorance of history, Mr Ramirez. Do you really believe that Congress was a destructive, radical operation speeding along heedlessly without constraints until McConnell perfected the modern filibuster?

Well, then the Congress could finally start doing its job rather than delegating their power to the Executive Branch. Get rid of the filibuster.

^^I see DD Wiz has given another long-winded rant based on rewritten history. First of all, Harry Reid, not McConnell did away with the filibuster for confirmations except the Supreme Court. Nobody did away with the filibuster for budget bills, reconciliation already has a time limit on discussion, so a filibuster is not possible. McConnell only extended Reid’s nuclear option to the Supreme Court. The two track system which allowed a 60 vote supermajority to override filibusters was originally proposed by Walter Mondale.

Well done, Michael. Well done indeed.

Not quite accurate, Mr. Ramirez. There would still be a brake pedal, but it would take more than two Republicans to push it.

Please notice Ramirez has the steering wheel on the right hand side. What car has dashboard controls to the left of the steering wheel? I gotta hand it to him, that was subtle.

Mike, the steering wheel belongs on the LEFT.

Right now the GOP keeps the brake on all of the time (although they did pass the bill to relieve the effects of covid, thank goodness) We can’t get anywhere with an anchor holding us back. Use brake, but use it wisely.

So where does the clutch pedal fit into this analogy?

For me, it still begs the questions: “Who has the ignition key? The voters, perhaps?”

As far as I’m concerned, anything that stops legislation(which tends to limit freedoms) is a good thing.

With two gas pedals you’d think they could move forward instead of standing still.

One.. can hardly claim “democracy” while there exists the “filibuster”. When one man/woman controls what happens, I think the concept is more in line with a dictatorship.

The OLD filibuster, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, was a relatively useful tool for both sides (majority and minority). The new version, Mitch McConnell, allows the minority to thwart the majority with an extremely easy motion from one senator.

You just don’t understand, do you?

Holy crap!

Formula for the breakup of the United States: Delete the Electoral College, non-populous states would basically have no say; Pack the Supreme court, makes the court frivolous, hey if you don’t like what their doing just add more votes; and remove the Filibuster, basically removing a speed governor on a well tuned engine, what could go wrong.

¿ your point bring ?

The filibuster provides cover for cowardly Senators, so they don’t have to cast unpopular votes, either yea or nay. I say eliminate the filibuster and make all the senators have their vote on the record. Watch Senators have to vote against Child Tax Credits or perhaps have to vote against Voting Rights. Let’s see these Senators return to their state and explain their party trying to gut Social Security.

its full blast for special interests, not so much for the average american

To add to DD Wiz’s review, the Articles of Confederation required some sort of super majority (I don’t now remember whether it was 2/3 or 3/5) to pass “important” measures. It was speedily apparent that the result was government by minority—and not much of it—and the framers of our constitution (who, remember, were impaneled to propose improvements to the Articles) had no qualms about booting that kind of requirement.

Ramirez! You finally understand! The American people voted against the right-wing brake pedal on humanity and progress. The only obstruction is Republicans, and if they want to stand in the way, they need to be run over and out of the way.

let’s ban opspecial!

Yes, and we certainly would not want progress, right?