Filibusters Are Hipper Than Beards and Tattoos

The Republicans must be glad they failed to eliminate the filibuster way back in 2005 when it seemed the good times would roll on forever. The filibuster isn’t the grand spectacle of days yore anymore. Current Senate Rules allow you to stop all Senate business if the opposition doesn’t have 2/3 majority to vote to end debate. Rather than requiring that you then occupy the floor and speak continuously until the offending bill is dropped., you now simply need to threaten to do so
Regardless, it is a procedural maneuver that was never used before 1841. Upon its first use there was a debate as to whether a simple majority should be enough to end debate but the Senate has tended to lean towards extended and careful consideration of all bills and so the tactic survived. Today it is truly in its heyday.
The NY Times ran a story tonight which just might explain why there has been so little movement on big issues from this congress. in the first year of this Congress there have been more filibusters than ever before in a two year Senate session.
So far in this first year of the 110th Congress, there have been 72 motions to stop filibusters, most on the Iraq war but also on routine issues like reauthorizing Amtrak funding. There were 68 such motions in the full two years of the previous Congress, 53 in 1987-88 and 23 in 1977-78. In 1967-68, there were 5 such votes, one of them on a plan to amend cloture itself, which failed.
I’m all for the minorities right to assert itself. It’s important that there is a means to empower proponents of alternative viewpoints. It’s important that there is the ability to force the majority to listen to your point of view. That’s something that should never be changed. There is a problem when filibuster is used to prevent rather than ensure debate. That’s the problem we’re seeing today.
Therefore I propose that we return to the days of long winded speeches. Bring us back to the days when passion drove politics. Bring back that good old filibuster, the kind you could make a movie about.

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