I’ve done a lot of research on the filibuster and written about that in previous posts. Here’s a brief reminder of that, followed by someone else’s opinion with much greater qualifications than mine. Also an update on filibuster positions of Democratic Senators. Not one Republican supports such change now, although they have in the past, as have Democratic Senators.
Excerpt from my 7-1-21 post, FILIBUSTER: What’s the Point?
“There is nothing in the Constitution or the rules of the Senate giving the filibuster a place in the techniques used by our Senators to get their work done; in fact, it accomplishes the opposite! There is no such “technique” in the House of Representatives. The filibuster is based on the idea that one person or group can block a particular piece of legislation they don’t agree with and stop the work of the Senate from continuing. Now, Senators don’t even have to talk nonstop, they can just threaten a filibuster. How is this democratic? How does it even make any logical sense?
Filibusters proved to be particularly useful to southern senators (ironically, they were Democrats) who sought to block civil rights legislation, including anti-lynching bills. Not until 1964 did the Senate successfully overcome a filibuster to pass a major civil rights bill. [This was the most consistent and frequent use of the filibuster in Senate history. My notation is from evidence in the Senate’s historical record.]”
The Senate website states: “While there were relatively few examples of the practice before the 1830s, the strategy of “talking a bill to death” was common enough by mid-century to gain a colorful label—the filibuster.” As I explained in my post: “The term was derived from the Dutch word for freebooter and the Spanish word “filibusteros”—to describe the pirates then raiding Caribbean islands, which gives you an idea of what was thought of it.”
E.J. Dionne writes about politics in a twice-weekly column for The Washington Post. He was educated at Harvard and Oxford ( Oxford University, D.Phil.; Harvard University, BA). He is also a government professor at Georgetown University, a visiting professor at Harvard University, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, and author of “Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country.”
The following are excerpts from his column of November 28, 2021. The link to the entire article is below.
“ With the Senate facing a do-or-die moment on whether it will protect the right to vote and honest counts in elections, opponents of much-needed reforms want to shift the topic to whether liberals are hypocrites about filibuster rules.
Their desire to change the subject is understandable. Opponents of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act prefer not to explain why a Republican Party that once embraced voting rights bills now echoes segregationist Democrats of old in defending “states’ rights” over federal voting guarantees.
And they would rather not be pressed on why they want to roll back the advances that made voting easier in 2020. More mail and early voting, drop boxes, less cumbersome registration and a slew of other changes led to record-breaking turnout. The Freedom to Vote Act is all about such access.
No political consultant would advise a client to explain opposition to it with a “Let’s Make Voting Harder Again” speech.”
[Emphasis mine, because that’s exactly what the Republicans are doing! And Democratic Senators Joe Manchin III, WV and Krysten Sinema, AZ are the only Democrats ABSOLUTELY OPPOSED to any change in the filibuster; just like every Republican Senator. But there are others who simply want to make minor adjustments. They, too, are aiding and abetting Let’s Make Voting Harder Again! For a complete list of those Democratic Senators who want to ELIMINATE the filibuster (19), COMMITTED to making changes (15), OPEN to changes (14) see this link: www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/filibuster-vote-count/
I urge you to check out this list, and if you have Senators in the Committed or Open columns (as I do, in spite of contacting them previously, yet again tonight) now is the time to email them! If you live in WV or AZ, you have my sympathy!
More from Dionne’s column:
“What started out as an unusual practice to extend debate has become a routine method for blocking the will of the majority. To put it starkly: Abuse of the filibuster is wrecking the Senate.
Should Democrats, including President Biden, allow these things to happen by claiming that the filibuster renders them powerless, they will be guilty of a more profound hypocrisy.
If it fails to act, the party that won power in 2020 as the bulwark of democracy and civil rights will be saying that these commitments matter less than fealty to an outdated, dysfunctional practice that has been altered repeatedly in pursuit of far less noble goals.”
Links:
E.J. Dionne’s column:
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/28/hypocrisy-argument-filibuster-is-itself-phony/
My 7/1/21 Post:
https://doannhoughton.com/filibuster-whats-the-point/
Lists of Democratic Senators’ Filibuster Positions:
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/filibuster-vote-count/
Senate website with filibuster history:
https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/filibusters-cloture/overview.htm
More information against the filibuster:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/examining-the-case-against-the-filibuster
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/case-against-filibuster
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/09/filibuster-senate-democrats/620243/
Strom Thurmond, SC segregationist senator, during one of his filibusters, occasionally alone, other times with a group of other pro-segregationist senators, mostly filibustering against civil rights legislation. Originally a Democrat, he later switched to the Republican party.
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