Prof. Reich: In response to your urgent, and justifiable, call for action, I reply with an ambitious, yet workable, proposal that, in my view, would countermand the polarizing influences of a rising political class intent on undoing the very structures of government that were created to preserve representative democracy. Though I don’t imagine any of us would dispute that nearly everything disfunctional in our politics can be attributed largely to the Senate filibuster, still, neither abolishing the filibuster nor exempting it even to pass bills protective of our most basic rights currently has support from 50 Senators. Hence, I defer to Congressional Scholar Norm Ornstein who, for some time, has pressed for a Senate filibuster rule change I believe would provide an opening for the Senate to function as the deliberative body our Founders had sought to establish. This rule change that likely would pass (it would need support from only 50 Senators) would involve replacing the 60-vote threshold required to end debate with a 41-vote threshold to continue debate, thus shifting the burden from the majority to the minority, 41 of whom would have to be present, speaking nonstop solely about the issue at hand, to sustain a filibuster. I don’t imagine any Senator (as stated, we only need support from 50) could mount a credible opposition in defiance of this reform.
Consider the possibilities were this rule change enacted and Senate Democrats were able at least to have a shot at passing the Freedom to Vote Act, the PRO Act, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, criminal justice reform, gun safety legislation, and more. I expect Dems would be so mobilized that they likely could win enough seats in 22 to render the likes of a Manchin or a Sinema as virtually irrelevant.
In closing, I would note that all of us must prevail upon President Biden, as he did with the American Rescue Plan, to get the two coalitions in his Party together and united. Whether it be the Freedom to Vote Act, the Social and Climate Action package, or some other legislation, Biden must be mindful that the fate of the Democratic Party, and admittedly of democracy itself, ultimately, does not rest solely with individual Senators or with different coalitions within the Party. Rather it’s the Party’s leadership that must lead, come up with the deal, and get the job done.
It's do or die! We cannot continue to pretend. Remember how tRump was laughed at at an international forum? He had made unsupported statements describing himself and his accomplishments in glowing terms. Everyone there laughed! That can happen again. Worse, it affects those who are subjects of this tyranny. U.S. We cannot peddle Democracy when we do not practice it ourselves!
The problem with the present filibuster rule is that it places the entire burden on the majority party in the Senate to find the 60 votes to end debate and vote on a bill. The minority party simply invokes the filibuster and does nothing else. This is wrong. The burden should be on the minority party to continue the filibuster by having to maintain 41 votes 24/7 to continue debate. This greatly increases the difficulty of maintaining a filibuster for any length of time. It also has the benefit of highlighting the issue at hand to the American people with increased publicity. The present rule provides almost no publicity concerning an issue. I think this could solve the filibuster problem without the political firestorm that would ensue if the filibuster was eliminated entirely.
If we remain rational for a moment, Democrats - notably, the president - apparently not on board the band wagon to bust the filibuster raises the question: "why are these Democrats breaking ranks on the issue?" Now, it's all too easy for >me< to draw certain conclusions concerning Manchin & Sinema. Anyone who has been paying attention to these posts should know I hold suspect those Senators' candor in even calling themselves Democrats. But the president?
Sample poll numbers seem to be looking bleak with regard to Democrats hanging on to their majorities. Now, regardless of whether anyone here or anywhere else takes stock in sample poll numbers, the politicians we elect certainly do. Hell! ol' Tweety even tried to invent and sell >his own< "sample poll" numbers! I'll conjure that the thought process goes something like this:
"We're likely to take a beating in the midterms. If that's the case, we'd be handing the Banana Republicans a filibuster-free Senate, thus reducing our own power to stop them from using that majority to legislate any crap they want."
Of course, at this juncture, I'd say that since the question has already been broached, and since - if memory serves - the Banana Republicans were pushing such an initiative several years ago in the first place, if the Republicans regain a majority in the midterms, they'll probably eliminate the filibuster anyway just to quash any Democratic opposition. I conclude that the president should get on board with the idea of busting the filibuster immediately, while the Democrats still have the power to succeed in their initiatives. That success may be the Democrats' >only< hope of preventing humiliation in the midterms - and ultimately, retain the presidency, itself!
Dr. Reich - you have been and continue to be the strongest voice of reason and truth concerning the sad state of our democracy. But more than that, you’ve given the American people the knowledge we need to understand what needs to be done to save ourselves. Let’s hope your efforts will not have been in vain.
I agree but Biden will not have the guts to do what is necessay. He is a creature of another era when the Republicans were patriotic but conservative about spending, debt, and taxes. They fully embraced trickle down economics.
Well that dog don’t hunt. And Biden is still bought and paid for by the financial services industry.
Until Biden accepts that today’s Republicans are a party of unprincipled power mad anti-democracy terrorists, fascists, authoritarians, racists, and religious fanatics every bit as bad for America as Hitler’s Nazis were for Germany in 1932.
The Republican Party must be made irrelevant by a massive and overwhelming wave of Democratic wins at every level; local, state and federal.
I simply don’t see that happening. The war is over and the good guys lost.
YES! It is time to end the Filibuster! Voting rights MUST be protected. We are skating on very thin ice in our political world right now. Trump has caused tremendous damage. We need to use every tool available to bolster up the Democratic Party.
In my view, Democracy is not about values, its a process for public selection of government representatives and leaders. It does mandate any belief system, any qualifications for candidates concerning experience, abilities, social values, integrity, most importantly, honesty (given recent prolific liars in high posts).
I think the Democrats win hands down when it comes to objectives and policies that work in the best interests of all our citizens. The trick is to explain the differences in a way that avoids tacking on political labels that invoke visceral passions. For example good, affordable, universal, health care is not "liberal" or "progressive" dogma, its what people need and want.
I'm afraid we may be past the point of no return on the issues of voting rights, women's rights (including Roe v. Wade), and climate change. These are all held hostage by what Thom Hartmann calls the Republican Death Cult, seemingly more interested in retaining power and wealth than stewarding our resources and protecting our people.
Our minority party wields unbelievable power, much like a petulant child who ruins family vacations through unthinking, selfish urges. How do we kill the filibuster forever? If we don't do that, a few miscreants with dark motives can ruin our people, our country, and even our world.
Root causes. A dominant root cause of the slow disappearance of democracy in the US is the power the very rich, the corporations, the financiers and the bomb makers. They have organized to regain power and take back Roosevelt's New Deal, since Reagan. They have succeeded. The Republicans serve the interests of the 1% exclusively, at the expense of the 99%. So do the corporate democrats, the "demoblicans." A huge obstacle to continue on this path are the elections, democracy itself. The Senators and the representatives (not of the people) still have to be elected by the people. Their visible and obvious situation is: "Vote for me so that I can serve the interests of the 1% at your utter expense." In order to be elected you must warp the rules, cheat, lie, distract, gerrymander, make the voting of those who are lucid as difficult as possible, own and run the propaganda machine, etc. The filibuster is one of a million tricks against democracy.
Now, look at it from the perspective of the 1%. Elections and democracy are a major threat to their power. Organizing to move to an authoritarian system would secure their hold on power and privilege. It look like we are moving that way.
The single country of hope for humanity after VWII is in a very bad way. Regrettably for the US and humanity..
I guess the question then is "Why isn't Biden on board for democracy?" He's not stupid. I wonder what the heck is keeping him from pushing on the filibuster, at least to modify it so it's not as big a stoppage. Is he truly so in the dark or shielded from reality? It seems obvious what's happening to lots of folks, but particularly those high up in the political arena; folks that could actually talk to Biden and advise him. But we hear zip. Nothing, nada.
Is there some secret plan? Or has Biden given up because of some reason that's not evident? Has big money gotten to Biden too? If people that tend blue can't vote then he's certainly a one termer no matter how nice his BBB plan is.
We, as in U.S. democracy, are pretty much at the closing (and final) opportunity to save ourselves. But it's not me that's going to do it, no amount of my single vote will change things if the politicians don't have the interests of the public at heart.
I'm sorry but I just don't see any urgency to save democracy. Voting rights should have been Biden's #2 agenda (after cv19). I appreciate the efforts to shore up childcare and infrastructure but it really is secondary to insuring a functioning democracy. All those gains that Biden's achieved will disappear in a few months when Trump resumes his presidency.
This binary choice has been obvious for so long and I hoped that the filibuster would die early in Biden's presidency. Now I dread what seems inevitable. I see no way out. It feels like a vortex, and we're spinning faster and faster. I can't see even a rule change happening as others have commented. The American public is blind to this predicament, and with Biden's determination to give an appearance of "normal" governance, without appealing to those much more powerful emotions of fear and anger (sole territory of the right), we're doomed.
Do any of the invited countries have the quirky minority rule “filibuster” in their democratic governance? The filibuster makes a mockery of any democracy, a real leader would work endlessly to dispose of it!!
Your analysis is 'spot on' and the partisan Wisconsin Supreme Court just proved your point by allowing the gerrymandered map of the state to assure Republican's remain in control of the legislature.
I haven't seen any reporting on direct conversations with Manchin. If This question were put to him (democracy or filibuster) would he actually say filibuster? Surely he must be thinking that the choice is not as stark as this? What does he think? It will all work out that state republicans are cancelling voters and putting in place the mechanism to change the majority vote to elect their losing candidates?
I agree that Biden needs to get involved - call out Manchin directly. Ask why the DOJ is moving so slowly. Address the hate speech and question the money in politics. Ask about the politics in the Supreme Court. There is lots of stuff he could be more vocal about.
Prof. Reich: In response to your urgent, and justifiable, call for action, I reply with an ambitious, yet workable, proposal that, in my view, would countermand the polarizing influences of a rising political class intent on undoing the very structures of government that were created to preserve representative democracy. Though I don’t imagine any of us would dispute that nearly everything disfunctional in our politics can be attributed largely to the Senate filibuster, still, neither abolishing the filibuster nor exempting it even to pass bills protective of our most basic rights currently has support from 50 Senators. Hence, I defer to Congressional Scholar Norm Ornstein who, for some time, has pressed for a Senate filibuster rule change I believe would provide an opening for the Senate to function as the deliberative body our Founders had sought to establish. This rule change that likely would pass (it would need support from only 50 Senators) would involve replacing the 60-vote threshold required to end debate with a 41-vote threshold to continue debate, thus shifting the burden from the majority to the minority, 41 of whom would have to be present, speaking nonstop solely about the issue at hand, to sustain a filibuster. I don’t imagine any Senator (as stated, we only need support from 50) could mount a credible opposition in defiance of this reform.
Consider the possibilities were this rule change enacted and Senate Democrats were able at least to have a shot at passing the Freedom to Vote Act, the PRO Act, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, criminal justice reform, gun safety legislation, and more. I expect Dems would be so mobilized that they likely could win enough seats in 22 to render the likes of a Manchin or a Sinema as virtually irrelevant.
In closing, I would note that all of us must prevail upon President Biden, as he did with the American Rescue Plan, to get the two coalitions in his Party together and united. Whether it be the Freedom to Vote Act, the Social and Climate Action package, or some other legislation, Biden must be mindful that the fate of the Democratic Party, and admittedly of democracy itself, ultimately, does not rest solely with individual Senators or with different coalitions within the Party. Rather it’s the Party’s leadership that must lead, come up with the deal, and get the job done.
It's do or die! We cannot continue to pretend. Remember how tRump was laughed at at an international forum? He had made unsupported statements describing himself and his accomplishments in glowing terms. Everyone there laughed! That can happen again. Worse, it affects those who are subjects of this tyranny. U.S. We cannot peddle Democracy when we do not practice it ourselves!
The problem with the present filibuster rule is that it places the entire burden on the majority party in the Senate to find the 60 votes to end debate and vote on a bill. The minority party simply invokes the filibuster and does nothing else. This is wrong. The burden should be on the minority party to continue the filibuster by having to maintain 41 votes 24/7 to continue debate. This greatly increases the difficulty of maintaining a filibuster for any length of time. It also has the benefit of highlighting the issue at hand to the American people with increased publicity. The present rule provides almost no publicity concerning an issue. I think this could solve the filibuster problem without the political firestorm that would ensue if the filibuster was eliminated entirely.
If we remain rational for a moment, Democrats - notably, the president - apparently not on board the band wagon to bust the filibuster raises the question: "why are these Democrats breaking ranks on the issue?" Now, it's all too easy for >me< to draw certain conclusions concerning Manchin & Sinema. Anyone who has been paying attention to these posts should know I hold suspect those Senators' candor in even calling themselves Democrats. But the president?
Sample poll numbers seem to be looking bleak with regard to Democrats hanging on to their majorities. Now, regardless of whether anyone here or anywhere else takes stock in sample poll numbers, the politicians we elect certainly do. Hell! ol' Tweety even tried to invent and sell >his own< "sample poll" numbers! I'll conjure that the thought process goes something like this:
"We're likely to take a beating in the midterms. If that's the case, we'd be handing the Banana Republicans a filibuster-free Senate, thus reducing our own power to stop them from using that majority to legislate any crap they want."
Of course, at this juncture, I'd say that since the question has already been broached, and since - if memory serves - the Banana Republicans were pushing such an initiative several years ago in the first place, if the Republicans regain a majority in the midterms, they'll probably eliminate the filibuster anyway just to quash any Democratic opposition. I conclude that the president should get on board with the idea of busting the filibuster immediately, while the Democrats still have the power to succeed in their initiatives. That success may be the Democrats' >only< hope of preventing humiliation in the midterms - and ultimately, retain the presidency, itself!
Dr. Reich - you have been and continue to be the strongest voice of reason and truth concerning the sad state of our democracy. But more than that, you’ve given the American people the knowledge we need to understand what needs to be done to save ourselves. Let’s hope your efforts will not have been in vain.
I agree but Biden will not have the guts to do what is necessay. He is a creature of another era when the Republicans were patriotic but conservative about spending, debt, and taxes. They fully embraced trickle down economics.
Well that dog don’t hunt. And Biden is still bought and paid for by the financial services industry.
Until Biden accepts that today’s Republicans are a party of unprincipled power mad anti-democracy terrorists, fascists, authoritarians, racists, and religious fanatics every bit as bad for America as Hitler’s Nazis were for Germany in 1932.
The Republican Party must be made irrelevant by a massive and overwhelming wave of Democratic wins at every level; local, state and federal.
I simply don’t see that happening. The war is over and the good guys lost.
YES! It is time to end the Filibuster! Voting rights MUST be protected. We are skating on very thin ice in our political world right now. Trump has caused tremendous damage. We need to use every tool available to bolster up the Democratic Party.
In my view, Democracy is not about values, its a process for public selection of government representatives and leaders. It does mandate any belief system, any qualifications for candidates concerning experience, abilities, social values, integrity, most importantly, honesty (given recent prolific liars in high posts).
I think the Democrats win hands down when it comes to objectives and policies that work in the best interests of all our citizens. The trick is to explain the differences in a way that avoids tacking on political labels that invoke visceral passions. For example good, affordable, universal, health care is not "liberal" or "progressive" dogma, its what people need and want.
Sherm
I'm afraid we may be past the point of no return on the issues of voting rights, women's rights (including Roe v. Wade), and climate change. These are all held hostage by what Thom Hartmann calls the Republican Death Cult, seemingly more interested in retaining power and wealth than stewarding our resources and protecting our people.
Our minority party wields unbelievable power, much like a petulant child who ruins family vacations through unthinking, selfish urges. How do we kill the filibuster forever? If we don't do that, a few miscreants with dark motives can ruin our people, our country, and even our world.
Root causes. A dominant root cause of the slow disappearance of democracy in the US is the power the very rich, the corporations, the financiers and the bomb makers. They have organized to regain power and take back Roosevelt's New Deal, since Reagan. They have succeeded. The Republicans serve the interests of the 1% exclusively, at the expense of the 99%. So do the corporate democrats, the "demoblicans." A huge obstacle to continue on this path are the elections, democracy itself. The Senators and the representatives (not of the people) still have to be elected by the people. Their visible and obvious situation is: "Vote for me so that I can serve the interests of the 1% at your utter expense." In order to be elected you must warp the rules, cheat, lie, distract, gerrymander, make the voting of those who are lucid as difficult as possible, own and run the propaganda machine, etc. The filibuster is one of a million tricks against democracy.
Now, look at it from the perspective of the 1%. Elections and democracy are a major threat to their power. Organizing to move to an authoritarian system would secure their hold on power and privilege. It look like we are moving that way.
The single country of hope for humanity after VWII is in a very bad way. Regrettably for the US and humanity..
I guess the question then is "Why isn't Biden on board for democracy?" He's not stupid. I wonder what the heck is keeping him from pushing on the filibuster, at least to modify it so it's not as big a stoppage. Is he truly so in the dark or shielded from reality? It seems obvious what's happening to lots of folks, but particularly those high up in the political arena; folks that could actually talk to Biden and advise him. But we hear zip. Nothing, nada.
Is there some secret plan? Or has Biden given up because of some reason that's not evident? Has big money gotten to Biden too? If people that tend blue can't vote then he's certainly a one termer no matter how nice his BBB plan is.
We, as in U.S. democracy, are pretty much at the closing (and final) opportunity to save ourselves. But it's not me that's going to do it, no amount of my single vote will change things if the politicians don't have the interests of the public at heart.
I'm sorry but I just don't see any urgency to save democracy. Voting rights should have been Biden's #2 agenda (after cv19). I appreciate the efforts to shore up childcare and infrastructure but it really is secondary to insuring a functioning democracy. All those gains that Biden's achieved will disappear in a few months when Trump resumes his presidency.
This binary choice has been obvious for so long and I hoped that the filibuster would die early in Biden's presidency. Now I dread what seems inevitable. I see no way out. It feels like a vortex, and we're spinning faster and faster. I can't see even a rule change happening as others have commented. The American public is blind to this predicament, and with Biden's determination to give an appearance of "normal" governance, without appealing to those much more powerful emotions of fear and anger (sole territory of the right), we're doomed.
And this is exactly Why Biden has a Low approval rating.
Do any of the invited countries have the quirky minority rule “filibuster” in their democratic governance? The filibuster makes a mockery of any democracy, a real leader would work endlessly to dispose of it!!
Your analysis is 'spot on' and the partisan Wisconsin Supreme Court just proved your point by allowing the gerrymandered map of the state to assure Republican's remain in control of the legislature.
I haven't seen any reporting on direct conversations with Manchin. If This question were put to him (democracy or filibuster) would he actually say filibuster? Surely he must be thinking that the choice is not as stark as this? What does he think? It will all work out that state republicans are cancelling voters and putting in place the mechanism to change the majority vote to elect their losing candidates?
I agree that Biden needs to get involved - call out Manchin directly. Ask why the DOJ is moving so slowly. Address the hate speech and question the money in politics. Ask about the politics in the Supreme Court. There is lots of stuff he could be more vocal about.