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Should we eliminate the filibuster?

Posted: Jul 19th, '21, 09:33
by easyrider16
“He’s a stupid person,” Trump said of McConnell. “I don’t think he’s smart enough.”

“I tried to convince Mitch McConnell to get rid of the filibuster, to terminate it, so that we would get everything, and he was a knucklehead and he didn’t do it,” he added.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... d=msedgntp

Re: Should we eliminate the filibuster?

Posted: Jul 20th, '21, 08:06
by easyrider16
No takers on this one, huh? Trump is calling McConnell a stupid person for not getting rid of the filibuster, but without the filibuster, Republicans would have no influence in the Senate right now. Because of the filibuster, McConnell was able to retain a large degree of control and influence over the Senate, and thwart Biden's agenda. Sounds to me like McConnell was the smart one, and perhaps Trump was the stupid one for losing an election to a weak candidate and then blaming everyone but himself.

That's just my opinion. I'd love to hear the Trump supporter response.

Re: Should we eliminate the filibuster?

Posted: Jul 20th, '21, 08:16
by XtremeJibber2001
I say keep it.

Re: Should we eliminate the filibuster?

Posted: Jul 20th, '21, 08:16
by boston_e
easyrider16 wrote: Jul 20th, '21, 08:06 No takers on this one, huh? Trump is calling McConnell a stupid person for not getting rid of the filibuster, but without the filibuster, Republicans would have no influence in the Senate right now. Because of the filibuster, McConnell was able to retain a large degree of control and influence over the Senate, and thwart Biden's agenda. Sounds to me like McConnell was the smart one, and perhaps Trump was the stupid one for losing an election to a weak candidate and then blaming everyone but himself.

That's just my opinion. I'd love to hear the Trump supporter response.
Eventually it will be gone since McConnell and the Republicans have made doing anything in a bipartisan fashion basically impossible.

McConnell will likely do away with it the next chance he gets anyway.

Re: Should we eliminate the filibuster?

Posted: Jul 20th, '21, 08:33
by easyrider16
boston_e wrote: Jul 20th, '21, 08:16 Eventually it will be gone since McConnell and the Republicans have made doing anything in a bipartisan fashion basically impossible.
Isn't it both parties, though? Schumer and Democrats were pretty set on thwarting Republican's agenda during Trump's term.

I think the filibuster is a good thing, as it's one of the few mechanisms in government that encourages the two parties to cooperate to get something done. However, given the increasingly polarized political climate, the parties aren't working together anymore on anything. That's going to lead to the filibuster getting removed by one side or the other at some point in the near future.

What we really need is to overhall the system so that we can have more than just two viable parties. I'm not sure that's possible though without going to a parliamentary system so it's kind of a pipe dream.

Re: Should we eliminate the filibuster?

Posted: Jul 20th, '21, 09:00
by Bubba
Keep the filibuster but revise it back to require that the filibuster means holding the floor. The original filibuster had senators reading phone books, etc. to hold the floor against moving a bill forward or holding a vote on cloture. Southerners using it against civil rights legislation is one example. The movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” is a classic Jimmy Stewart film with his filibuster as a key moment. All of that happened before CSPAN. Imagine now, with TV coverage, how people would react to seeing hours upon hours of phone book reading, etc. There’d be a whole lot less filibuster and a whole lot more negotiation just to avoid looking stupid.

Re: Should we eliminate the filibuster?

Posted: Jul 20th, '21, 09:13
by boston_e
Bubba wrote: Jul 20th, '21, 09:00 Keep the filibuster but revise it back to require that the filibuster means holding the floor. The original filibuster had senators reading phone books, etc. to hold the floor against moving a bill forward or holding a vote on cloture. Southerners using it against civil rights legislation is one example. The movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” is a classic Jimmy Stewart film with his filibuster as a key moment. All of that happened before CSPAN. Imagine now, with TV coverage, how people would react to seeing hours upon hours of phone book reading, etc. There’d be a whole lot less filibuster and a whole lot more negotiation just to avoid looking stupid.
Ted Cruz didn't mind looking stupid reading green eggs and ham. In fact most Republicans loved him for it.

Re: Should we eliminate the filibuster?

Posted: Jul 20th, '21, 09:25
by Bubba
boston_e wrote: Jul 20th, '21, 09:13
Bubba wrote: Jul 20th, '21, 09:00 Keep the filibuster but revise it back to require that the filibuster means holding the floor. The original filibuster had senators reading phone books, etc. to hold the floor against moving a bill forward or holding a vote on cloture. Southerners using it against civil rights legislation is one example. The movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” is a classic Jimmy Stewart film with his filibuster as a key moment. All of that happened before CSPAN. Imagine now, with TV coverage, how people would react to seeing hours upon hours of phone book reading, etc. There’d be a whole lot less filibuster and a whole lot more negotiation just to avoid looking stupid.
Ted Cruz didn't mind looking stupid reading green eggs and ham. In fact most Republicans loved him for it.
He did it for only a short period of time. Try doing it for days on end.

Re: Should we eliminate the filibuster?

Posted: Jul 20th, '21, 09:30
by easyrider16
boston_e wrote: Jul 20th, '21, 09:13 Ted Cruz didn't mind looking stupid reading green eggs and ham. In fact most Republicans loved him for it.
Looking stupid is Ted Cruz's specialty. He's a buffoon who is tolerated because he supports the radical right-wing Republican agenda, and their base doesn't care about how stupid you look so long as you vote how they want. See e.g. MTG.