EJ Dionne: Democrats are faced with a choice. Protect the filibuster or protect democracy.

[Nevilledog]

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Norman Ornstein
@NormOrnstein
A must read from ⁦@EJDionne⁩ .
Democrats are faced with a choice. Protect the filibuster or protect democracy.

Opinion | Democrats are faced with a choice. Protect the filibuster or protect democracy.
There’s no chance of compromise with this Republican Party.
washingtonpost.com
10:14 AM · Jan 31, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-democrats-choice-protect-the-filibuster-or-protect-democracy/2021/01/29/0e78ba24-6278-11eb-afbe-9a11a127d146_story.html

The Democrats can use their House and Senate majorities to reform our politics, guarantee voting rights and enhance our democracy. Or they can surrender to an anti-majoritarian, money-dominated system, and allow the more accessible approach to voting created during the coronavirus pandemic to be destroyed.

This means that the party must recognize that the Senate filibuster, contrary to happy myth, does not promote bipartisanship or constructive compromise by requiring most bills to get 60 votes. No, in the face of a radicalized Republican Party, maintaining the current filibuster rules means abandoning any aspirations to a legacy of genuine achievement.

Sorry, there is no third way here. Yes, Democrats could avoid a complete repeal of the filibuster by getting rid of it only for certain categories of bills — for example, those related to voting rights and democratic reforms. But living with the status quo means capitulating to obstruction. Democrats have only 50 votes plus Vice President Harris’s tie-breaker. They will never get 10 votes from a GOP that can’t even find a way to exile white-supremacist extremists from its ranks.

So let the inevitable battle be waged in the memory of John Lewis and John McCain, the civil rights icon and the Teddy Roosevelt reformer. Let it be a fight for democracy itself.

There is genuine urgency because Republican legislators throughout the country have been moving rapidly to rig the 2022 elections by throwing new obstacles in the way of voters.

*snip*

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. The filibuster was born to protect slave states, just like the EC. Time for it to go.

[OnDoutside]

2. Whether it goes or not, HR1 and the VRA must be passed at all costs.

Obviously the Covid Relief package is the top priority, but I would place those bills above anything else.

That said, I do agree that now is the time to kill the filibuster. I have heard Norm Ornstein on a number of podcasts in the last couple of weeks he has suggested a number of rule changes around Budget Reconciliation that may do similar things but still have the cover of keeping the filibuster.

[theaocp]

3. Keep campaigning on what can be born of this in WV, AZ, and

Any other damn state that has senators who need some influencing. Take it to the voters and fucking tell them Santa’s coming to town, so go tell your senators to get in line and let the donors cry.