Democrats can't kill the filibuster. But they can gut it.

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
"Manchin and Sinema...won’t be persuaded by pressure campaigns...But they might consider reforms that weaken the power of filibusters and give Democrats more leverage to enact their policies."

Good, pragmatic ideas from @NormOrnstein, via @PostOpinions:

Perspective | Democrats can’t kill the filibuster. But they can gut it.
Three reforms Manchin and Sinema might consider.
washingtonpost.com
3:48 PM · Mar 2, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/03/02/manchin-filibuster-never-sinema/

Democrats won both Georgia Senate seats in January’s runoffs, giving them control of both houses of Congress and the White House for the first time in a decade. But their ability to advance legislation — from raising the federal minimum wage to democracy reforms in the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — can be thwarted by the Senate’s 60-vote supermajority filibuster rule.

Progressives’ anger at Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his caucus, who use the filibuster to block every initiative they can, is nearly matched by their frustration with Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III (W. Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), whose opposition to getting rid of the filibuster means Democrats are stuck with it, since they’d need all 50 votes in their caucus, plus Vice President Harris as a tiebreaker, to do it. Last month, the progressive No Excuses PAC, whose leaders helped elect Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) in 2018, said Manchin and Sinema “stand in the way of progress” by abetting Republican efforts “to shrink their own party’s pandemic relief, climate, and economic investment plans.” The political action committee has talked up primary challenges to both of them to show “‘how angry Democratic primary voters are going to be’ if they continue to support the filibuster.”

Manchin hasn’t budged, though. Monday, when asked if he’d reconsider his stance on eliminating the filibuster, he shot back: “Jesus Christ, what don’t you understand about ‘never’?”

Democrats are right to see the urgency: Republican state lawmakers around the country are moving to enact voter suppression measures that will, if passed, put the slender Democratic majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives in jeopardy in 2022 and beyond. Without democracy reform, and with the Supreme Court’s recent assaults on the Voting Rights Act, sticking with the filibuster could make it nearly impossible for the Biden administration to pursue its agenda.

But Democrats should proceed with caution: In 2001, I warned that if Republicans harangued Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) over his apostasy on their party’s policy priorities, they would regret it. He would switch parties and, in a 50-50 Senate, shift the Senate majority. The next month, it happened. The same concern now applies to Democrats with Manchin. Push too far, and the result could be Majority Leader McConnell, foreclosing Democrats’ avenue to pursue infrastructure, tax reform and health reform legislation.

*snip*

[Buns_of_Fire]

1. It's worth proposing to them. If Manchin is so concerned

about the minority being able to debate, then by all means let them. No more of this crap about calling a filibuster and that's all there is to it, though. Let them stand up there like Jimmy Stuart did as Mr. Smith and physically hold the floor for as long as they want to and their Pampers hold out.