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Ungovernable America (Prominent liberal blogger gently hints at junking the filibuster altogether)
Think Progress, via Instapundit ^ | 12/11/2009 | Matthew Yglesias

Posted on 12/12/2009 8:04:18 AM PST by GOP_Resurrected

We’re suffering from an incoherent institutional set-up in the senate. You can have a system in which a defeated minority still gets a share of governing authority and participates constructively in the victorious majority’s governing agenda, shaping policy around the margins in ways more to their liking. Or you can have a system in which a defeated minority rejects the majority’s governing agenda out of hand, seeks opening for attack, and hopes that failure on the part of the majority will bring them to power. But right now we have both simultaneously. It’s a system in which the minority benefits if the government fails, and the minority has the power to ensure failure. It’s insane, and it needs to be changed.

(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bloggersandpersonal; filibuster; senate
Translation: "WAAH! We can't win, so we'll change the rules of the game!" I knew when it spewed forth from the mouth unhinged Alan Grayson we'd hear about this again.
1 posted on 12/12/2009 8:04:19 AM PST by GOP_Resurrected
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To: GOP_Resurrected

WHAAAT now the party of the “oppressed” masses what to oppress the minority it doesn’t like?

Who would have thunk.
Fascist Pigs


2 posted on 12/12/2009 8:08:31 AM PST by Marty62 (former Marty60)
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To: GOP_Resurrected

Damn fool liberals better hope that we don’t decide to change the rules of the game,and take our grievences to the street.


3 posted on 12/12/2009 8:09:24 AM PST by Farmer Dean (Don't blame me,I voted for the American)
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To: GOP_Resurrected

Progressives only believe in minority rights if they happen to be the minority whose ox is gored otherwise there should be nothing standing in the way of a majority imposing its will. According to Teddy Roosevelt even the Constitution should not be used by the courts to protect the property rights of the minority if the majority could benefit from eliminating such rights.


4 posted on 12/12/2009 8:21:46 AM PST by Libertarianize the GOP (Make all taxes truly voluntary)
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To: GOP_Resurrected
You think if they were in the minority that this would even be an issue? The rush is on to change everything at once so conservatives do not ever have to opportunity to regain control.
5 posted on 12/12/2009 8:22:09 AM PST by Outlaw Woman (If the First Amendment is taken away, we will be forced to move on to the next Amendment)
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To: Marty62
Fascist Pigs

Scratch a "progressive" and thats what you'll find.

6 posted on 12/12/2009 8:29:07 AM PST by skeeter
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To: GOP_Resurrected

Interesting that when the Republicans had a majority in the senate and the democrats filibustered most of Bush’s judicial nominees as well as many of his programs such as social security reform, they were all in favor of the filibuster rule.

Personally I think it’s a great rule - it minimizes the number of laws passed which is a good thing.


7 posted on 12/12/2009 8:36:12 AM PST by aquila48
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To: GOP_Resurrected

“Or you can have a system in which a defeated minority rejects the majority’s governing agenda out of hand...”

Which may well be the right thing to do when the political platforms of the two parties are at diametrical opposition to one another. These whiners can’t even accept their majority position.

The simple fact is that they DON’T need the pubbies. They have the capacity to pass ANYTHING they desire. And, they have a Pres__ent who will sign any socialist measure that hits the desk.

What they don’t have is the political cover that comes with ‘bipartisanship’. And, that galls them.

It’s time to take back the country.


8 posted on 12/12/2009 8:39:16 AM PST by PubliusMM (RKBA; a matter of fact, not opinion. 01-20-2013: Change we can look forward to.)
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To: GOP_Resurrected

Idiots. Those in the minority still represent American citizens who elected them.

with the Democrats it’s ‘winner take all, all all! Bwahhahahahaha!’

But when it’s a Republican majority, well, they are just greedy white capitalist opressors and must be resisted.


9 posted on 12/12/2009 8:39:45 AM PST by squarebarb
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To: GOP_Resurrected
I agree with junking the filibuster. It is an artificial impediment to passing laws by majority vote through the Senate. There is nothing in the Constitution about a supermajority for all legislation that gets considered by the Senate, it is simply a Senate tradition.

I don't want to be hindered by the need to have 60 votes if the GOP is ever in again and wants to reverse socialism. If you did keep it, it would have to be a way of delaying a vote, not preventing it forever.

The time to get rid of it is at the start of a Senate session. Each new Senate is empowered to change the rules of the old one, they are not bound by what prior Senates did. The Dems are stuck with their rules for this session.

10 posted on 12/12/2009 8:56:03 AM PST by Defiant (The absence of bias appears to be bias to those who are biased.)
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To: GOP_Resurrected

The underlying fault in this fool’s argument is the premise that governing is a good thing.

“There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.” Daniel Webster

“”That government is best which governs least.” Thomas Paine

____________

Ambiens calor tyrannis


11 posted on 12/12/2009 9:01:44 AM PST by dagogo redux (A whiff of primitive spirits in the air, harbingers of an impending descent into the feral.)
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To: Defiant

I agree with you yet disagree....we can junk the filibuster, if we repeal the 17th amendment...then the senate represents the states, not a political party, just like it was intended to be


12 posted on 12/12/2009 9:10:42 AM PST by joe fonebone (I am racist, hear me roar....I don't give a crap anymore....)
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To: Defiant
I disagree;the filibuster is a way to force proponents to stand up publically ,to be sure the new law is really needed,indeed a last chance to consider laws that are all too often rushed through UNREAD and UNDEBATED.

Keep the filibuster!

Fear government .

13 posted on 12/12/2009 9:13:27 AM PST by hoosierham (Waddaya mean Freedom isn't free ?;will you take a credit card?)
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To: GOP_Resurrected

The idiot apparently has no idea of the concept of checks and balances.


14 posted on 12/12/2009 9:21:19 AM PST by cranked
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To: GOP_Resurrected

“You can have a system in which a defeated minority still gets a share of governing authority and participates constructively in the victorious majority’s governing agenda, shaping policy around the margins in ways more to their liking. Or you can have a system in which a defeated minority rejects the majority’s governing agenda out of hand, seeks opening for attack, and hopes that failure on the part of the majority will bring them to power”

The author seems to think this is a contradiction, for some reason (almost certainly because Democrats are in power). As if it makes no sense for the minority to at once have the opportunity to thrive off scraps from the majority’s table and be able to go it alone and benefit from the majority’s downfall.

How “insane” it is, that they have options. Whoever would devise a system wherein minorities have power? What kind of upside-down, backwards world are we livin in? Next thing you know, the states are going to start opposing the federal government. Madness, I say!


15 posted on 12/12/2009 9:50:42 AM PST by Tublecane
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To: PubliusMM

“What they don’t have is the political cover that comes with ‘bipartisanship’.”

Yet they pretend they do, as in when Obama claims (paraphrasing), “We’re the bipartisan ones because they won’t do everything we tell them to do.”


16 posted on 12/12/2009 9:54:17 AM PST by Tublecane
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To: Defiant

“There is nothing in the Constitution about a supermajority for all legislation that gets considered by the Senate, it is simply a Senate tradition.”

I like traditions. Some of them. The fillibuster is one of those “informal amendments,” like judicial review, (originally) the two-term president, that works. Some of the time.


17 posted on 12/12/2009 9:58:19 AM PST by Tublecane
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To: GOP_Resurrected

Is this him?

18 posted on 12/12/2009 10:01:48 AM PST by smokingfrog (I'm from TEXAS -- what country are YOU from?)
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To: hoosierham
the filibuster is a way to force proponents to stand up publically ,to be sure the new law is really needed,indeed a last chance to consider laws that are all too often rushed through UNREAD and UNDEBATED

No, we don't disagree. I think a person can filibuster and accomplish those things, they just can't do it forever. Let the minority stand up and debate for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, something like that. Make them actually stand on the floor debating. First vote to end debate requires 60 votes, after one week, 55, after 2 weeks 50. That way a bill is not rushed through and opponents have a chance to muster opposition and raise hell. If it still passes, it passes. That's what a representative republic is all about. We vote the bums out next time, and guess what, we only need 50 votes, not 60, to dump their bad legislation.

19 posted on 12/12/2009 10:33:00 AM PST by Defiant (The absence of bias appears to be bias to those who are biased.)
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To: Tublecane
I like some traditions. I don't like this one. It was invented at a time when communications were by horseback, and people needed some time to get word to the frontier. It was invented at a time when people actually had to stand up and filibuster on the Senate floor, which naturally limited its length. It was perpetuated by legislators intent on defending slavery, and then on defending segregation, and then on defending the socialist programs of an era when the socialists were able to muster 60 votes. Because of that one time anomaly during a depression when another Republican president soured the country on Republicans 70 years ago, we are forever saddled with an anti-constitutional socialist welfare state that only grows, never shrinks. You hear complaints about how government programs always grow, and we can never get rid of them. Guess why....because you can never get 60 votes to get rid of them.

During the Reagan era, we could have gotten rid of the DOE and we could have actually accomplished some things if there was no filibuster. During the Gingrich congress, there was a Dem President, so we effectively needed 67 votes, but during Bush's era, the Senate was where judges, tax cuts and budget cuts went to die. GOP weak-kneed lily livers gave up and threw in with the socialists, and that is why we have the mess we have now. Let's try governing, and that requires 50 percent plus one, not 60 percent. Let the Dems win their little votes now, let's make sure they know we are going to run on a platform of getting rid of not 2 years of socialism but 70, and then get rid of them with a majority vote.

What was it Obama said--"I won, deal with it." It's our turn next time.

20 posted on 12/12/2009 10:42:36 AM PST by Defiant (The absence of bias appears to be bias to those who are biased.)
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