Tell the Senate: Fix the filibuster
source: http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/filibuser_fix/?r_by=11260-3170348-DhQfdqx&rc=confemail
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- Ian_Judge_Lord
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The Senate needs to fix the filibuster, which is an antiquated provision in Senate procedure that requires a 60-vote supermajority to pass legislation, confirm nominees or even perform some of the most mundane parliamentary tasks.
In the 50s and 60s, the filibuster was used to keep racist, Jim Crow laws on the books. It was used to prevent the Senate from passing anti-lynching laws.
And yesterday, due to the filibuster, the Senate was unable to even take a vote on the legislative repeal of the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy, which prevents gay, lesbian and bisexual soldiers from serving their country openly.
Tell the Senate: It's time to fix the filibuster. Click here to automatically add your name to the petition.
It wasn't just DADT that was denied a vote yesterday. The underlying bill, which was filibustered in part to prevent the repeal of DADT from getting a vote, was the National Defense Authorization Act that authorizes funding for our military.
This means that in the middle of two wars, the U.S. Senate was unable to even discuss a bill to fund the troops.
There is good reason to be skeptical about how much we spend on our military and to doubt the merits of our military actions. And we must not fall into the conventional stupidity of equating support for the men and women in our military with the amount of money one is willing to burn in the American war machine.
But there is no good reason to think that a minority of Senators intent on a partisan strategy of obstructionism should be able to prevent these issues from being decided (one way or another) by a majority vote of their peers when our military is engaged in two wars.
Yesterday was one of the clearest examples yet of the degree to which the Senate is broken, and how the filibuster is the cause of such dysfunction.
Click to automatically sign our petition to the Senate. It reads:
"I am writing today to demand that you support Senate rules reform and fix the filibuster at the beginning of the next Congress."
The good news is that, contrary to popular belief, the filibuster isn't some immutable part of the Senate. The filibuster isn't in the Constitution — in fact it's the product of a historical accident. Not only that, the rules governing the filibuster have been changed twice before.
For the first time in 30 years, there is growing momentum to change the filibuster rules in the Senate again. This can be done with a simple majority vote on the first day of the next Senate session.
With different rules in the Senate, we might be celebrating the end of DADT, not to mention dozens of progressive policies passed by the House and killed in the Senate.
So we cannot allow the opportunity to fix the Senate pass by without pushing for reform.
Tell the Senate: It's time to fix the filibuster. Click here to automatically add your name to our petition.
Thank you for working for a better world.
P.S. Some progressives oppose efforts to reform the filibuster because they anticipate times when the filibuster will be used by a progressive minority to stop the overreach of a conservative majority.
If you look at the totality of how the filibuster has been used, it has on rare occasion achieved tactical success for progressives. But on the whole it has proved a strategic disaster for those who fight for social change.
The filibuster systematically works against those who want the government to function, who want to see our legislators address problems and fix things, and who want the government to move us past old prejudices and hateful laws written in the bad blood of our forbears.
And given the craven, callous disregard of Senate Republicans for the multiple crises we face as a nation, given their utter willingness to place political ambition and partisan gain over the need to legislate, is there any doubt that they will have the slightest scruples in eliminating the filibuster when its to their advantage?
Rather than endure additional years of dysfunction in one of the most important institutions of our Republic, we should address the problem on our own terms.
In the 50s and 60s, the filibuster was used to keep racist, Jim Crow laws on the books. It was used to prevent the Senate from passing anti-lynching laws.
And yesterday, due to the filibuster, the Senate was unable to even take a vote on the legislative repeal of the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy, which prevents gay, lesbian and bisexual soldiers from serving their country openly.
Tell the Senate: It's time to fix the filibuster. Click here to automatically add your name to the petition.
It wasn't just DADT that was denied a vote yesterday. The underlying bill, which was filibustered in part to prevent the repeal of DADT from getting a vote, was the National Defense Authorization Act that authorizes funding for our military.
This means that in the middle of two wars, the U.S. Senate was unable to even discuss a bill to fund the troops.
There is good reason to be skeptical about how much we spend on our military and to doubt the merits of our military actions. And we must not fall into the conventional stupidity of equating support for the men and women in our military with the amount of money one is willing to burn in the American war machine.
But there is no good reason to think that a minority of Senators intent on a partisan strategy of obstructionism should be able to prevent these issues from being decided (one way or another) by a majority vote of their peers when our military is engaged in two wars.
Yesterday was one of the clearest examples yet of the degree to which the Senate is broken, and how the filibuster is the cause of such dysfunction.
Click to automatically sign our petition to the Senate. It reads:
"I am writing today to demand that you support Senate rules reform and fix the filibuster at the beginning of the next Congress."
The good news is that, contrary to popular belief, the filibuster isn't some immutable part of the Senate. The filibuster isn't in the Constitution — in fact it's the product of a historical accident. Not only that, the rules governing the filibuster have been changed twice before.
For the first time in 30 years, there is growing momentum to change the filibuster rules in the Senate again. This can be done with a simple majority vote on the first day of the next Senate session.
With different rules in the Senate, we might be celebrating the end of DADT, not to mention dozens of progressive policies passed by the House and killed in the Senate.
So we cannot allow the opportunity to fix the Senate pass by without pushing for reform.
Tell the Senate: It's time to fix the filibuster. Click here to automatically add your name to our petition.
Thank you for working for a better world.
P.S. Some progressives oppose efforts to reform the filibuster because they anticipate times when the filibuster will be used by a progressive minority to stop the overreach of a conservative majority.
If you look at the totality of how the filibuster has been used, it has on rare occasion achieved tactical success for progressives. But on the whole it has proved a strategic disaster for those who fight for social change.
The filibuster systematically works against those who want the government to function, who want to see our legislators address problems and fix things, and who want the government to move us past old prejudices and hateful laws written in the bad blood of our forbears.
And given the craven, callous disregard of Senate Republicans for the multiple crises we face as a nation, given their utter willingness to place political ambition and partisan gain over the need to legislate, is there any doubt that they will have the slightest scruples in eliminating the filibuster when its to their advantage?
Rather than endure additional years of dysfunction in one of the most important institutions of our Republic, we should address the problem on our own terms.
