The end of the filibuster

You have to love it when the country’s government has become so polarized that when any one vote comes to the floor you know the outcome before the vote is ever called.

Republicans today are going to try to push through one of Bush’s judge nominations.

Actually, there are a few words missing from that statement. Let me try again.

Republicans today, are going to try to push through one of Bush’s most controversal judge nominations.

Yep that looks better now. It is important to notice the difference. If this was truly a government for the people then there are somethings that we should look at. First in all the elections since 2000, Republicans have gained seats in the senate. In only one of those election years have they actually had more votes than democrats. The other years the votes have been larger for democrats, but because of the way the boundries work, republicans have gained seats. Right now it sits at 44 democrats, 55 republicans, and 1 independent who started out as a republican.

Now in any one vote we know that if the republican party wants the vote to pass you will have at least 51 republican votes. Sometimes one senator will switch or not show up or whatever, but right now the republicans are so lined up into ranks and files, that they rarely break from the party line. So you have 55 people that at best represent 55% of the American people and at worst a lot less than that attempting to say that their ideals are what the country wants.

Therefore the only method that the democrats have to stop something from going through is to keep it from going to a vote. The point of stopping something from going to a vote, is not to stymie the Presidents mandate (should the president be able to make a mandate? Isn’t that something akin to a dictatorship?) or stop the republicans from saving the country from itself, it is instead the only way that they have to make sure that the will of the rest of the country, who doesn’t agree with the republican majority, is heard.

The republicans are now tired of having to deal with the rest of the country, that doesn’t agree with them, and have now decided to change the rules so that they don’t have to. Once they get rid of filibustering, here in a bit, they will effectively make the senate a ramrod for majority opinion. Given their penchant for gerrymandering the chances are less and less that the democrats will get back into being a majority, so they don’t really see a downside to the proposal.

So they will get rid of filibustering so that they can have their way, instead of bringing a moderate canidate to the vote and perhaps crossing party lines for the vote. Wouldn’t it be amazing if the moderate republicans broke from their somewhat zealous majority and brought some of the moderate democrats to the table from their zealous minority and passed a canidate that was good for the country because they more accurately agreed with the minds of Americans and not the fringe crazies?