Days after Vice President Kamala Harris’ fourth campaign visit to Wisconsin, she told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that she supports ending the filibuster to restore Roe v. Wade to protect abortion rights nationally.
Said Manchin: “Shame on her. She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy. It’s the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the House on steroids.”
Manchin's not even on the ballot in 2024. He's ditched the party to become an independent, while his seat is polling 64/28 Republican favoring the outgoing governor Jim Justice to a small town mayor from Wheeling named Glenn Elliott.
Sinema, the other walking "we can't because" excuse by the Dems, quit to dedicate herself fully to drinking with other lobbyists in wine caves. Arizona is polling significantly better for Dems (49/43 or thereabouts) now that the GOP is running an outspoken fascist Kari Lake in a majority-minority state.
But the Senate map still favors the GOP by one seat. Dems need to defend Montana and Ohio to hold an even 50 seats. Otherwise, they'll have to scrounge a pickup from seething gasp Texas or Florida. So, it could very well not be an issue in 2024. The GOP could retake the Senate and spend the next two years holding the national economy at gunpoint with a government shutdown.
She did stop short of promises simple majorities would translate to getting the votes to do it, and I'm glad they're being more realistic this time.
But she needs to actually use the bully pulpit if we have the majority but the votes still aren't there.
If there's some Dems who don't support this, then they need to be named and shamed so they either fold to peer pressure or their voters know they need replaced in the next primary.
We can't keep hiding who these Dems are by avoiding the vote. Make them go on record for not supporting the party platform
The old blue dog dems that held up the ACA until it was neutered and who opposed other progress when they were rhe deciding vote had no issue with the publicity. There werre recent discussions about getting rid of the filibuster and Dems were openly opposed to it.
It’s more than name and shame that is required. Just doing that will enable the media to dull the impact and sweep it under the rug at the next 24 hour news cycle, nobody will hardly know.
What is needed for these corrupt politicians to come around is to go to their home districts and campaign loudly against them, and in favor of legislation which will help the voting working class. This will force them to play nice, or cost them their seats if done correctly.
In its current form, anyway. I don't really have a problem with it if it's employed in its original intended method, i.e. the senator in question actually has to keep talking and cannot yield the floor for the entirety of the amount of time he wants to block something. And preferably, we put him in TV in real-time while he's doing it. Under very bright lights.
The way it works now where anyone can just say, "We declare filibuster" serves no purpose other than to allow whoever is in the minority (but let's not kid ourselves, usually Republicans) to infinitely block anything forever without consequences, which is prima facie undemocratic.
Is there really any logical reason why one voter should be allowed to block the entire process like that? The whole filibuster concept is the strangest part of US politics to me.
Republicans got rid of the fulibuster for only judicial nominations so they could stack the courts after years of using the filibuster to deny Dem nominations. It isn't an all or nothing thing.
The wording of getting rid of the filibuster for abortion was previously floated as a one time exception and then keeping around for everything else. This sounded like the same thing, just ending it for the one topic, not ending it in general.