There is a lot of talk lately about the patent unfairness of the Senate filibuster, and some movements toward finally changing it, because it has been so abused of late.
This article shows just how MUCH it has been abused. And why Mitch McConnell is a bastard of the finest sort.
Dethrone the Filibuster King
Just short of 20 years later, the Senate made it easier to end a filibuster by cutting to 60 the number of votes needed to end debate. But the Senate has also made it much easier to conduct a filibuster. It no longer compels obstructionists to do any work. All they have to do now is call a filibuster. They don't have to actually stand up and talk. At all. Ever. It's a silent filibuster. It's a go-home-and-put-your-feet-up-after-stopping-the-work-of-the-majority filibuster.
And those lazy, silent filibusters have increased dramatically under king McConnell. Republicans have pulled 348 go-home-and-put-your-feet-up filibusters since Democrats became the majority party in the Senate six years ago. In just the two years of 2009 and 2010, Republicans pulled more of these lazy, silent filibusters than the total number of filibusters that occurred in the two decades of the 1950s and 1960s.
And does anyone wonder why it is so commonly held that our governmental system is nearly broken? Just up there is one of the reasons why.
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