In watching Joe Biden's town hall the other night, I'm struck with his naiveté around his quest for bipartisanship in the Senate. What was true 40 years ago in the Senate is far from true now. Today, we have essentially two highly partisan Houses of Congress, and, as such, are far from the democratic processes the Founders envisioned. The majority party votes as a block which negates most possibilities of bipartisanship which negates a bedrock of democracy: cooperation between parties for the good of the country as a whole. Now, as I see it, the Trump-infested Republican party is only concerned with remaining in power, benefiting themselves alone. We are, therefore, seeing the metatisizing of a cancer that runs through our Congress. Joe Biden hopes desperately to cure that cancer, having faith that at least ten Republicans will come around and vote in favor of bills that will advance his agenda that truly does help our country as a whole.
But Joe is essentially up shit's creek without a paddle. The Republicans led by McConnell in the Senate and McCarthy in the House have one goal and one goal only: to stop Biden and his faux-called "socialist" agenda lock, stock, and barrel. When asked about the filibuster at the town hall which could end this Republican tyranny, Biden evaded the question, hemming and hawing like he was back in his Senate seat 30 or 40 years ago. Something about returning to the requirement of filibustering senators to speak continuously for 24 hours or more or more or more or more, as if that would change anything in the Trump Republican mindset. It will not change a thing. The Republicans are so radical, they will filibuster until proverbial hell freezes over.
Joe Biden and DINO Joe Manchin need to kill the filibuster to save Biden's progressive agenda. We need to protect our election laws against the Republican onslaught in the state legislatures that aim towards the ability to actually modify a vote that is not in their favor, therefore violating a basic principle of democratic government and replacing it with autocracy, oligarchy, and even fascism. It is that serious of a political situation. And since the conservative Trump Supreme Court will probably back those GOP state legislators, we must advance protective election bills in Congress with the president's signature as the icing on the cake.
From my perspective, and the perspectives of many other writers, the only way to accomplish that is to end the filibuster, an essentially 19th century rule that the minority party in the Senate (particularly senators from the deep south) used increasingly in the 60's to block civil rights legislation. I acknowledge there are dangers to its elimination. If Republicans regain Congressional majorities, the Democrats could be unable to oppose them with the same filibuster they'd be eliminating. But that's a chance that needs taking. We are in a do or die predicament around the survival of our democracy. We need Biden's and the Dem's agenda to progress to a position of stability in our country and influence in the world.
That agenda will bring a state of material and human healing that we desperately need. From all-inclusive infrastructure to a plethora of good paying and meaningful jobs to child care to health care to economic stability to a healing of racial wounds to community policing to the destruction of white supremacist groups and wild conspiracy theorists to common sense gun regulation to election laws that level the playing field instead creating obstacles for citizens to vote and to have their votes counted by non partisan election officials.
We need Biden's agenda. And to get that agenda, given this completely obstructionist GOP, we need to end this toxic filibuster.
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