End the Filibuster

The already undemocratic Senate is being held hostage by Minority Leader McConnell. He wants to force Democrats to keep the 60 vote threshold to get anything done. Democrats will only have themselves to blame if they don't stand up against the filibuster. Amanda Marcotte notes the long-term strategy used to damage Democratic control of government.

Ever since Ronald Reagan's administration, Republicans have campaigned on the idea that government is inherently dysfunctional. The idea is to demoralize voters and drive down turnout so that the only people who show up to vote are right-wing culture warriors. And the best possible way to do that is to make absolutely sure that government never works, by tanking any efforts by Democrats to pass bills that actually help people.

[T]hey believe — rightfully — that seeing the government work effectively for the common good would do long-term political damage to the Republican Party. They'd rather just keep screwing over their own constituents, and pretending the problem is government itself, and not Republican obstructionism.

Update (January 26):  McConnell has backed off his effort to block the organizing rules for the Senate. John Stoehr reports Majority Leader Chuck Schumer may have found a way to gain the upper hand. 

Last night, he told [Rachel] Maddow the Democrats would no longer trust the Republicans to act in good faith! (He said his party will not repeat the mistakes they made during the Obama years.)

This could be a good sign. I hope Schumer told McConnell something to the effect of "you get in our way and we'll fuck you up".

Update (January 29):  Republicans are only too happy to forget about the Big Lie over the election and the insurrection at the Capitol. Heather Digby Parton says Democrats shouldn't waste time trying to get cooperation from the opposition.

Of course, the minute [Biden] set about enacting the agenda he ran on the Republicans called for the smelling salts, shrieking that he isn't unifying the country, presumably because he isn't enacting their agenda instead.

John Stoehr sums up their purpose well.

The point of being a Republican is not accomplishing things for the greater good of the country. The point is creating conditions in which accomplishing things for the greater good is impossible.

Amanda Marcotte points out that despite some intra-party squabbling, Republicans know what it takes to hold onto power.

[U]ltimately, that power struggle is more about aesthetics and tactics than goals. The McConnell wing prefers to undermine democracy through procedural obstructionism that slips the notice of the average voter. The [von Clownstick] wing wants violent insurrection and in your face gun-waving. Either way, the objective is the same: Installing minority rule, gutting democracy, and shutting the majority of Americans out of power.

And there's increasing danger as one wing bends ever more toward the will of the other.

Instead of shunning [Orangeman] and his fellow travelers for stoking an insurrection, congressional Republican leadership is supporting and encouraging the very people who are most responsible for the attempted overthrow of the government.

Update (March 5):  The filibuster itself is already profoundly anti-democratic and Heather Digby Parton makes it clear that U.S. democracy will be effectively destroyed if voting rights aren't secured through the For the People Act (H.R.1).

The Democrats have a small window of opportunity to prevent this undemocratic movement from gaining steam and securing minority rule for the foreseeable future. [Dear Leader] himself is not out of the picture and his party is single-mindedly focused on attaining power by any means necessary. Democrats must act decisively now and make sure that all 50 Senators understand the stakes and do what is necessary to pass H.R.1.

Update (March 14):  Matthew Rozsa recounts the erroneous beginning and mostly racist history of the filibuster.

If the filibuster were actually some venerable bulwark of democracy, enshrined in the Constitution and protecting good government, maybe a case for it could be made. None of that's true: It was born of absent-mindedness and has mostly been used as a tool of oppression. To preserve democracy — and basic human decency — the filibuster has got to go.

Update (March 17):  Jake Johnson suggests Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is scared Democrats really will move against the filibuster. Heather Digby Parton points out McConnell made a big mistake by showing no respect for democratic norms himself.

By being so smug and so flamboyant in wielding his power he finally managed to get the Democrats to understand that they have nothing to lose by going around him to enact their agenda and letting the people decide if they like the results. If it works out they will be re-elected. If not, they did their best. That's democracy, after all, the most important norm of all.

Update (March 19):  Senator Raphael Warnock makes the connection between voting rights and the filibuster.

[T]his issue — access to voting and preempting politicians' efforts to restrict voting — is so fundamental to our democracy that it is too important to be held hostage by a Senate rule, especially one historically used to restrict the expansion of basic rights.

It is a contradiction to say we must protect minority rights in the Senate while refusing to protect minority rights in the society.

Update (July 22):  So only six months in and the Biden presidency has effectively come to an end.

President Joe Biden reiterated his opposition to abolishing the Senate's filibuster rule on Wednesday, claiming that rather than making it easier to pass legislation, it will actually make it harder.

"There's no reason to protect it other than you’re going to throw the entire Congress into chaos and nothing will get done," Biden said during a CNN town hall. "Nothing at all will get done, and there’s a lot at stake."

Biden hopes to "bring along Republicans who I know know better" which requires 10 more votes for voting rights. Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, isn't buying it.

What are their names? Name the Republicans who know better. This is not a strategy. The time for magical thinking is over.

Update (September 25):  There is still a chance for some progress, but I'm not too confident.

Democrats are currently discussing two ways to change the Senate’s filibuster rules in order to pass voting rights legislation. The options under consideration include a special carve-out from filibuster rules for voting rights legislation or the implementation of a new kind of talking filibuster.

Update (October 7):  President Biden hints that the filibuster could be modified if Republicans remain too obstructive. 

Update (October 21):  More hints from Biden after Republicans block voting rights legislation for the third time.

President Joe Biden

There needn't be any illusions about what might be accomplished, but it's nice to want to use the President's name again.

At 78 years old, Biden is the oldest U.S. president to take the oath of office. He is the 15th vice president to become the country’s chief executive.

Harris’ vice presidency is historic in several regards: She’s the first female, Black and South Asian person to hold the position.

Amanda Marcotte notes that a whole bunch of executive orders are lined up.

[T]here's still good reason to be concerned that [Biden's] instincts — he loves to talk about bipartisanship, for instance — are too moderate and compromising, and will lead to Senate Republicans derailing his efforts with phony "talks" where they pretend they're willing to negotiate in order to run out the clock. But there are also promising signs that Biden understands that seriousness of the moment and, as David Roberts at Vox advised in December, is willing to focus on "doing as much good on as many fronts as fast as possible" instead of getting bogged down with the GOP's derailing tactics.

Update (April 29):  As President Biden finished his first 100 days in office, he laid out his agenda before a joint session of Congress. Amanda Marcotte notes not everyone was enthusiastic.

Republicans are grumpy, extremely grumpy. Republican Senators watching the speech last night collectively looked like they smelled a fart, and not just because they were wearing masks. They're mad, not just because they know he's right. They're mad because they know he's popular and what he's saying is popular. They'll block as much of his agenda as they can and hope that voter suppression and gerrymandering do the rest. But on the merits of the argument itself? They're toast.

It's not because Biden is some super-politician. It's because Republicans spent decades making politics into a reality TV show. Now that we're facing a real crisis, the public is turning its eyes towards the comfort of a real politician who wants to do real policy. And Republicans have nothing to say in response.

Update (April 30):  Heather Digby Parton reminds us that a handful of Democratic Senators will decide if President Biden is successful or not.

The Republicans cannot credibly oppose Biden's agenda. Their arguments about debt and tax cuts have been refuted, their ideas about radical individualism have been shredded by our experience with the pandemic, their claims to moral authority in the wake of [Fuckface] are simply laughable. All they have is power and they will wield it mercilessly. But they have no way to explain it to the broader American public that makes any sense.

The only question, then, is whether or not that makes any sense to the centrist Democrats like West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin or the two senators from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly. Sadly, there is a fair chance that other than the hardcore [Dear Leader believers] who will believe anything they're told, these Democratic senators will be the only people in America to whom it does. They must be persuaded that now is the time, while the Republicans are ideologically spent and the economy is set to blast off, to do something real and meaningful for the American people.

Assuming these Senators don't want to see an authoritarian return to power, then they need to realize Republicans have zero interest in "bi-partisanship" or helping anyone. 

Impeachment Part Two

Ten Republicans were part of a 232 to 197 vote to charge Fuckface von Clownstick with "incitement of insurrection".  Out of four presidential impeachments in U.S. history, this guy is two of them.

Update (February 9):  The trial started today and soon we will know exactly which Republican Senators are loyal to democracy and who is loyal to one man. But Amanda Marcotte fears the majority will back down from calling witnesses.

Democrats have a real chance to outline for the country not just [Dear Leader's] guilt, but the stakes if we continue down this path of having one out of two political parties increasingly reject democracy.

Democrats need to stop being such cowards. The very fate of our nation rests on their ability to show courage in the face of creeping fascism, and to marshal every tool they have towards beating it back. Democrats may fail — fighting fascism is often an uphill battle — but it shouldn't be for lack of trying. Calling witnesses is a no-brainer, a way to help draw media attention and make the case to the public about why violent authoritarianism and the party that supports it, the GOP, should be wholly rejected. If Democrats fail to make that case out of a fear of offending Republicans, they share in the complicity of letting [Fuckface] pull our nation further into darkness.

Update (February 12):  Heather Digby Parton knows what's coming.

The Impeachment managers delivered an irrefutable argument that proved the former president incited an insurrection which came horrifyingly close to causing death or injury to members of Congress, the Senate and the Vice President — and yet he is almost certain to be acquitted. A glorious triumph indeed.

[I]t's profoundly depressing. After all, if what happened on Jan. 6th does not result in any consequences for the man who incited it, then it's hard to imagine what would.

Most Republican Senators just don't give a fuck about democracy or the constituition. Parton quotes Dahlia Lithwick:

Rep. Eric Swalwell narrating in the second person what happened to United States senators was astounding. This happened. And it happened to you. A recitation of facts that were excruciating one month ago is worse today, as new details come out of colleagues, like Romney and Pence, who were closer to harm than they even realized at the time. None of this will change their minds, a fact that starts a spiral of hopeless despair as the back of one's mind asks: What else will we have to live through before the Republican Party finds its way back to fact-based decision-making?

And in a late evening story, CNN reports on the phone call Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made to Dear Leader as rioters were breaking into his office at the Capitol. The response?

Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.

This is the same asshole who attacked his own vice president by tweet after learning Pence was in danger. And yet, it still won't matter. Even McCarthy didn't vote for impeachment. 

Update (February 13):  Apparently there was a vote to have Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler testify about the McCarthy call, but then a "deal" was made to just take a written statement. Within hours, Dear Leader was acquitted by a vote of 43 to 57. So a small victory in falling "only" ten votes short.

Update (February 14):  Matthew Rozsa argues last year's acquittal set the stage for 43 cowards to signal yesterday that no Republican president will ever be held accountable for any abuse of power.

Motivated by a mixture of partisanship, career opportunism and fear of [his] increasingly fascistic supporters, they have reinforced the idea in MAGA world that if their Dear Leader doesn't win an election, that election simply does not count.

American Shame

Now we learn just how dangerous Dear Leader really is as he holds a rally on the day Congress counts the electoral votes, still ranting about how the election was "stolen".

Violence erupted in the U.S. capitol on Wednesday afternoon as far-right pro-[Orangeman] demonstrators — furious because Congress was meeting to certify President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory — clashed with police and stormed the Capitol Building. And [Fuckface] critics are saying that the president should be impeached for inciting violence.

He had encouraged the mobs to come to Washington D.C., and he continued to attack the electoral process after his supporters breached the Capitol's defenses. At the president's rally, his ally Rudy Giuliani called for "trial by combat." Later, [von Clownstick] sent a few tweets urging them to "Stay peaceful!" but he didn't tell them to stand down or leave the federal buildings they had illegally infiltrated.

And every single enabler in Congress is responsible for not shutting down this incitement to violence weeks ago. 

Update (January 7):  Representative Liz Cheney condemns Dear Leader for the physical attack on democracy.

We just had a violent mob assault the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to prevent us from carrying out our constitutional duty.

There’s no question the president formed the mob, the president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob. He lit the flame.

Although scaled back, the ideological assault on democracy continued in Congress. But eventually the electoral vote count was completed. Senator Mitt Romney:

Those who choose to continue to support his dangerous gambit by objecting to the results of a legitimate, democratic election will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy.

Fuckface himself now seems to acknowledge reality in an oblique way.

Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th.

But, Zachary Carter notes that Republican leaders have a history of aligning with authoritarians to help advance policy goals. And Amanda Marcotte points out that far too many current rank and file Republicans are just fine with a violent coup.

[W]e cannot give in to pressure to shrug off Wednesday's events as some meaningless one-off event, not when the majority of Republicans support the aims of the insurrectionists.

Two things can be true at once. It can both be true that the wheels of democracy worked this week. It is also true our democracy is in serious danger, as long as the majority of Republicans keep down this path of authoritarianism. If we let Wednesday's victory lull us into a belief that everything is fine and the system is working, the next time Republicans try to overturn an election, they'll be able to pull it off.

Update (January 9):  Five people, including a police officer, died during the attack on the Capitol. Sara Boboltz reports on newly released video showing events could have been much worse. 

The FBI is investigating whether some of the rioters intended to take members of Congress hostage or even kill them.

Revolution was a common refrain. Some of the rioters appeared to genuinely believe their actions could trigger a political shift leading to a second term of [Dear Leader's] presidency ― and it is not clear how far they were willing to go.

At one point during the insurrection, video captured dozens of [Fuckface] supporters repeatedly shouting, "Hang Mike Pence!"

Update (January 11):  Based on a delusion:

The FBI is warning of plans for armed protests at all 50 state capitals and in Washington in the days leading up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, stoking fears of more bloodshed after last week’s deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol.

Amanda Marcotte insists that the insurrection be taken seriously and that the main person responsible should face consequences.

Right-wing efforts to minimize right wing violence can work, so Democrats need to act swiftly to take control of the narrative. Republicans must not be allowed to rewrite history to minimize the seriousness of this situation. And the best possible tool that Democrats have right now to evade right wing gaslighting is impeachment.

Impeachment will be a show of support from Congress for those who are willing to speak the truth, that we witnessed a coup, incited by [Fuckface], against the leaders duly elected by the people of the United States.

Update (January 12):  Impeachment is in motion, but this criminal really belongs in jail. Maybe he has finally crossed a line. Amanda Marcotte:

[Dear Leader's] behavior is not ambiguous. He incited an insurrection, and once it was underway, he reacted with excitement and delight. His actions were purposeful and malevolent. He wanted all this to happen.

Update (January 14):  Treason might be defined as supporting efforts to take up arms against the national government. Roger Sollenberger reports on disturbing allegations.

More than 30 House Democrats sent a letter to the acting House sergeant-at-arms on Wednesday calling for an investigation into "suspicious" groups of visitors inside the Capitol building the day before the January 6 attack. Some of the lawmakers, the letter says, had encountered tour guests who later appeared connected with the next day's Stop the Steal event at the White House.

[S]everal Democrats had previously, albeit somewhat cryptically, raised the possibility that preparations for the invasion extended into the halls of Congress, including among some of their fellow members. No one has yet offered hard evidence of outright collaboration or formal organization, but circumstantial evidence in the public record, combined with inside accounts, suggests that the plans unfolded for a number of weeks among a leaderless and to some extent coordinated network of like-minded people who converged at the same target on the same day.

Update (January 18):  Albena Azmanova and Marshall Auerback look beyond the immediate incitements of Dear Leader.

[T]he grievances of the violent mob and the findings of scholars align: America is an oligarchy, not a functioning democracy, as the detailed study by Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page argued in 2014. Thus, much as this was an assault on American democracy, the storming of the Capitol was also a sign that American democracy had already failed. Surely, these clumsy "revolutionaries" did not storm the Capitol because they are living the American Dream—and they are blaming, unsurprisingly, the whole political class for their malaise.

[W]ithout a dramatic government investment in public services, notably education, healthcare provision, and job security, distrust and disillusionment in American institutions will persist, and with that also the rise of militancy by a radicalized underclass.

Update (March 3):  Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Christopher Wray says the attack on the Capitol was "not an isolated event".

The problem of domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a long time now, and it’s not going away anytime soon.

Nick Visser reports the statistics:

The number of white supremacists arrested in 2020 had nearly tripled from when [Wray] took over the FBI in 2017, and the agency currently has more than 2,000 domestic terrorism investigations underway. That figure is more than double the amount it had in 2019.

Further, "antifa" had nothing to do with the attack.

[T]he FBI director pointed to anti-government militia groups and white supremacists who participated in the attack, saying federal investigators have so far charged more than 270 people in connection with the insurrection. Investigators believe about 800 people were involved in the mob that took over the halls of the Capitol.

Update (March 24):  A Department of Justice court filing points to evidence that three rightwing extremist groups were co-ordinating before the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Update (April 6):  Amanda Marcotte laments a poll showing that a majority of Republicans are inclined to believe the January 6 insurrection was due to "antifa" in disguise, but at the same time the rioters were "were mostly peaceful, law-abiding Americans", and that the election was stolen.

Marcotte notes that consistency is not a hallmark of conspiracy theorists and that these "beliefs" are more about justifying unspoken anti-democratic attitudes.

Republican voters understand their ideology and party are both unpopular. They know that maintaining power means overruling the wishes of the majority of Americans. But rather than admit out loud — or possibly even to themselves — that they would rather end American democracy, they cling to these comforting conspiracy theories that let them tell a story where they're the heroes, not the villains trying to strip rights away from other Americans.

Misinformation is absolutely one of the worst problems in our country. The steady stream of right-wing lies is tearing this country apart. But it's critical to understand why misinformation is so powerful. Most Republican voters believe that their rapidly shrinking tribe should hold all the power, and are willing to sacrifice democracy itself to hang onto power.