Nuke the filibuster, but accept the consequences

In 1948, the proud, sort-of-independent Dominion of Newfoundland had a choice: join up with Canada as the newest province, or remain a separate country. By fewer than 10,000 votes, and along very noticeable regional and religious lines, Newfoundlanders voted to be integrated into another state.

Fast forward a few decades, and it’s la belle province voting to go the other way and become an independent country. The 1980 vote was a rout for opponents of separatism. The 1995 vote was much closer. A 50% + 1 vote, and the country would have been forever changed.

And in the Canadian House of Commons, you don’t need 60% of MPs to vote for your bill to get it passed, but just a simple majority. (Well, it has to pass three times. And then there’s an unelected, rubber-stamp Senate in which the number of seats per province makes absolutely no sense. But you see my point. Maybe.)

That’s why the filibuster debate is one of these American things I don’t really understand, like gun culture and The Big Bang Theory.¹ It seems weird that almost nothing can really gone done in DC unless a supermajority of the Senate agrees, and in an age where party-line votes are the norm - ironically, just like in Canada - it results in hopeless gridlock.

It might have forced compromise and negotiation back when moderate Republicans still existed, and no one had to worry about being dunked on by their party’s most extreme members on social media.² In 2022, it has long outlasted its purpose.

So, by all means, get rid of it. Republicans probably will when they re-take the Senate, anyway, so Democrats might as well ram through what they can, take the short-term hit and hope it works out in the long run.

The thing is, if Democrats do get their act together and eliminate the filibuster, I really don’t want to hear them whining about it when it’s the Republicans’ turn to pass whatever they want with 51 votes. That might not be this fall - the national environment looks very bleak for Democrats right now, but this year’s Senate elections mostly have Republicans defending seats they already hold - but in a two-party system, it will happen eventually.

The same Democrats whining about the injustices of the filibuster were all in favor of it when they were in the minority. And even now, they’re still more than willing to use it when necessary:

Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked legislation from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to slap sanctions on businesses tied to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a win for the Biden administration, which believes such sanctions could damage relations with Germany.

Senators voted 55-44 on Cruz’s legislation, falling short of the 60 votes needed for it to pass. Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.) and Raphael Warnock (Ga.) joined every Republican save Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in voting for the bill.

Allahpundit gets it right, as usual, though I’d say this isn’t the Democratic position so much as the standard American political position, regardless of partisan affiliation:

The episode is the Democratic position distilled to its essence. When the filibuster gets in their way they want it gone yesterday but when it’s useful to them there are no qualms about putting it to use — and they’re perfectly capable of holding both positions simultaneously.

If you’re going to change the rules for your benefit, or give the state some new power, be prepared for your opponents to wield it someday.

UPDATE: Richard Dreyfuss’ kid remembers that there was a West Wing episode about how the filibuster was a good thing.

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Thankfully, yesterday’s hostage-taking at a Texas synagogue ended without any of the captives being harmed, and the gunman shot dead by police.

I try to avoid social media even more than usual when things like this are going on (if you listened closely, you probably heard everyone on Twitter frantically revising their hot takes when it turned out the hostage-taker was apparently an Islamist, not a neo-Nazi and/or Trump acolyte) but this really leapt out at me:

John-Paul Pagano @johnpaulpagano

UPDATE: Ever since spellbound bigots in the Middle Ages fantasized that witches rode brooms to midnight meetings to practice black magic, conspiracy theorists have rooted their paranoia in the idea of supernatural coordination by the evil elite—e.g. “Jews all know each other.” https://t.co/SQSZOMBq6m

Tom Winter @Tom_Winter

NBC News: The hostage taker at the synagogue in Texas had the rabbi call a different rabbi in New York City. The purpose of the call was to again demand the release of Aafia Siddiqui. The New York City based rabbi called 9-1-1 and the NYPD is well aware of the incident. (1/2)

January 15th 2022

3 Retweets9 Likes

This guy was so blinded by antisemitic conspiracism that he thought he could force a cabal of rabbis to spring a convicted terrorist from a federal prison with a few phone calls. And innocent people almost died as a result.

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Movie review: Sing 2

(major spoilers ahead)

A major entertainment production is cast through nepotism, features a talented singer who absolutely cannot act, is being hastily written and rewritten on the fly, starts production without an ending locked down, and is mired in a legal dispute over music rights.

It is by far the most realistic movie ever made about Hollywood.

Also, Bono (who has a much bigger role than I’d expected) speaks all his dialogue in this really low, gruff, growly voice in an apparent attempt to hide his accent. Tom Hardy did the same thing in the Venom movies. Is this officially a thing now?

1. Actually, The Big Bang Theory was the number one show in Canada for many years, even more popular here than in the United States.

We’ve failed as a country in so many ways.

2. This is mainly a problem with the GOP, of course. But it might also explain why Biden, who was elected as a moderate, now sounds like a weekend MSNBC host.

I’d still take Biden over Trump, obviously. (I’d take Hunter Biden as President if Trump, or any other Republican not named Romney, was the alternative.) But this sure isn’t what I’d hoped for.